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Tippecanoe posted:I've been grinding beans for pour-over/aeropress using the hario skerton for a long time now and I've decided that it's no longer cutting it (and also my hands are exhausted). What's a good entry-level electric grinder? Are the Baratza Encore/Virtuoso still recommended? I live in Canada so unfortunately I don't think I can find a cheap refurbished one here. You can find them on the big marketplace Turned out that burr was either dull from the factory, or the first grind I did with it on could have had an absurd mineral content and dulled it first time out. It took buying a edit- woops- Preciso as a replacement (and then swapping out burrs on a whim) to find out the grinder was fine. We are now well pleased with it.
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Dec 26, 2017 18:42
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Tippecanoe posted:I've been grinding beans for pour-over/aeropress using the hario skerton for a long time now and I've decided that it's no longer cutting it (and also my hands are exhausted). What's a good entry-level electric grinder? Are the Baratza Encore/Virtuoso still recommended? I live in Canada so unfortunately I don't think I can find a cheap refurbished one here. I don’t live in Canada, but I have an Encore which I only use for a cup coffee with a Clever Dripper on a daily basis and sometimes for an Aeropress, and it has performed flawlessly for me. Really happy with it. Ragaman fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Dec 27, 2017 |
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Dec 27, 2017 12:26
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If you're about to drop $200 I would consider the LIDO hand grinder. I love mine and it's more consistent than my Baratza Encore. It is very easy to use despite being manual.
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Dec 27, 2017 17:26
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emotive posted:Just got a Capresso Infinity. Used it once with some dark roast beans so they're probably a little oily, and couldn't believe how many grounds were left between the upper and lower burrs. Is this normal? How the hell are you supposed to keep this thing clean? Yeah, as the grinding finishes up and burrs are still spinning, give it a few whacks on the side of the casing or sort of rock it on the counter on it's feet. This helps get most of it out of there. You'll have problems with most grinders with super oily beans where not everything gets out of there easily. If I ever grind something super oily, I usually toss a small handful of rice in the grinder to clean things out. You can use a few beans of your next coffee to clear out the last of the rice bits. Personally, I don't recommend taking the gears apart on that unit. I did and I could never get the grinder to adjust properly on mine after I did and I know a few other people on here had that same issue. They have them set right from the factory with the screw torque and it seems like if you don't nail that when re-assembling, it's just not the same again. Also, for $200 grinder chat, I'd also throw the Breville Smart Grinder Pro into the mix. I have one and I'm pretty pleased with it for the money.
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Dec 27, 2017 20:13
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I’m a normie who just got a nespresso and I really like it. But I’m going through capsules like crazy. Is there an off brand of capsules folks recommend?
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Dec 27, 2017 20:15
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Surely there are reusable nespresso pods...
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Dec 27, 2017 23:04
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I understand the appeal of Nespresso but I'm glad I just got a new moka pot, I was using an 8 cup antique store one and it was a crapshoot if it brewed good coffee. Anyway this two cup bialetti brews in no time when paired with preheated electric kettle water. It also helps if you don't use bustelo. Hell even cheap Aldi whole beans taste decent. I mentioned in Houston thread but if anyone lives here it's worth the trip to Sugar Land for Blendin coffee. Dude created an awesome coffee shop. Probably best in Houston. Roasts the beans in the same building as well. You choose a bean and pick your brew method. https://blendincoffeeclub.com/
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Dec 27, 2017 23:26
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DangerZoneDelux posted:I understand the appeal of Nespresso but I'm glad I just got a new moka pot, I was using an 8 cup antique store one and it was a crapshoot if it brewed good coffee. Anyway this two cup bialetti brews in no time when paired with preheated electric kettle water. Do you mean you preboil your water before putting it into your moka pot? Why not just start straight from the pot?
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Dec 27, 2017 23:32
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No, I don't preboil. Heat to 160 degrees and then into moka pot. Helps cut down on bitterness. I have stove at medium heat as well
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Dec 27, 2017 23:45
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nervana posted:Do you mean you preboil your water before putting it into your moka pot? Why not just start straight from the pot? i read that doing it all in the pot means you spend more time bringing water up to steam, all the while you're heating your beans.
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Dec 28, 2017 02:35
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Crankit posted:i read that doing it all in the pot means you spend more time bringing water up to steam, all the while you're heating your beans. Doing it all in the pot means you'll start extracting the beans at a lower temperature, which would probably affect the flavor profile.
