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I can't believe I never thought to check for a coffee thread. Is the OP info on grinders still pretty solid? Specifically keeping an eye on refurbs from Baratza. I've been working with a blade grinder for a few years now and I think it's time to upgrade. I mainly do a pour over or aeropress and the occasional french press. I'm vaguely interested in making espresso down the line, but not enough that it'd really sell me on a grinder. Any thoughts on the Encore vs. Virtuoso?
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Aug 13, 2020 03:05
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Deathlove posted:Get an Encore and buy an M2 upgrade kit to get most of the way to a Virtuoso without the $$$, imo. Oh hell yeah, thank you! Their refurb shop expects Encore restocks next week, so I'll try to get on that.
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Aug 13, 2020 14:02
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Is a cheap moka pot as good as any? Toying with the idea of making some espresso-like so I can dabble with something other than black coffee for my girlfriend.
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Aug 19, 2020 06:51
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Hahaha, thanks for the recommendations from all sides. I already own an aeropress and didn't realize I could use that to get some near espresso. I'll start there.
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Aug 19, 2020 12:35
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Everyone here probably already has a great grinder, but I've been keeping an eye on the Baratza refurb shop and they just updated it indicating inventories should be refreshed 3pm PST on the "expected back" dates. Encores should be listed tomorrow (8/21). No idea if there's an actual rush to get them at restock time but figured I'd pass it along. Hoping I can get the M2 upgrade + a refurb Encore all in one order!
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Aug 20, 2020 13:23
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I bought it from a goon a while back and haven't had any issues. It's quick to get a lot of water to temp and it keeps it there as long as it's on the base. I haven't used the timer so I can't speak to that feature.
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Aug 27, 2020 02:04
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If you do wind up opting for the Encore they still have refurb units available for a little bit of savings.
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Aug 31, 2020 14:34
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Having a hard time adjusting to my new Encore grinder. I was trying to follow a lot of James Hoffman's process for the V60 and Chemex and getting pretty good results with my blade grinder. I felt pretty confident with the technique and was hitting all of the target times pretty consistently with delicious results. I'm not sure if there's just some weird mental block going on. I figured I'd just start with the recommended settings in the manual and adjust up/down from there. Every cup has been rough so far. I was starting off nowhere near the goal brew times, and but now when I manage to hit them they're horribly over extracted. Any ideas? All of my other variables should be the same as before: beans, water temp, bloom/pour durations, ratios, filters, even the type of water is the same. I thought the grinds looked similar enough to what I was getting from my blade, but the end result is drastically different. I've gone through 3 settings for each pour over method I have and I don't feel like I'm really getting anywhere.
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Sep 6, 2020 16:50
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I'll give it a shot! Thanks!
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Sep 6, 2020 17:16
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BlackMK4 posted:Also, what is your brew ratio I've been brewing 30g coffee with 500g water.
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Sep 6, 2020 19:52
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I guess if you compost stuff you could toss the grinds there. If you're in a hotel I think you should just find potted plants to hide the grounds.
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Sep 8, 2020 12:17
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Gunder posted:Starting with 20g coffee and 300ml water: This got me a real tasty cup! Thanks.
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Sep 15, 2020 20:10
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So I've done a handful of 4:6 cups and everything is immensely better than what I was getting with Hoffman's method. I'll definitely go back and try to fine tune Hoffman's but I truly have no idea what kind of grind I should be using now. Should it be finer than what I'm using for the 4:6? Also, anybody have any Chemex methods they recommend?
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Sep 17, 2020 14:43
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Also try out a French press sometime! I've fallen in love with Hoffman's French press method (although I don't quite understand why it works). A good chunk of the brewing methods seem pretty easy to get started with. My biggest one time expense was definitely my grinder and of course I'll always be spending money on beans. I haven't gotten into espresso though.
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Oct 5, 2020 12:21
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Mu Zeta posted:If I have coffee beans I don't love I just turn it into cold brew Speaking of this... any ratios/tips? I'm usually never thrilled with how my cold brews turn out but it's better than putting the attention into a pour over for beans I'm not crazy about.
