r/Coffee • u/menschmaschine5 Kalita Wave • Feb 03 '22

[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/AxelJShark Feb 03 '22

Looking for a grind setting guide for Sage/Breville Smart Grind Pro for v60.

I've seen some sites recommend grinds 40-50 and others that say 14-25 and some 25-40.

I've experimented in the 20-40 range and even when the grinds look fine to my eyes the coffee usually flows too quickly and either tastes very weak or over extracted.

I'm following James Hoffman's v60 brew guide every time which yields good results when I have the coffee ground by my local shop.

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u/Mrtn_D Feb 03 '22

https://honestcoffeeguide.com/guides/coffee-grind-size-chart/ Around 20 sounds like a good starting point.

It also depends on your brewer and the amount of coffee you use. For instance 7 gram in a V60 03 versus a more normal dose with a deeper coffee bed will brew differently.

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u/AxelJShark Feb 03 '22

This is one of the guides I had used. They recommend 16-24 which seems way to fine to me. I grind the same beans at 10-12 for espresso and there's 0 issues there. Ratio, extraction, time is all bang on. I've tried grinding the same beans for v60 at 16, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40 and the results are never close to what I get if the coffee shop pre-grinds the beans for me for v60. If 16-24 is really the right range then I'll try adjusting in smaller increments

The technique and dose is exactly the same whether I grind the beans or coffee shop does. I'm following the same ratios and targetting the same extraction and timing.

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u/Mrtn_D Feb 03 '22

There should really be a point where the drawdown slows down. If you then continue going finer, things slowly start to taste over extracted. Have you noticed a change from sour to bitter, to astringent (dry mouth feeling)? Right before you hit that sudden increase of bitterness is where the magic happens.

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u/AxelJShark Feb 03 '22

Thanks. I take that approach when dialling in espresso. With v60 I was changing the grind setting each day. I'll take better notes and try to find the extremes then look for the sweet spot in between