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Dec 28, 2017 02:37
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I gave my Breville 800ESXL a thorough descaling and cleaning because the steam wand pressure was getting really low. For the first time, I noticed I can easily unscrew and remove the brew head screen, so I decided to take a look at it. It turns out there was a layer of coffee gunk accumulated through basically all of it except a small area of a dozen holes at best. No wonder it was squirting horribly even without the portafilter on.  Kind of wish I'd taken a picture, but I gave that a much needed cleaning as well. That said, it didn't make much of a difference. I've been having trouble dialling the grind down to finer sizes and extraction because the machine would just choke before reaching the desired ratio. I was hoping I'd be able to pull a nicer shot with a finer grind, but it just choked as always. At this point, I think I'm basically constrained by the pressurised portafilter. But I'm reading about it and it seems I could just replace the pressurized basket with a non-pressurized one (like this). I always thought the pressurized portafilter was a limitation built into the group, could it really as simple as changing the basket after all? I suppose at that price point, I don't have much to lose.
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Dec 28, 2017 04:28
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Flash Gordon Ramsay posted:I’m a normie who just got a nespresso and I really like it. But I’m going through capsules like crazy. Is there an off brand of capsules folks recommend? I think I might be the only other Nespresso user here. I actually haven’t tried any of the off brand capsules yet. I know they are out there, but I just haven’t done any research yet on them-sorry! During the week I usually use one pod a day after my normal cup in the aero press, so I’m not going through a ton of pods quite yet. I need to start looking at other brands though. I’m currently in Germany on vacation and there’s plenty of aftermarket pods in the supermarkets. In fact, they don’t even sell Nespresso here unless you’re at the official store, from what I can tell.
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Dec 28, 2017 07:54
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Is the Technivrom still the go-to for drip coffee makers? I'd kinda like something that does what it does but also grinds the beans - preferably with a burr grinder.
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Dec 28, 2017 22:56
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nwiniwn posted:I think I might be the only other Nespresso user here. I actually haven’t tried any of the off brand capsules yet. I know they are out there, but I just haven’t done any research yet on them-sorry! During the week I usually use one pod a day after my normal cup in the aero press, so I’m not going through a ton of pods quite yet. I need to start looking at other brands though. I’m currently in Germany on vacation and there’s plenty of aftermarket pods in the supermarkets. In fact, they don’t even sell Nespresso here unless you’re at the official store, from what I can tell. I picked up one of the smaller machines for use at home when I feel like a lovely espresso instead of my normal coffee, so far it has done the job just fine. Finding some aftermarket pods would be great, though.
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Dec 28, 2017 23:48
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I got a Nespresso for the house last year or so. It's not bad. Not the same as a great coffee shop, but a pretty decent drink compared to what comes out of keurig machines. I grabbed a second one on sale for our office at work, and my boss expensed a bulk of the off brand capsules. They're a noticeable step down, honestly. The flavor isn't as bright, and body of the drink is thinner. Part of that may be the pods are plastic instead of aluminium. All of my other coffee comes from local roasters, so there's some karmic balance at least.
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Dec 29, 2017 00:44
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I bet the third party ones use even less coffee. I think most of the Nespresso pods have around 6g of beans. So try adjusting the machine to do a shorter shot and see if taste improves.
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Dec 29, 2017 01:24
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Oh, good call. I'll try that when I drag my rear end back into the office next week or so. I'm still not inclined to complain for work provided pods, I bring a few from home in case I want more oomph.
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Dec 29, 2017 03:22
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Tippecanoe posted:I've been grinding beans for pour-over/aeropress using the hario skerton for a long time now and I've decided that it's no longer cutting it (and also my hands are exhausted). What's a good entry-level electric grinder? Are the Baratza Encore/Virtuoso still recommended? I live in Canada so unfortunately I don't think I can find a cheap refurbished one here. Ultimate Mango posted:Paging Scaramouche Oh hay. I've been in rural Alberta visiting relatives and haven't been getting much connectivity up there so didn't see this. In Canada it's rare to get them for less than $189, for reasons. I haven't been into the office but I think we're doing a 15% off thing during this week on just about everything. You can PM me Tippecanoe if you like for deets, which is also true of any other Canada goons in the thread. The Virtuoso is $329, but I wonder if they're going to keep making it since they're bringing a lot of heat behind the Sette 30 which is also $329, but they kind of do different things, or were supposed to anyway. The Preciso is discontinued since it's basically the Virtuoso I believe.
