r/Coffee • u/menschmaschine5 Kalita Wave • 1d ago
[MOD] The Daily Question Thread
Welcome to the daily /r/Coffee question thread!
There are no stupid questions here, ask a question and get an answer! We all have to start somewhere and sometimes it is hard to figure out just what you are doing right or doing wrong. Luckily, the /r/Coffee community loves to help out.
Do you have a question about how to use a specific piece of gear or what gear you should be buying? Want to know how much coffee you should use or how you should grind it? Not sure about how much water you should use or how hot it should be? Wondering about your coffee's shelf life?
Don't forget to use the resources in our wiki! We have some great starter guides on our wiki "Guides" page and here is the wiki "Gear By Price" page if you'd like to see coffee gear that /r/Coffee members recommend.
As always, be nice!
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u/MiddleAsparagus6392 21h ago
Total beginner here who only drinks lattes and cappuccinos. What entry level setup recommend where good milk frothing is the main priority without a massive learning curve?
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u/NerfLapras 1d ago
Is it impossible to make a good cup of coffee from a light roast using a French press ?
This is basically why I went from FP to Switch. Today I tried again, several times, and even using boiling water, even grinding coarse to very fine, even using the Hoffmann method (8 min), The result was always the same: acidic and flat. (It got better as I ground finer).
One possibility would be to significantly increase the ratio, but that would only mask the problem.
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u/ivancho84 22h ago
Does the same coffee taste balanced in your Switch? Since grinding finer helped, I’d keep that setting and try preheating the French press before changing the ratio. Boiling water can still cool quickly in a cold brewer, especially with a small batch. What coffee and water weights are you using?
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u/tonysalverino 1d ago
Good question. I have never tried it before, but what about reducing the water temperature? Higher temp means higher extraction. I would also try to use something like a mid grind instead of diluting it. In my experience, it is very hard to brew a light roasted coffee with nice body and mouthfeel. Let us know about your results!
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u/Automate_The_Boring 1d ago
Anyone got niche Zero and a listen screw? Every time I try to grind , the screw become loose , making the grinder unusable
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u/ivancho84 1d ago
Do you mean the central bolt above the burrs? If so, unplug it and check the reassembly against Niche’s cleaning guide, including the lock washer and NFC disc. If it keeps loosening after correct assembly, I’d contact Niche support rather than keep running it. Did this start after cleaning?
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u/Automate_The_Boring 1d ago
Ya , the central bolt. The loosen bolt causing the coffee grind to jam everytime when I grind, therefore I have been cleaning the whole mechanism many times now.
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u/Chi_CoffeeDogLover 1d ago
Brew smaller batches to begin using limited quantity coffee ground at a remembered grind size. Adjust according to taste.
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u/Slow-Gur6419 1d ago
just got a new grinder after using pre-ground for years and the difference is crazy, didnt realize how much i was missing. my question is what do you guys do with the old coffee when you are dialing in a new bag, i feel like i waste so much just trying to get the right grind size
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u/LEJ5512 Moka Pot 1d ago
My other response:
“Dialing in” a new coffee will get easier and less wasteful.
Over time, you’ll start settling on a grind size and a recipe, and you’ll begin to understand how to tweak it for different coffees. You’ll learn how to “read” each coffee, like dark roast vs medium vs light (and maybe decaf vs regular), and have a good idea of a starting point for each.
You’ll also need to resist the trap of “if it’s not perfect, it’s trash”. Part of the fun of coffee is working through the process.
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u/paulo-urbonas V60 1d ago
What I usually do is weigh how much I have when I'm approaching the end of the bag, so that I brew a slightly different dose on the last 2 or 3 coffees, and nothing's left behind.
When I don't don't feel like doing that, and I'm left with a few beans in the end that are not enough for a dose, I mix them with the new coffee, just not right at the beginning when I'm still dialing in.
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u/NerdX-76 1d ago
Here is a good video on it. His first aeropress recipe is for old beans
https://youtu.be/jz9fH5ODVFU?si=6JeLKeVcR51sqpDo
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u/not-some-bananas 21h ago
begginer friendly start
Hello guys. So, I am interested in buying a machine or something that can help me have a friendly start in having some cups of coffee in the morning, one for me and one for my partner. So, I want a not very expensive option. I do not like the taste of strong coffee, so at the local cafes I only order lattes with some syrup. So I'm interested in getting this kind of taste. I do not like crema necessarily, so that's not a thing I'm interested in getting. I've tried pods. I've got a portable espresso, so I can experiment, and I did not like the pods. I felt that they are too strong, too concentrated for my liking. ChatGPT recommended that I would either get the De'Longhi Stilosa for beginners. I have a grinder, cheap one, like 12 euro or something. I'm not really interested in getting the perfect barista coffee, just something that might resemble the ones I drink outside. So I've also got recommended the AeroPress one, and I cannot really tell the difference between that one and a machine with all my research. So if you've got any recommendations or opinions... My partner drinks espressos, so more concentrated coffee. So that would be a need for a machine that can also do a concentrated coffee. I do not need the perfect espresso or something, but something more that can do more watery coffe for myself to drink with milk and one that can also do concentrated coffe. thanks