Editing Coffee percolator (section)

==Brewing process==
[[File:Coffee Percolator Cutaway Diagram.svg|thumb|upright|Cross-section of a coffee percolator]]
[[Image:Perkulator2.jpg|upright|thumb|A disassembled electric coffee percolator]]
A coffee percolator consists of a pot with a chamber at the bottom which is nearest to the heat source. A removable vertical tube leads from there to the top of the percolator. Just below the upper end of this tube is a perforated metal filter "basket" to hold the grounds to be brewed.

Water is poured into the pot, keeping the level below the bottom of the basket, and the desired amount of a fairly [[coarse-ground coffee]] is placed in the basket.

The percolator is placed on a [[range (kitchen stove)|range]] or [[stove]], heating the water in the bottom chamber. Water at the very bottom of the chamber gets hot first and starts to boil. The boiling creates bubbles of steam that are directed up the vertical tube, pushing hot water along with it up and out the top of the tube in a process similar to the principle behind a [[gas lift]] pump.<ref>{{cite web |title=What Is A Coffee Percolator And How Does It Work? |url=https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/what-is-a-coffee-percolator-and-how-does-it-work.html |date=2019 |access-date=2019-06-09}}</ref> The hot water hits the underside of the lid, and flows out and over the inner lid of the coffee basket. Perforations in the inner lid distribute the water over the top of the coffee grounds in the basket. From there the freshly brewed coffee drips into the gradually warming water below. This whole cycle repeats continuously, making the characteristic intermittent "perking" sound of the hot water hitting the underside of the lid.

As the brewing coffee nears the boiling point, the "perking" sound becomes a continuous gurgle, signaling that the coffee is ready to drink. In a manual percolator the pot is removed from the stove or the heat reduced to stop the percolation. Brewed coffee left continuously percolating at the boiling point will over extract, making the resulting coffee harsh and excessively bitter.

Some coffee percolators have an integral electric [[heating element]] and are not used on a stove. Most of these automatically reduce the heat at the end of the brewing phase, keeping the coffee at drinking temperature but not boiling.