The Home Brew Dial-In Kit

A recipe sized to your mug, a grind set by the clock, pours timed to your beans, and one change at a time until the cup tastes right

Agitative's calculators each answer one brewing question well, and the answers do not quite meet. The Coffee-to-Water Ratio Calculator treats the water you pour as the drink, but spent grounds keep back about 2 g of water for every gram of coffee. The Brew Timer blooms for 45 seconds whatever the beans, while the Bloom Timer says fresher or older beans want a different bloom. The TDS & Extraction Yield Calculator wants the weight of the cup, not the water poured, and no tool says what a cup costs you. This kit is the arithmetic that joins them, in seven steps. Type a 350 g mug in as the water at 1:16 and about 306 g reaches it; starting from the mug instead, 25 g of coffee and 400 g of water fill it. From there the kit sets the grind by the brew time, times the bloom and every pour to your beans' roast date, turns how the cup tastes into one change at a time, moves the ratio for strength without changing the mug, shows how to weigh the cup once and learn what your grounds keep, and prices a cup and any upgrade in cups. Every figure is computed from the site's own calculators; the worked numbers are examples, and the 2 g retention and taste ladder are called rules of thumb. It covers kettle, French press, moka pot and espresso machine safety and makes no caffeine or health claims. Included: 23 printable pages with a brew log, recipe cards, a cost per cup sheet, reference tables and a quickstart, plus a personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in our calculators.

Look inside

Two full pages from the kit, exactly as printed. Click either to read it at full size before you decide.

What is in it

• The Mug First Rule: the coffee and water for a full mug, adding back the water the grounds keep, for every mug size
• The Drawdown Rule: the grind band for your method and the brew-time window that says which way to move it
• The Roast Clock Rule: a bloom timed to your beans' roast age, and every pour moved to follow it
• The One Change Rule: a taste ladder from sour, bitter, weak or strong to the one change for the next brew
• The Ratio Nudge Rule: strength moved one ratio point at a time, the mug kept the same size
• The Cup Weight Rule: one weighing that measures what your grounds keep, and the right weight for an extraction reading
• The Payback Rule: a cup priced from the bag, and any upgrade priced in cups
• Printable working pages: a brew log, recipe cards and a cost per cup sheet
• Reference tables for every mug size, bloom by roast age and ounces to grams, and a quickstart
• A personalised sheet worked from the numbers you enter in our calculators

The kit picks up where the free Coffee-to-Water Ratio Calculator leaves off. It treats the water you pour as the drink, but spent grounds keep back about twice their weight in water, so a mug sized that way comes out short. The kit starts from the mug instead, sets the grind by the brew time with the Grind Size Guide, times the bloom to your beans' roast age with the Bloom Timer and moves the Brew Timer's pours to match, walks one change at a time from how the cup tastes, shows how to weigh the cup for the TDS & Extraction Yield Calculator, and prices a cup and any upgrade in cups. Safety comes with it: hot water and kettles handled with care, a French press pressed slowly, and moka pots and espresso machines used as their makers instruct and never opened hot. The worked figures are examples; your mug, beans and prices are yours to fill in.