Coffee: we drink it or we get angry.

@Artasia for your French Press I think a hand grinder will suffice, but of course an electric one is quicker.

On that note, @brencho what single dose electric grinders do you have your eye on (other than Kafatek)? My Isomac has been with me 5 years and I don't mind considering an upgrade.

 

@Artasia oh yeah Kalita seems awesome too! there are probably some differences between hario, kalita, chemex and the like, but they all benefit from controlled pouring at certain rates and distributing water over coffee grounds in a certain way. they're all in the same family to me, so go for the one you like kalita seems and looks awesome!

for grinders i'd read around and decide on a budget your comfortable with. baratza preciso/virtuoso/etc, baratza vario, maybe the new baratza sette (don't know much about this one) are all solid. for hand grinders, make sure that whichever one you're looking at creates a consistent distribution of particle sizes. i have a hand grinder i use at the office (a metal japanese one i forget the name) and another coworker uses a hario hand grinder and they're fine, but there are lots of boulders and fines mixed in together. i think lido has a reputation for being more consistent, but anyway, that's the key with the grinder.

no objections to any goose-neck honestly, they're all pretty similar and differences are in aesthetic etc. i have a hario at home that is nice, and a bonavita at work (actually this is an electric kettle) and it's also great but i see some rust-like spots that have developed at the bottom. not sure if this is a common occurrence.



@Eric_C what budget do you have in mind? i'm pretty taken with the Kafatek Monolith grinders but those are definitely in the category of multibuck grinders. Otherwise the Lyn Weber HG-1 (which is a hand grinder that uses big conical burrs) looks pretty great for single dosing (or their newer EG-1 lol). there are other grinders out there that are single-dosing friendly but require some tweaking or tricks, like the Caedo E37S that folks like, or Compak K10, even the Mahlkonig K30, but yeah they aren't really designed for single dosing. my solution with the Compak is to always have some beans in the hopper. i go through coffee pretty fast, so i dont' feel like they have much of a chance to get stale in the hopper. i load in probably ~8-10 ounces in there at a time. when there's only 1 shot of beans left in there, i notice the shot pull faster than the rest, because of a lack of weight pushing the beans through, which creates less consistent grind. probably things like WDT and dosing an extra 0.5 grams might help when the hopper is low on beans.

 

The metal hand grinder is probably a Porlex -- I use one for Aeropress (and on the go) and love it.

@brencho yeah my budget definitely doesn't extend to a Kafatek. I'm thinking more sub-500 USD at most.
(my coffee gear is so mid-fi)

 

Wow the Sette looks really good! I'm soldiering on with the Porlex but still struggling a bit for consistency for espresso.

I've also been looking at the new Eureka Atom http://www.elektros.it/gb/en/coffee_grinder_eureka/coffeee_grinder_eureka_atom_black.html

It's pretty compact, claiming to be good for both Espresso & Brew while also having near "silent" operation. Not under $500 though. I've almost gone for a Mignon in the past but was a bit suprised by how clumpy it was when I saw it in action.

If you're not single-dosing, how long do you guys find it is acceptable to leave beans in the hopper before they go stale? Just for the day, or do you go to 2 or 3 days or more? @brencho how long does it take you to go through those 8-10 ounces ?

 

I'm in the same boat as you. But, if you want Hario stuff, Amazon is your friend. Its all there at a reasonable price. I'm using a Malita pour over pot:

https://www.amazon.com/Melitta-Coff...=1471688791&sr=8-11&keywords=malita+pour+over

Its nice because its slower then the Hario (smaller hole), so mistakes are minimal.

As for grinders I think I'm going to get the Rancilio Rocky Doserless grinder. Seems reasonable, has great range, and is reported as being build like a brick shithouse...

 

I use one of these with my Aeropress: http://www.oehandgrinders.com/OE-LIDO-E-Manual-Coffee-Grinder_p_90.html

It is the TOTL of home handgrinders, rivaling the grind consistancy of commercial grinders. The difference between this and the Porlex or Hario is tastable in your first cup!

 

My happy mug order arrived.. so far only tried bear blend, very citrusy more acid than my usual seattle mountain coffee sumatra dark roast.. will be a good breakfast coffee
the sumatra raja batak peaberry I got is less round than most peaberry I've had.. does it look like peaberry to you? Just want to make sure they didn't give me the wrong beans

 

Looks fine to me. I wouldn't worry too much about getting the wrong beans.

