# Grind Size



## Fran (Dec 27, 2010)

Hello everyone,

Something I've been thinking about recently is how to communicate grind size. This is mainly due to frustration from my attempts at brewing. I buy a bag of coffee, read the label on all of the delicious things I should taste, brew the coffee, and then it turns out crap.

I think this all comes down to grind coarseness. The latest example of this comes from a bag of Square Mile Agoga. Lots of dried fruits, apparently! I follow hasbean Steve's new filter brew guide and it turns out like any other coffee - not necessarily bad, but nowhere near as good as it should be.

I'm following the brew guide to the letter. The only thing that is ambiguous is the coarseness of the grind. Is this the problem? How can I ensure it's correct without going through a bag of coffee?

Could we think of ways to communicate grind size more effectively? Perhaps using pictures of the grind against standard objects, such as pennies? Perhaps even using some kind of measurement device! I have a usb microscope, maybe that could be used!

Or, maybe I'm kicking up a fuss about nothing, and I just need to use trial and error, or perhaps I'm doing something else wrong!

Any thoughts?!

Thanks!


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## AndyL (Apr 10, 2011)

Hi this is a very subjective topic. no one grind size fits all. I'm not exactly clear what method you are using to brew your coffee but it sounds like a V60 or something similar. These require a courser grind something akin to sand or even a little coursers maybe unlike espresso which is more of a powder. that's about as good as it gets for the basics because as I said it's subjective and you'd need to experiment.

if you tell us what your brew

method is and the equipment you are using then I'm sure some of the other guys will be able to help better than I.

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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

I would experiment as Andy says . Take your current grind mark as point B... Try a much courser mark as grind point C, take notes; ....then try an equally finer grind from point B & mark as point A and take notes again. Which is your favourite A, B, or C? ...work from there and dial it in further towards where you want it to be.


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## AndyL (Apr 10, 2011)

Gary is spot on. Take notes and record your observations, grind setti gs, temperature of the water, brew time etc.

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## crispy (Jun 6, 2011)

Any time I start using new beans I lessen the fineness of grind (for espresso), I find keeping grind the same as the previous bean causes the extraction to happen too slowly due to the freshness of the new beans...

For other brewing methods I totally agree with Andy and Gary, use recommendations on flow rate... there is an app from Intelligentsia for iphone, not bad as a starting point although I am sure other members would be more than happy to share their wisdom of what they aim for...

You are going to waste some beans as you need a reference, always something you should accept will happen...


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