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Tippecanoe posted:A burr grinder is a great investment vs. a blade grinder and will probably make the biggest difference to your coffee. For not too much money you could get a cheap hand grinder like the Hario Skerton (be warned it is a workout) So I'm looking at getting a Better(tm) grinder, and I'm debating between a Skerton from the OP and a Handground, but I'm seeing a lot of "coarse grinds are really inconsistent" on both of them so I'm kind of torn, unless it just ends up in "you're buying a coffee sifter regardless" territory.
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Oct 8, 2018 12:09
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At that price range you are going to get inconsistency everywhere to be honest.
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Oct 8, 2018 14:22
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Qubee posted:For any UK people looking for an amazing coffee roaster to order beans from, give https://www.darkartscoffee.co.uk/ a go. Ordered on Saturday, received the coffee today. My favourite coffee hands down is Lost Highway, tastes like snickers / mars bars in coffee form. The smell of the beans is a night and day difference compared to lovely store bought. Thanks, will check this out, I'm nearly run out of Hasbean beans.
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Oct 8, 2018 16:42
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I love coffee, but it's a real pain in the rear end to make a good cup of it. Or maybe it's just me being a perfectionist, I dunno. I've made like 6 cups of varying levels of unpalatability in the last day or so, three in the V60 yesterday which went from bitter/acidic to tart/acidic as I went more coarse and three today in the CCD which were all bitter/burnt to some extent. I did 1:16 ratio for both as suggested by various people and it seemed like continuing to lower the grind fineness helped somewhat, but even with the CCD I'm now making my way into the Coarse range from Medium on my Capresso Infinity and it's still taking an entire minute to drain rather than the 30 seconds it's supposed to take (3:30 total time). At this rate I'll bottom out on the coarse range of my grinder before it's reasonable which seems excessive; that's French Press levels of coarseness. I'm not sure what else to do though. In any case, I'll have to take a break for a little while because I'm overcaffeinated. 
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Oct 8, 2018 22:31
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Keret posted:I love coffee, but it's a real pain in the rear end to make a good cup of it. So why not start draining sooner?
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Oct 9, 2018 01:01
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Ursine Catastrophe posted:So I'm looking at getting a Better(tm) grinder, and I'm debating between a Skerton from the OP and a Handground, but I'm seeing a lot of "coarse grinds are really inconsistent" on both of them so I'm kind of torn, unless it just ends up in "you're buying a coffee sifter regardless" territory. Skerton or Javapresse should do you fine.
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Oct 9, 2018 04:49
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HappyHippo posted:So why not start draining sooner? It's pour-over, it's always draining.  e: I missed the clever coffee dripper half. Yeah.
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Oct 9, 2018 04:54
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Ursine Catastrophe posted:So I'm looking at getting a Better(tm) grinder, and I'm debating between a Skerton from the OP and a Handground, but I'm seeing a lot of "coarse grinds are really inconsistent" on both of them so I'm kind of torn, unless it just ends up in "you're buying a coffee sifter regardless" territory. You can get (more) consistently grinding hand grinders but they quickly start costing $$$. the Skerton is kinda bad because the inner bur is just dangling like a pendulum and bounces all over the place, especially on coarser grinds. I haven't used the Handground but just looking at the design with a bearing near the grindy bits it should be better, assuming it's made halfway competently. Both are going to be better than an whirly blade grinder.
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Oct 9, 2018 05:12
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You can spend  on an adapter thing for the skerton which stabilizes the burr. Still not perfect but definitely a big improvement.
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Oct 9, 2018 05:55
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I ended up ordering a skerton plus, since that (ostensibly) has some upgrades over the other models for stability/consistency/etc, and I'm down for hand modding it if necessary (also I need something portable-ish anyways). More of the handground reviews were talking about it being a flimsy thing prone to breaking a couple months down the line even with the "better consistency" fixes they put in later so  that, I guess.
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Oct 9, 2018 08:03
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Spuckuk posted:Thanks, will check this out, I'm nearly run out of Hasbean beans. I guess they has bean used? 
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Oct 9, 2018 11:41
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Keret posted:I did 1:16 ratio for both 1:16 is an awful lot of water. I get an acceptable cup from 1:12 at best (after fiddling around with grind size, temperature and timing) but most beans need around 1:8 for me. I usually never like the V60 I get from cafés so I'm probably in the minority though... Oromo fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Oct 9, 2018 |
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Oct 9, 2018 17:31
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Jesus Christ making coffee at 1:8 has got to be expensive as hell.
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Oct 9, 2018 18:26
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I'm looking into acquiring a small batch coffee roaster, aside from the Huky 500 which others are recommended?
