In this thread you can share what new coffee, equipment, techniques etc. you have tried this week.

What have you enjoyed and what didn't you like? Have you learned anything new?

I was wondering if anyone has found a source for original-style encore hopper gaskets. The new replacement ones from baratza* dont seem to hold up for long.

What's up with wetting/rinsing a paper filter before use when brewing a pourover. I honestly cannot really tell a difference but I still do it anyways out of habbit i guess. I also never done a blind test. Did any of you do something like that before?

Edit: typos

It’s a lab thing. In a regular kitchen, it hardly matters.

However, in a lab, it definitely does when you have a lot of slurry to filter and you can’t wait all day. Many filtrations tend to take forever anyway, so speeding things up is always appreciated.

If you wet the filter before starting the filtration, you’re removing air from the pores of the paper. This way, there’s an open channel for water to go through, and it’s possible to utilise a larger part of the available surface area. Filtration is limited by surface area, so bigger is better and more is more. A wet filter simply guarantees that you’ll get as much surface area as possible.

There’s a couple reasons for it.

The most commonly cited one is to remove any paper taste from the filter. This was more important in the past when filters weren’t as good as they are now and left a papery flavour in the cup. Try a pour over without any coffee in it (basically taste the water that comes filtered through an un-rinsed filter). If you taste paper on it, those filters should be rinsed every time.

The other big reason is less to do with the filter and more the brewer. If you rinse your filter in the brewer with hot water, you’re also preheating the brewer at the same time. When you do your bloom, especially if it’s with a heavier material, the brewer is going to absorb a good amount of heat from the slurry which will result in a colder extraction at the start. This is getting a bit more controversial now though, as cold blooms are getting more popular. Lance Hedrick has sort of popularized the Samo bloom, which is an initial bloom of around 60°C before doing the rest of your pour over at a higher heat. So a cold brewer is less important if you’re doing that. But if you want a traditional brew, especially with light roasts where you should be brewing at close to boiling point, a preheated brewer is pretty important. Rinsing your filters with boiling water will preheat your brewer quite effectively.

The third reason is to allow the filter to adhere to the brewer before you’ve added your grounds. This can both help eliminate bypassing and also is just for nice quality of life, as you don’t risk the filter cone closing up a bit which can be annoying.

Can I hijack your thread to ask what to look for in filters?

When I do a pour over my filters always clog and the coffee takes slower and slower to filter. This seems to happen with varying filters and grinds.

Is this technique — are my grinds creating too much silt, do I need to avoid that somehow? Is there a filter spec I need to look for?

Stall can come from technique, the filter, the grind, the coffee… pretty much anything in the process. What type of pourover brewer are you using and, generally speaking, what's your recipe look like? Specifically, how long is the entire brew taking? And how is the coffee? To a degree most brews will slow down as they progress.

If you're always stalling with different speed filters and grinds and coffees, it's likely technique. If you're not taking some steps to make sure you agitate the coffee throughout the process, the brew can stall as the coffee settles into the bottom of the brewer.

Different filters do often run at different flow rates. That's fairly well documented across the internet, but if you'd like some breakdowns on a specific filter I'm happy to link you to some. There are extremely fast filters that some people love. But the common filters can all produce good coffee with little to no stalling.

Your grinder could be producing enough fines that you'll stall regardless of grind size (within reason) for a given filter. Fines aren't really something you can control well, short of replacing a grinder. Grinding coarser can help a bit, and then you can control other things (more pours, less aggressive technique) to keep the brew rate even.

I always use one of the cheap noname brands from our local store in germany (dm) and never had any issues with that. I have a pretty good grinder though that produces pretty even grind results.

It might be the grinder, I try pulsing it but there’s a lot of fine dust. I’ll see what happens if I like sieve it

It’s just a conical funnel type pour over, I drip in a filter, as gross, pour water in a “stirring” pattern

What grinder are you using?

I’ve had it kind 10 years and it’s this one:

https://www.krupsusa.com/BREAKFAST-APPLIANCES/COFFEE-GRINDERS/Fast-Touch-Electric-Coffee-and-Spice-Grinder-F2034251/p/1500813248

Ah, that’s what’s called a blade grinder. They’re not great for getting a consistent grind size for coffee. They’re excellent for spices, but you’re going to have a hard time with coffee beans. If you don’t want to spend money on a burr grinder, you’ll absolutely have to pulse it and I’d recommend shaking it like a cocktail shaker too. It won’t be perfect but it’s probably the best you’re going to be able to get with it.

If you want to invest in your coffee more, absolutely look into getting a metal burr grinder. Skip the ceramic burrs, they’re not much better than blade grinders. If you don’t want to spend too much money, look at a hand grinder. KINGrinder is well reviewed on the budget end. Their P series (P0, P1, P2) is probably the cheapest metal burr grinders you’ll be able to find.

Thanks, I only use it for drip coffee and French presses, but I do those a lot in the summer.

I might have to upgrade

I’d be happy to help you pick out a grinder too if you know your budget and needs. It’s an area I’ve recently done a ton of research into as I recently upgraded my grinder as well.

If you have a recommendation up to $100 I'd be very interested and appreciative

A few good recommendations for hand grinders would be:

• 1Zpresso Q
• Timemore C2S
• KINGrinder P0, P1, or P2

It’s going to be hard to find an electric grinder at that price point. And also, all hand grinders that I listed are going to be adjustable from the bottom, which is a bit annoying. Paying more in the hand grinder range will first net you easier to adjust settings, and then nicer burrs and maybe more quality of life features. Getting a decent electric grinder will probably be around double your current budget. Keep in mind though, most hand grinders can be used with a drill if you don’t want to hand grind. Just something to consider.

For what it’s worth, I’ve used another one of Timemore’s hand grinders many times (their S3) and it’s fantastic. A bit out of your budget, but I can personally attest to their quality so if it were me, I’d probably go with the C2S. But I know 1Zpresso is massively popular, and there’s probably very good reason for that. I just don’t have any hands on experience with them. And finally, the KINGrinders are going to be by far the cheapest.

I hope that helps as a starting point. Keep in mind I don’t think they’re capable of espresso, but you didn’t mention espresso so I didn’t look for those capable of that range. If espresso is something you’d like to get into in the future, you might want to consider different options and you may have to stretch your budget a bit.

https://youtu.be/AVYGxext8XI

There are a lot of grinders similar to the ones in that video. OXO, Bodum, Cuisinart. I am kinder to them than James; I’m not bothered by them being loud, nor does static particularly offend me, nor does it annoy me that they might be asymmetrical on my counter. For many people these aren’t starter grinders, they’re just coffee grinders that do fine and fit a reasonable budget. They’d be a big step up from your blade grinder.

If you’re buying or really want to get into high end coffee a hand powered grinder will give more nuance, but obviously it’s much more work every time you make coffee.

The powered step up would be a Baratza Encore and its ilk. Out of budget but maybe worth knowing exists.

Back to Safeway organic Peruvian Chanchamayo beans.

They're decent, I think they do best in my cucumella and moka pot.