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Dec 29, 2017 07:57
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On a similar note, anyone know the best source for green beans in Canada? Now that I have my own place, I can start roasting more often than "once in a blue moon". Used to just buy them from Green Beanery, but someone told me they support some right-wing causes or somesuch, and I'd rather my money go somewhere else. Disappointing, since they have a huge selection. I don't mind ordering, say, a 5lb bag at one time for shipping. Scaramouche posted:Oh hay. I've been in rural Alberta visiting relatives and haven't been getting much connectivity up there so didn't see this. drat, missed my shot. Ended up ordering it from ECS Coffee via Amazon.ca. Still, at least I get 2% cashback.
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Dec 29, 2017 18:20
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Merchants of Green Coffee is based in Toronto and will sell green coffee; I think they deliver, but you might have to call them to set it up. Green Beanery is the worst. Bad politics + no one knows where anything is or how to use their PoS so you're waiting for ages. But it's centrally located and they're open late!!!
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Dec 29, 2017 20:35
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Tippecanoe posted:Merchants of Green Coffee is based in Toronto and will sell green coffee; I think they deliver, but you might have to call them to set it up. I still live about a half-hour from Toronto, so I don't mind delivery as long as it's reasonable. Merchants of Green Coffee only seems to cell Central/South American coffee. I've found some other websites on Google with decent shipping policies, but I was hoping someone had some specific recommendations.
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Dec 29, 2017 20:58
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Anyone else nerdy enough to mess around with comparing using brita/pur filtered tap water and treating distilled water with minerals IE third wave water or making your own mineral mix?
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Dec 30, 2017 05:07
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Sextro posted:Anyone else nerdy enough to mess around with comparing using brita/pur filtered tap water and treating distilled water with minerals IE third wave water or making your own mineral mix? https://baristahustle.com/blogs/barista-hustle/advanced-water-recipes Right now I'm using the recipe for "Rao water" given on this page, using epsom salts and baking soda
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Dec 30, 2017 05:11
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I didn't know we had a coffee thread! I just got a Miele CM6150 superauto. Moving from a Andreja Premium and a Mazzer Mini that's I've been using for years. I used to roast too but got out of it when we moved in the spring. Will probably clean up my old Andreja and Mazzer and end up selling them... assuming I stay happy with the Miele. So far pretty happy with the Miele. It does a shockingly good job on frothing milk, but I've only made a few drinks with it. I used to have a Saeco superauto about 10+ years ago when I first got "into" coffee, but this thing is absolutely light-years beyond what that thing was capable of. It's pretty configurable with customizable settings for amount of coffee, temperature, preinfusion, water and milk quantities, etc. A couple little quibbles with it. The buttons for selecting some of the drink options don't "light" - so I have no idea if my double selection was registered or not until i go to make a drink, and even though I've only made a few drinks, I have received a "out of beans" error and it cancelled the drink - even though there were plenty of beans in the hopper. Hoping it's just getting broken in. Not a cheap unit, but I bought the Miele because we use it daily and don't mind paying a premium if it's not a piece of poo poo. As someone who roasted for years, I think I know the answer to this, but are there any mass-market roasted whole bean coffees that don't totally suck? Assuming they're not 6+ months old on the store shelf? I'm using the freshest Melita Bella-Crema espresso beans I can find in the store, and they're actually not that bad, but they're not great. I'm in Aberta if that helps. Any online sources that don't cost a small fortune? mojo1701a posted:On a similar note, anyone know the best source for green beans in Canada? Now that I have my own place, I can start roasting more often than "once in a blue moon".
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Dec 30, 2017 17:13
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Sextro posted:Anyone else nerdy enough to mess around with comparing using brita/pur filtered tap water and treating distilled water with minerals IE third wave water or making your own mineral mix? I actually might play around with it. I just bought an RO system to modify my beer brewing water from the ground up, so I can start with a pretty much clean slate. I already have water minerals to toy around with. I plan to try it with just straight RO water too to see how that compares to the water out of my fridge filter.
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Dec 30, 2017 18:27
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I was at work today and my boss comes in hands me a box and says merry xmas.  Just tons of green beans. There is more than what's just in the picture too
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Dec 30, 2017 23:22
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rockcity posted:I actually might play around with it. I just bought an RO system to modify my beer brewing water from the ground up, so I can start with a pretty much clean slate. I already have water minerals to toy around with. I plan to try it with just straight RO water too to see how that compares to the water out of my fridge filter. RO water can be worse than tap. Coffee HAS to have some minerals.