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Oct 9, 2018 19:44
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HappyHippo posted:So why not start draining sooner? I could do that with the CCD, but I feel like I'd be better served learning what I'm doing wrong so I can bring it in line with what other people are doing than doubling down on these settings and potentially screwing myself over later. That said, I tried it again this morning with a coarse grind and it still takes over a minute to drain, so I wonder if my grinder is just hosed up... The V60 still takes around 3:30 as well despite going pretty coarse with the grind (still 1:16ish), so I dunno what's going on. Oromo posted:1:16 is an awful lot of water. I get an acceptable cup from 1:12 at best (after fiddling around with grind size, temperature and timing) but most beans need around 1:8 for me. I usually never like the V60 I get from cafés so I'm probably in the minority though... I couldn't imagine being able to make anything lower than 1:16 ratio right now; I'm nearly bottoming out on coarseness settings as is and still it takes too long to drain and makes slightly bitter cups.
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Oct 10, 2018 00:46
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I think my Skerton is slowly dying, I noticed what looked like a crack in the ceramic so I need another quiet-ish alternative that won't disturb downstairs neighbours at 4am like my Encore probably would. It's definitely better, more consistent, quicker and less strenuous but not ideal for really early mornings. And I thought 1:16 was a fairly high amount of coffee and normal people used 1:18 or so. 1:8 is like extreme cold brew ratios, if that's your normal brew then maybe just forego the water and spoon the coffee beans directly into your mouth?
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Oct 10, 2018 01:02
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Keret posted:I could do that with the CCD, but I feel like I'd be better served learning what I'm doing wrong so I can bring it in line with what other people are doing than doubling down on these settings and potentially screwing myself over later. That said, I tried it again this morning with a coarse grind and it still takes over a minute to drain, so I wonder if my grinder is just hosed up... Well, mine usually takes around a minute to drain as well, and this website says "1.5 minutes or less" so maybe you aren't doing anything wrong?
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Oct 10, 2018 03:16
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Nostalgia4Ass posted:Jesus Christ making coffee at 1:8 has got to be expensive as hell. So if I pull shots at 20.5g in and 41g out am I some kind of monster? I go through a pound every 10-14 days or so, depending on travel maybe even less. Even at $13-17 a pound it’s not crazy expensive. Even with equipment cost (lol) it’s a fraction of Starbucks pricing for a way better cup.
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Oct 10, 2018 04:36
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Keret posted:I could do that with the CCD, but I feel like I'd be better served learning what I'm doing wrong so I can bring it in line with what other people are doing than doubling down on these settings and potentially screwing myself over later. That said, I tried it again this morning with a coarse grind and it still takes over a minute to drain, so I wonder if my grinder is just hosed up... It's your grinder. With my LIDO I can grind it fairly fine and it will drain a full cup in like 90 seconds if I just dump it in. It should never clog. The weird thing is that with cheaper grinders I think you'll actually produce MORE dust/fines when you go to the coarsest settings and it just makes the clogging worse. Is there a way to recalibrate the capresso? Mu Zeta fucked around with this message at 14:37 on Oct 10, 2018 |
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Oct 10, 2018 06:38
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Nostalgia4Ass posted:Jesus Christ making coffee at 1:8 has got to be expensive as hell. I'd rather drink half the amount of 1:8 than going 1:16. Also most of the good expensive beans can go up to at least 1:10 Keret posted:I'm nearly bottoming out on coarseness settings as is and still it takes too long to drain and makes slightly bitter cups. I suggest you get a one size bigger V60, regardless of whether you change the ratio or not. Sucks to buy more equipment but it's cheaper than getting a new grinder...
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Oct 10, 2018 21:26
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Nostalgia4Ass posted:Jesus Christ making coffee at 1:8 has got to be expensive as hell. About $2.43 per 300ml cup in beans alone based on avg. reputable roaster here. Utility cost is probably relatively negligible, and amortizing equipment cost could be hugely variable. I do about 1:15 though.
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Oct 10, 2018 21:38
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Geez, I thought I liked strong coffee at 1:16 in my V60. I'll have to try some other ratios.
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Oct 10, 2018 21:43
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Isn't there a point where there isn't enough water to effectively extract from the amount of coffee that you have in there?
