bamaster Senior Member Joined: 16 Aug 2010 Posts: 94 Location: Houston, TX Expertise: Just starting
Espresso: Mini Vivaldi I Grinder: Mahlkonig ProM
Posted Wed Oct 26, 2011, 7:46am Subject: Blends that prefer a coarser grind?
Looking to try a different blend for my morning lattes. I have a Mini Vivladi and Malkonig Pro-M grinder.
I've tried, and enjoyed, Redbird but I find that it needs a pretty fine grind. That's great and all, but the Pro-M produces a *very* fluffy grind. I'm forced to fill the portafilter half way, tap it lightly on a rubber mat to pack it in a bit, then add more coffee, tap down, then top off. This needs to be done with Vivaci and some Cuvee, too.
Currently, I have Metropolis Redline and it is happy with a more coarse grind. I only have to tap the portafilter once. heh
I'm very pleased with Redline but one of the reason I made the espresso gear investment was to try different blends. I drink cappuccinos and lattes pretty much exclusively, hot and cold, slightly sweetened. Anyone with a suggestion?
Posted Thu Oct 27, 2011, 8:36am Subject: Re: Blends that prefer a coarser grind?
bamaster Said:
Looking to try a different blend for my morning lattes. I have a Mini Vivladi and Malkonig Pro-M grinder.
I've tried, and enjoyed, Redbird but I find that it needs a pretty fine grind. That's great and all, but the Pro-M produces a *very* fluffy grind. I'm forced to fill the portafilter half way, tap it lightly on a rubber mat to pack it in a bit, then add more coffee, tap down, then top off. This needs to be done with Vivaci and some Cuvee, too.
Currently, I have Metropolis Redline and it is happy with a more coarse grind. I only have to tap the portafilter once. heh
I'm very pleased with Redline but one of the reason I made the espresso gear investment was to try different blends. I drink cappuccinos and lattes pretty much exclusively, hot and cold, slightly sweetened. Anyone with a suggestion?
You're one of the only people who can turn a fluffy grind into a problem! :) Have you considered down-dosing and grinding even finer? Or using the same dose in a larger basket and just dealing with the resulting soggy puck? Picking your coffee because of how many times you have to knock the PF would cause you to miss out on a great many excellent coffees, if not a majority of the excellent coffees. If it were me, I'd work on ways to reduce the annoyance in my session than eliminate beans because of the grind fineness they require.
In general, though, if you're bent on it, there's no hard and fast rule on this, but, generally, the lighter the roast, the denser the bean, the coarser the grind, and the lower the apparent volume of ground coffee. Metropolis Red Line is, I believe, "Full City" (or is it FC+?) if that gives an idea. As I said though, it's not a hard and fast rule and sometimes it depends on origin too (peaberries...those are dense little beans.)
If you want to go nuts and go pretty light, Paradise Classico, Fresco Flossie's, Counter Culture Aficionado come to mind as the "lighter roast" genre. Classico is defined as "medium" but is definitely on the light side....along with the usual light roast requirements of very high dose, very low shot volume, and very high brew temperatures. Lighter roasts also mean fruitier espressos, so if you're hoping for caramels and chocolates....buy a bigger basket and stick with darker beans ;)
bamaster Senior Member Joined: 16 Aug 2010 Posts: 94 Location: Houston, TX Expertise: Just starting
Espresso: Mini Vivaldi I Grinder: Mahlkonig ProM
Posted Thu Oct 27, 2011, 3:59pm Subject: Re: Blends that prefer a coarser grind?
TheMadTamper Said:
You're one of the only people who can turn a fluffy grind into a problem! :) Have you considered down-dosing and grinding even finer? Or using the same dose in a larger basket and just dealing with the resulting soggy puck?
Haha! I don't hate the process of knocking the PF, really. One thing I don't know is if it is causing channeling, particularly against the basket. Total speculation. If I had a choice, I'd choose not to knock.
I haven't tried down dosing and grinding finer. That's a neat idea. Would I have to tamp lighter? I'd love to give Redbird another shot... it's hard to pass up 5lbs for $51, ya know? Thanks for the reply.
Posted Tue Nov 1, 2011, 1:29pm Subject: Re: Blends that prefer a coarser grind?
bamaster Said:
Haha! I don't hate the process of knocking the PF, really. One thing I don't know is if it is causing channeling, particularly against the basket. Total speculation. If I had a choice, I'd choose not to knock.
I haven't tried down dosing and grinding finer. That's a neat idea. Would I have to tamp lighter? I'd love to give Redbird another shot... it's hard to pass up 5lbs for $51, ya know? Thanks for the reply.
You would probably want to tamp the same as you usually do (though you could also adjust to a harder tamp if you wanted to grind a little coarser.)
I had issues with the K3 overflowing my 14g baskets all the time and ended up switching to an 18g basket and down-dosing during the morning rush to avoid creating a mess everywhere in a hard to clean area. A little water on the puck was the only "problem" I had doing so.
I've since switched to the 18g VST baskets and 18g doses for most beans, just as a matter of preference, and a different grinder that's also fluffy but seems to produce less of a mess :)
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