I have a great pain between my ears. Think I’ll just stick with cold-brewed. No pressure, no filters, no whoelectrocardioflux.
I don’t understand. Not only do you have the weight of the strainer, but also the weight of the rod assembly and other miscellaneous things (knob at the top, any extra doodads) to push it down. I think that if you had a plunger without the gasket on it, it would sink to the bottom (it might need a push at the beginning to get it below the top of the water and negate the buoyancy). Go to your kitchen, fill a sink with water, and place a sieve in it. Does the sieve float or sink on its own?
IANAPhysicist, but that’s how I imagine it working (but you’ll never get me to ruin my press by testing the theory. :p)
And all of those things will exert pressure on the water, thus forcing in through the holes.
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that all depends upon a number of factors. For example, if the sieve is made out of something less dense than water (say plastic) then it would tend to float. If it was made of metal, it would sink. As it sank, it would push the water out of it’s way. The amount of force exerted depends upon things like the weight of the plunger, the size of the piston, and the size and number of holes in it. This thread has a discussion of what happens to things sinking through water.
I’m not asking you to. Ruining a coffee maker is a sin on par with spilling alcohol, IMHO, unless it’s owned by Starbucks.
that all depends upon a number of factors. For example, if the sieve is made out of something less dense than water (say plastic) then it would tend to float. If it was made of metal, it would sink. As it sank, it would push the water out of it’s way. The amount of force exerted depends upon things like the weight of the plunger, the size of the piston, and the size and number of holes in it. This thread has a discussion of what happens to things sinking through water.
I’m not asking you to. Ruining a coffee maker is a sin on par with spilling alcohol, IMHO, unless it’s owned by Starbucks.
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I think we’re saying the same thing. Someone upthread said that there were nasty things that were pressed out because of the pressure that you imposed upon the system when you pushed the plunger down. My argument is that it shouldn’t be more pressure exerted on the grounds from either the force of the gravity acting upon the water in a drip machine vs. the force of gravity acting upon the sieve in a french press.
You sir, have redeemed yourself!
Now, if you can tell me that the scotch neutralizes the coffee-oil’s diterpenes (whatever the hell that is) you will be my hero.
Uh, no. We’re not saying the same thing at all.
First and foremost, no matter how the press moves through the water, it will exert pressure on the water (if it didn’t the water wouldn’t get out of it’s way). How much pressure is exerted on the water is dependant upon a number of variables. (If you really want to get technical, you can include the amount of air pressure pushing down on the water, which changes with altitude as well as the temperature of water.)
The pressure in a french press is greater because when you push the plunger down, you are applying pressure to it. Given that you’re pushing the press through faster than it could be expected to sink on it’s own (ignoring the effects of friction), you are exerting more force on the water as it flows through the grounds. Look, if it doesn’t force more things out of the coffee, then why do people claim that the coffee tastes better if it’s made in a french press?
I don’t know if it does or not, but I see no reason to take any chances! Better take plenty of scotch with your coffee (or should it be plenty of coffee with your scotch) while we wait for the results of testing! 
But, arguably, you could just let the press sink to the bottom of the press, with no ill effects. And you’re not pressing anything at all out of the coffee. The extra flavor and body is attributed to the correct brewing of the coffee, that is, that the coffee grounds are spending an identical and ideal amount of time in contact with the water, as compared to the problems with drip machines described above.
No, there will pressure on the grounds, even if the press just sinks. The natural inclination of grounds (at least intially) is to float, so they will be forced to move through the water at a faster rate than they normally would.
And unless you can come up with some kind of study which proves that, it’s mere speculation.
So as I understand it: bashing the beans violently with a coffee grinder = okay. Straining them through a fine mesh sieve (which sounds suspiciously like a coffee filter, but I’m not a PhD) = irreparable harm. Got it.
Thank you so much for putting words in my mouth. If you’d actually bothered to read anything that I’ve posted you’ll see that nowhere did I say any of that.
I did not say that using a french press caused “irreparable harm” I said, and provided a cite which backed this up, that
No where did I say, “Don’t use a french press.”
Nor does it take a Phd to understand any of what I’ve posted. It does, however, take an open mind and a willingness to actually read.
Easy, big fellah. Just because I didn’t use smilies doesn’t mean I wasn’t pulling your chain.
As opposed to the weight of the water in the drip basket “forcing” things out of the coffee?
And unless you can come up with some kind of study which proves that, it’s mere speculation.
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That’s how extraction of anything works. The longer it is in contact with the solvent, the more solute will be extracted.
But that doesn’t prove that that is the sole source of the compounds in the coffee. And you can soak aluminum in water for as long as you want, but a significant amount of the aluminum is not going to mix with the water.
I panicked.