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Oct 6, 2020 17:45
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Anybody have any experience with their electric kettles no longer heating the water? Everything turns on, it displays the temp of the water, but I'm guessing the heating element or something died. It's an OXO Adjustable Gooseneck that's definitely out of warranty. I might just see if that Bonavita kettle drops down at all during Prime Days, but if anyone has any experience that might save me money I'm all ears.
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Oct 11, 2020 16:39
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Got a Bonavita kettle today. I was a little thrown off by it not automatically holding the temp when I return it to the base but it's probably for the best. Part of the reason my Oxo might have kicked the bucket was from the kettle being returned to the base with nothing in it when my girlfriend has used it. I started messing around with the broken one but I have no idea what I'm even looking for to diagnose it, but it seems like a fun thing to learn and maybe I'll have two kettles if my little project works out.
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Oct 18, 2020 00:10
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Are there any standard ratios I can start with for toying around with espresso-like drinks? My girlfriends likes mochas and I figure I can make something drinkable with an aeropress or moka pot and froth milk with a French press. Am I thinking too hard about this? Is it pretty much just whatever she thinks tastes good in terms of milk/chocolate once I make some fake espresso?
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Oct 25, 2020 01:13
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Gunder posted:I haven’t watched the whole thing, but James Hoffmann did a video on this subject earlier this year. https://youtu.be/ZgIVfU0xBjA Thanks! I'll check this out. Maybe I'll wind up getting into the drinks myself.
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Oct 25, 2020 01:55
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I might try those out just to see how lovely my water really is.
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Nov 1, 2020 02:38
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aldantefax posted:If you want a truly foolproof method, then I think you can't go wrong with french press break/clean. Even just having this as a backup is nice. I'm still struggling with my V60 consistency and if I'm getting especially discouraged it's nice to have a totally foolproof method at my disposal to bust out.
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Nov 9, 2020 17:47
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I was browsing through the previous Hario cloth filter discussion, but I'm still a little confused about what I can skip to get started. Can I literally just put a 480ml cloth filter into my V60 02 and that's that? Everything else is just for fun?
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Nov 14, 2020 17:44
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Is there any downside to owning the larger Clever dripper if I generally brew 200-300 ml at a time? It'd be nice to have the option for larger amounts occasionally, but I don't want to wind up having issues with my usual brews.
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Nov 16, 2020 15:27
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My aunt says that she really likes coffee that comes from Peru. She just puts preground coffee in a drip pot and goes about her business. Can anybody recommend anything? I'm tempted to just grab her a local light roast that seems similar to some of the flavor profiles I'm reading about and letting her explore a little, but since it's a gift having the word "Peru" on the label would probably mean more to her.
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Nov 30, 2020 14:16
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I pulled up my invoice from August and I paid $17.11 for UPS Ground on an Encore Refurb and M2 Cone Burr.
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Dec 20, 2020 21:19
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Gunder posted:I recently discovered another important aspect to improving my pour-over technique that's both easy to replicate and makes a large difference in flavour: pour height. Wild, I was actually wondering about this the other day. Thanks for the info! I got a coffee from a local roaster that has this really profound note of raisins. I've been having trouble replicating it at home so any technique adjustments help. The Postman fucked around with this message at 13:39 on Jan 4, 2021 |
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Jan 4, 2021 13:20
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Munkaboo posted:75 percent chance it's their water not your technique. Still worth fiddling with the technique variables though just to make sure! Should I just ask them if they do anything special with their water? I've been using third wave water and noticed a general improvement with my cups, but I'm still nowhere near the intense raisin flavor they brought out.
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Jan 4, 2021 14:59
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Lots of folks in the thread told me to adjust to taste and I can confirm worrying less about the specific number on the grinder made it a lot more fun to experiment with. Still tweaking, still learning, but my worst cups are better than the stuff I'd get in the kitchen at work.