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Dec 30, 2017 23:47
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Munkaboo posted:RO water can be worse than tap. Coffee HAS to have some minerals. 100% this. Don't use straight RO or RO/DI water, tap is going to be better in many cases. If you really want to get into the chemistry there is a book out there, referenced earlier in this thread about it.
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Dec 30, 2017 23:57
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My dudes he mentioned having water minerals specifically, nobody with any sense brews beer with RO water without backadding salts.
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Dec 31, 2017 02:47
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Rest assured, I have no plans to use RO water as my normal coffee brewing water, but I feel like making a cup with it to understand how it tastes without minerals could be a good learning experience. I'm planning to brew two cups back to back with my filtered fridge water and the RO to compare. I have had my fridge filter water lab tested so I know the rough mineral makeup of that already.
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Dec 31, 2017 03:06
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You could always remineralise the water and give that a go, I dunno how that compares flavour-wise to tap water https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHI7jC0sQZo
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Dec 31, 2017 09:18
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goku i won't do what u tell me
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RO water also has a fairly low PH which is pretty aggressive to metallic piping. Probably not a big deal to try, but for the long term not the best.
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Dec 31, 2017 19:21
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slidebite posted:I used to use pretty much only from the Green Beanrey all the time, and the biggest issues I had were they seemed to be out of stock half the time.. do you mind if I ask what "right wing causes" are they supporting that cause you concern without turning a coffee thread into poli-chat? Anything I've read about them seem to put them pretty left on the spectrum. I have to issue a correction. I heard about it a while ago, and I'd forgotten the details. It wasn't right-wing interests, per se, but they do donate to a group that denies anthropogenic climate change.
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Dec 31, 2017 19:24
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KRILLIN IN THE NAME posted:You could always remineralise the water and give that a go, I dunno how that compares flavour-wise to tap water Yes, I plan to do that as well. I am a homebrewer and already have all the minerals I'd need. The RO system won't touch any metal piping either. I have mounted it above my washing machine and split off the input from that and will use the pvc drain tube there to run off the waste water. I bought the system for homebrewing mostly but figured I'd at least experiment with it with coffee brewing water as well. I doubt any results would convince me to change from my fridge filtered water, but it would be interesting to see if I notice anything in my testing.
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Dec 31, 2017 21:03
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rockcity posted:Yes, I plan to do that as well. I am a homebrewer and already have all the minerals I'd need. The RO system won't touch any metal piping either. I have mounted it above my washing machine and split off the input from that and will use the pvc drain tube there to run off the waste water. I bought the system for homebrewing mostly but figured I'd at least experiment with it with coffee brewing water as well. I doubt any results would convince me to change from my fridge filtered water, but it would be interesting to see if I notice anything in my testing. I assume he meant any coffee machine you'll be using. Either way, good luck! Be sure to let us know how it comes out. From my understanding it's magnesium that you'll want to be adding to the water. Personally, I'm pretty happy with straight tap for my machine/coffee/etc.
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Dec 31, 2017 21:13
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rockcity posted:Yes, I plan to do that as well. I am a homebrewer and already have all the minerals I'd need. The RO system won't touch any metal piping either. I have mounted it above my washing machine and split off the input from that and will use the pvc drain tube there to run off the waste water. I bought the system for homebrewing mostly but figured I'd at least experiment with it with coffee brewing water as well. I doubt any results would convince me to change from my fridge filtered water, but it would be interesting to see if I notice anything in my testing. Distilled water and third wave water made a huge difference for me... Assuming you are not using some lovely beans/coffee maker.
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Dec 31, 2017 22:19
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Jan 2, 2018 04:42
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Been using a hand grinder and French press with locally roasted beans for about 2 years. Ran out of beans over the holidays, but I got some pre ground Starbucks as a gift, and figured I'd use that. Can't even drink this it's so bad
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Jan 2, 2018 15:46
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I've been falling behind greatly on home roasting. I have a popcorn popper that I liked to use but I can now only do it outside since the top is starting to melt, and it's so cold in New England that it's pointless to try at the moment (although the cooling cycle from the cylinder to the cold air would be insane...  )Wondering if anyone has experience with the FreshRoast series (preferably SR500 or SR700.) I would like to start roasting indoors again since I enjoyed it more than standing in the freezing temperatures outside.
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Jan 2, 2018 17:40
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