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Oct 10, 2018 21:50
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RichterIX posted:Isn't there a point where there isn't enough water to effectively extract from the amount of coffee that you have in there? yes
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Oct 10, 2018 22:07
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RichterIX posted:Isn't there a point where there isn't enough water to effectively extract from the amount of coffee that you have in there? I'm curious about this, I can't imagine that you'd get good extraction with that little (relatively) water. Not without pressure, like you get with espresso. I've got a TDS meter so maybe I'll buy a bag of cheap coffee and run some experiments 
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Oct 10, 2018 22:18
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Goons that are baffled by ratios thicker than 1:16, try this quick experiment: Just make a 1:16 brew like normal but use four cups. Make the first quarter of the water drip into one cup, the 2nd quarter into another one etc. Then make four even ratio mixtures from the cups to figure out which ratio you like best: 1:4 mixture: made just from 1st cup 1:8 mixture : made from 1st and 2nd cups 1:12 mixture : made from 1st 2nd and 3rd cups 1:16 mixture: made from all the cups This will give you just an approximation because beans in true 1:4, 1:8 and 1:12 brews will have had longer contact with the water and that affects the taste. But nevertheless. For me this was eye-opening. RichterIX posted:Isn't there a point where there isn't enough water to effectively extract from the amount of coffee that you have in there? Some parts of the coffee though, especially the last bit that gets drained out, taste just awful and are best left behind in the bean IMO. Oromo fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Oct 11, 2018 |
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Oct 10, 2018 23:57
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Oneiros posted:I've got a TDS meter so maybe I'll buy a bag of cheap coffee and run some experiments 
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Oct 11, 2018 00:09
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Mu Zeta posted:It's your grinder. It might be honestly; it's about 4 or 5 years old now. I managed to make a pretty good cup today with the V60, using 1:16 ratio and the first notch of Coarse on the Infinity, but that seems awfully coarse. Still haven't gotten a good cup from the CCD yet but I haven't tried it again. I did run the grinder at the various divisions of fineness (Extra Fine/Fine/Medium/Coarse) and it was hard to tell a major difference in the first 3, with the Coarse being noticeably larger but, as you mentioned, with finer particles mixed in. Not sure if that was just leftover grounds from the finer ones I did just before though. I could also just be going insane from obsessing about this poo poo.  I might test it with my Skerton that I still have lying around and see what it does. About what size are the grinds that you use out of your LIDO?Not sure where to send this thing for a tune-up though. I will say, when everything lines up right with the V60, it really delivers in the fruity bright department.  
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Oct 11, 2018 01:44
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You can get flannel/nel drip coffee at some fancy Japanese coffee shops where they do like a 4:1 ratio while also using really old beans and really low temperature, like 170 F. Blue Bottle also does 10:1 ratio for pour overs. I'm glad because if I'm paying like $5 for pour over I want that 30g of coffee beans.
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Oct 11, 2018 02:00
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How much coffee do you guys have stay in the grinder? I have an Infinity and only do about 15 beans at a time and it usually seems like I have to work at shaking the last gram or so out. If I was doing a whole pot at a time I wouldn't care but when it's for one cup it's annoying.
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Oct 13, 2018 14:39
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Does this thread consider half n half or other such creamers to be verboten? Depends how good the coffee is?
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Oct 13, 2018 14:46
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IMO they are fine but it's good to taste the coffee by itself first, at least a sip.
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Oct 13, 2018 14:49
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silvergoose posted:Depends
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Oct 13, 2018 14:56
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Damnit enthusiasts are supposed to have binary answers. Anyway yeah I'm trying to decide if I like my home cup better with or not. Work needs it to be drinkable but at home I can fresh grind and pourover so it feels like I'm polluting it. I dunno, I'm also rambling.
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Oct 13, 2018 15:00
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silvergoose posted:Does this thread consider half n half or other such creamers to be verboten? Depends how good the coffee is? It's your mouth, drink what you want. I don't mind cream when I'm drinking some pre-ground drip coffee, but I don't use it when I've taken the time to pick the beans and treat them nicely. They cover up all sorts of bad in coffee, but that means they cover up all sorts of good too. I always feel like non-dairy creamers leave a weird residue in my mouth though, so I just skip them entirely. There's something to be said for frothed half and half though, so I will sometimes use it with espresso at about 1:2::coffee :half and half.
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Oct 13, 2018 15:04
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so my virtruso or w/e is not grinding super well, it seems clean. What's the tell to replace the burrs?
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Oct 13, 2018 15:07
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I like heating up some lactose free milk on weekends in my breville frother for my moka pot drink. It's more of a calorie thing though than purity of coffee decision. Of course I'm terrible and drink nepresso during the week since I have the machine in my classroom and I can brew a quick shot in 30 seconds. My students know when they are about to get a warning about behavior when I turn around and start the machine
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Oct 13, 2018 15:13
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Submarine Sandpaper posted:so my virtruso or w/e is not grinding super well, it seems clean. What's the tell to replace the burrs? What I understand is you only replace the ring burr, and if it takes 2 minutes to grind what should take 30 seconds or less, it's time to replace it.
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Oct 13, 2018 17:25
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I’ve been trying to find the part of this thread but I’m having trouble, so i guess I’ll ask: I’m looking to finally break into espresso: Gaggia Classic or Rancilio Silvia? I would love to do the Rocket Appartamento but it’s probably just too out of my price range. How is the Gaggia? Reviews for it are a little iffy imo.
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Oct 17, 2018 17:39
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I had a Gaggia Classic and it's a nightmare to use if you don't install the PID thing. Only buy it if you plan on adding one. The temperature can vary wildly without one.
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Oct 17, 2018 21:42
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