Okay. So. Finally had some time and did a bunch of stuff with the Forte.
Replace ceramic with metal burrs.
Flip the flapper.
Season with 2kg of cheap af coffee beans.
All relatively straightforward with the advice from this thread. So thank you!
Tried it out. Not sure it was quite dialled in correctly, but the flavour did seem clearer. As in a more consistent flavor profile. Or this could be completely psychological… shrug.
Trying a new bag of beans tomorrow. Fingers crossed will get some better cups!
Should also a point out that a reason V60 results can vary is that you’ll probably be experimenting a lot. That’s sort of what you’re self-selecting into if you take that route as opposed to practicing being a water-pouring robot. Even when you dial one in perfectly, a demon deep within your psyche will be whispering “but maybe you can make it even better!” and you’ll take the bait. But that’s sort of the magic of it, because then you’re correlating different techniques to changes in flavor.
If you’re on to something here it seems like a kettle is not the ideal water delivery tool. Could there be a market for a better device or maybe something that already exists? Something that drops water from a horizontal overhead outlet with a wide v60 sized even distribution and maybe an adjustable flow rate?
update, made a few cups this weekend and overall I think I like this.
I’m not really sure why, but my drawdowns using the method are about the same as they were but I’m grinding a whole notch finer. In general I think I am noticing an increase in flavor clarity, but the texture feels … thinner. Not more diluted, just less… viscous? IDK, it’s weird and my sample size is obviously small (6-7 cups so far).
It does take a slight bit more attention than just pouring 3x/7x/17x but not too much (not nearly as much as the 4:6 method). I’m going to keep at it this week and see how it goes.
I would say it’s definitely worth it. I’ll have to comb through some posts to see where the process is best described. You’ll need dry erase markers for sure and some foil if you plan to do shim alignment. You could start by just learning how to do good wipe tests before making adjustments.
It’s weird you mention it because today I was trying to figure out which automatic brewer shower head I could easily order as a cheap replacement part and rig up into a makeshift device. The only device I’m familiar with that is close to what you’re saying is the Gabi Dripmaster.
The Melodrip and Gabi Dripmaster (A and B) are different products but same concept. Biggest difference is that the Gabi actually sits on top of the cone, but it also has some kind of inner / outer channel thing that distributes water differently.
The main problem I had with Melodrip is that it’s $35. I don’t think the guy behind it is a fraud or scammer, as he seems to have contributed significantly to the coffee discussion. But I also think the design is odd since you have to hold it with one hand and pour with another. I said before that Elika Liftee from Onyx used one in competition, but he calls it the “Melodrip Lift” which is a modified version that sits on top of the cone. That product does not seem to exist though and isn’t on there website? Starts at about 7:00 in this video.
I could easily put something together in 3D software / CAD for this. The problem is that I’m not sure how to do the prototyping. Is there a such thing as food safe 3D printing, or do I actually have to make molds and cast it? That’s why I was thinking a pre-made shower head for a drip machine might be the cheapest and fastest way to do this, but maybe those won’t work for some reason I’m not thinking of.
He says the grind is ~370 microns for a 10g dose. Different brewer and pouring method, but it’s similar enough to my dosing sheet which recommends 400 um for 10 grams based on surface area:
I suspect those drip heads might not function as well without a little bit of pressure behind the water but who knows maybe gravity is enough.
I’ve been watching a bunch of Coffee with April videos and I really like how he talks about grind sizes in microns. It has me seriously considering dropping like 3k on something like this Ditting K804 Lab Coffee Grinder 80mm Sweet Burrs
the idea seems to be specifically to lower the pressure, though. More pressure = more turbulence/agitation, which is what they’re saying you want to avoid
Yeah I’ve considered that. Some (most?) of the commercial brewers have to be plumbed in, and there are pressure specs on the lines.
Right, but it may require X amount of line pressure to get proper function, even if the function is relatively low turbulence. I’m not sure, and it could very well depend on the specific shower head mechanism. Only one way to find out…
There are a few things to think about. If you buy new, the recommended break-in is going to be hundreds of pounds of coffee. Have to decide between the standard and lab sweet. The 804 profile is going to be a bit different from the EK. They’re all fairly large machines obv and parts aren’t cheap.
Good point on the break in period, that’s not something I had considered. Guess I’ll need to scour the used markets since that’s like a lifetime of coffee for me to break it in.
My wife might have things to say about getting one of these huge grinders but it would just be to mock me a bit so not too worried about that.
Parts may not be cheap but if these things are made to run in coffee shops I imagine they can handle my 20-60 grams per day with very low likelihood of issues. But if I buy used there’s more chance of needing service of some kind.
Yesterday was a full month off roast for my current order. Visually, the grind seems to be improving. There is noticeably less fine powder being produced, but the powder amounts to a miniscule part of the total mass. My cones are still muddy, not as bad before, but not as good as clean cones I was getting last year. It will be interesting to see particle analysis.
In terms of cup quality, I’m still struggling to dial these in exactly how I want. Seems smoother and mellower overall. At this point, my best miss is actually toward too fine / overextraction. Those cups have been more balanced and drinkable, whereas the sour UEs are very bad. The best cups have come from grinding rather fine on the Fuji Jericho, not the Vario, although it’s not an apples:apples comparison because I didn’t match the grinds.
Problem with the Fuji Jericho is that it seems to be producing considerably more fine powder, and that’s putting a dark chocolate finish on every cup. Since that grinder is quite old, I inspected the burrs closely and it appears that the rotating burr is quite worn in some spots. For instance, the peak of one of the grinding teeth is chipped off, and some others look fairly dull. Gonna contact Fuji about a replacement set.