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Jan 9, 2021 03:40
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dedian posted:I'll echo all this but also add a link to the Barista Hustle Coffee Compass, which gives you a taste map and what to do to adjust your brews based on what you're tasting. Interesting! I find a lot of people I know find light roasts "vegetal" where I do not. I wonder if I can get someone to let me experiment with them.
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Jan 12, 2021 15:08
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Swan Lake Algae Problem posted:Last weekend I asked a dude not to take his mask off to use FaceID while he was paying, and it apparently made him so mad that he wrote a giant long email to the owners of the company to call me an rear end in a top hat and explain that he's a health care provider and know's how not to put folks at risk. LOL we are almost a year into this poo poo how are these people still being so petulant about masking? That's got to be exhausting. Sorry you have to deal with that garbage.
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Jan 30, 2021 14:05
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I do love some purple lights
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Jan 31, 2021 01:03
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What should I be tasting in espresso? I ordered a shot at my local roaster and it was kind of sour. A cursory search on Google tells me it was probably not extracted properly, but I think that's the only shot I've ever had. Most of their stuff is pretty solid so I'm willing to buy another shot or two and see if it was just a fluke, but I kind of want a sense of what I should be looking for.
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Feb 3, 2021 19:42
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Gunder posted:Baratza Encore. Looks like they even have refurbs available at $99 right now. I got one of them and it was probably one of the best coffee purchases I've made so far.
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Feb 17, 2021 15:52
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Maybe it's not ideal, but I had fun playing around with an Aeropress recipe randomizer that I think was inspired by some dice Hoffman put together. Some cups were better than others, but none were outright terrible at least. Looking back I should have taken notes and compared my experience with recipes to try and identify how each combination changed things up.
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Mar 26, 2021 17:39
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Imagined posted:Is the Baratza Encore still considered the minimum choice for a "real" electric burr grinder? I bought a $60 Mueller off Amazon and while I'm not unhappy with the coffee it produces, I haven't found a single way to use it without coating a six foot radius around it in coffee grounds every. Single. Time. Even if I stand there and hold the basket up as high against it as it will go with my hand and then slap the hell out of it to get all the grounds out before removing it. I've read that that's to do with cheap plastic developing a static charge. If static is your only issue I've heard of people adding a drop or two of water to the beans before grinding. Haven't done it myself, but people in this thread have reported good results. If you decide you want an Encore you can keep an eye on their refurbished section. They're $99 and good as new.
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Mar 28, 2021 13:27
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eke out posted:for me the clever with its longer brew time and higher capacity has really replaced my french press What's you're iced aeropress process?
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Apr 1, 2021 13:12
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Bobstar posted:I can't remember, is Clever Dripper very different to Aeropress, results wise? I used to have one and I think we both liked it. Lots of re-learning to do. I'm not going to do a great job of describing the tasting experience beyond "coffee brewed in the Clever tastes fuller to me", but I definitely prefer it over the Aeropress for daily brewing. I find it much easier to get consistent cups, and you can brew a lot more of it. I really only mess with the Aeropress when I want a smaller amount of coffee.
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Jun 17, 2021 23:23
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Enjoy! I've just been using the directions included with the Clever. Does anyone prefer a different approach? I assume Hoffman has an ULTIMATE recipe but I haven't had issues so I haven't bothered to explore.
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Jun 22, 2021 11:30
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Pantsmaster Bill posted:I’ve been using v60 at home for brewing for the last year and a half, but now I’m back to the office a couple of days a week I could do with something for there too. Been looking at the clever coffee dripper as it looks like it’ll be easier to use with a static hot water boiler, compared to a v60. I just picked the larger one and use 300ml water typically. I've scaled up a few times into the 450ml range but I wouldn't go much higher. As far as I know there's no explicit downside to brewing small cups in the larger Clever other than it taking up slightly more space at your desk. As for recipes I just followed the included instructions for a while and then switched to Hoffman's technique of pouring the water first and then adding the grounds. It definitely drains much better that way.
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Aug 31, 2021 15:31
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Finally got some cloth filters. Has anybody stuck with these?
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Sep 3, 2021 11:06
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