Yeah, any fresh medium roast coffee is definitely going to have more acids than that, most likely.

 

Here is a Kickstarter for what looks to be an HG-1 for the masses: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...-grinder-better-grind-more-flavor/description

 

Heh looks like it had major delays and the backers are pissed

 

Maybe we should call it Ripstarter... My experience with crowdfunding would have me predict that there is a 50% chance that it delivers. If it does, it looks pretty good.

 

The preproduction images and specifications look very good. The more flavour promise, well I do not care about that. Thing is, how good are these guys with quality control because that will make or break their grinder...

 

I just did another reorder of Java Wet Hulled Srikandi from Sweet Marias. I've been roasting it to a Full City +, and it has the nice body and complexity of a good french roast, without the "kinda burnt" of french roast. Makes decent espresso too.

 

i payed closer attention this week, and i put in roughly 6 to 7 ounces at a time into the hopper, and with ~4 (maybe 5) double shots per day (across 2 people) it takes maybe 3 days to go through the coffee in the hopper. i don't notice much in the way of staleness in that amount of time. i store the coffee in airtight bags or jars in the freezer until it's time to use the next jar, then i let it hang out on the counter overnight.

 

When I was not still single dosing, IIRC on the 4th day after I have filled the hopper with beans, the extraction became faster so I had to re-adjust my grind setting. I have since changed to single dosing and weigh my beans everytime.

 

My setup is a Bunn G1 grinder (not a Bunnzilla yet, once I get into espresso I'll contemplate buying $400 worth of burrs...) going into a Chemex. I also have an Aeropress and metal filter for said Aeropress, but I only use it for travel. I had my first great shot of espresso and shit was it unlike any I've tried before. It was from an EK43, not sure the espresso machine though. Got it at Caffe Medici in Austin. Seriously, it wasn't bitter at all, all just wonderful flavor, definitely tasted some green apple in there? I have my eyes on an Arrerex Caravel espresso machine, but I'm working on my audio setup first. Also, I think my water is fudging me over, I've been using just bottled, as my tap has legit shit in it. (I live out of city and use a spring or whatever, but for some reason the water tests shitty there while a few other (smaller) springs test amazingly well. I would like to get a water filter, but our water is so hard I wonder if all the scaling would fudge it up. (It murders all our shower/sink nozzles) But yeah, my cups I make just haven't had the flavor I've been looking for, and I tried it with my beans at a friends house, and IDK if it was the water or what, but everything tastes *much* better,

 

@pandather Nice medici is legit! I lived in austin until around 5 years ago, so things might've changed a bit, but houndstooth makes killer espresso too. EK shots often use SO beans and use a different brew ratio so the mouthfeel is probably different and depending on the SO coffee used you can pick up a lot of awesome fruit like apple, or berry or whatever. But the lack of bitterness should be a characteristic of any really good shot, not just those from an EK grinder. Austin has some good coffee man!

Oh i think medici uses some kind of Marzocco machine, it's been a while though...

 

See, I've never had some really good coffee shots. I had a pretty good one at this new local place in my town, but the stuff I got at Medici was a whole different class. I'd love to try lots of coffee in Austin, I live an hour out, but I'm going to start going somewhere new every time I go. I also have to start listening to more live music!

EDIT: Also, I forgot to mention I have one of those 1l Bonavita temp controlled kettles to get a good pour, I am trying to dial in my method and water temp still.

 

Looked online, and yup! Good memory, it's the FB80. http://www.lamarzoccousa.com/portfolio/fb80/ It looked super nice, do you do espresso? If so, what machine do you have?

 

Hah! Today I went into Austin for a private tour of the University of Texas at Austin. It was a blast! I got to meet the directors of a few different programs, and have pretty much decided on Computer Science. Anyways, on my way out of town I stopped at Houndstooth and tried both kinds of beans. It was great! One was a blend and the other was a single-origin. The single-origin was better to me, kind of nutty and natural, while the blend was a tad too citrus-y for my tastes. Both were very good though. Now I want an espresso machine even more. :/