My grinder (Timemore Chestnut) isn’t of the super fancy kind that won’t ever produce any fines. So after some initial skepticism about the video’s topic, I was intrigued and gave it a try. And oh boy, does it make for a change in the result: Where I would normally set the grinder to 14 clicks, now I’m at 9 (where lesser is finer) and the coffee is still more on the sour side.
With the Aeropress, I’m experimenting with longer brew times, no big deal. Overall, I think I’m getting a more even, more efficient extraction with more strength per gram of coffee without the harshness you get when grinding too fine.
But for pour over, I’m unsure if I should really go any finer. The bed already was sort of muddy the last time. Do you have any experience on the topic you’d like to share? Have you tried slow feeding, and if yes, are you still doing it, and are you doing it for everything or only certain brew methods?
yes, I do slowfeed.
Regardless of the method & recipe? And do you now grind as much finer as I do?
yes, as slow feeding makes the coffee more consistent in grain size.
I cannot say for Timemore Chestnut, as I sold my C3 after I bought Turin DF64V, but after I started sprinkling water and slow feeding, I started grinding finer. I am using Gaggia Classic Pro with Gaggiuino.
My questions whether you do this with every method stems from that especially with espresso - or what I can do with an Aeropress to mimic it -, slow feeding takes significantly more time due to the fine grind size, and to my taste, the improvement is really insignificant compared to a more coarsely ground pour over. On the other hand, my espresso is little more than a concentrated regular Aeropress coffee, and the beans I have at hand for this particular variant are supermarket material, hence also less than ideal. Would be interesting to test what difference this makes with a portafilter.
To my understanding of the accompanying theory, the particle size distribution shouldn’t be as widespread on finer grind settings anyway, so that would also explain my experience.
Thanks anyway for sharing.