# grind profiling?



## dsc (Jun 7, 2013)

Curious if anyone here tried that? not that current grinder design allows for this on-the-run, unless you have an easy way to change your grind setting (minor changes) whilst grinding. You can of course do a batch mix where you grind say 3/4 of your normal dose at for example setting 100 and then to the other 1/4 at setting 102 or smth similar.

I can easily 'profile' on the run (manually or automatically) on the ZR, but I'm curious if anyone tried various grind mixing before?

T.


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## Beanosaurus (Jun 4, 2014)

Interested to know what the rationale for doing this would be?

I can understand making a tighter adjustment while grinding to protect the burrs, but not grind profiling for the purposes of extraction.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Can you explain what the benefits of this would be please ?

I may have got completely the wrong enf of the stick in this , but why would different paritcle sizes be a good thing

Are you talking about for brewing espresso ?


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

Whether this has any relevance / bearing on the mixed profile grinds I do not know BUT. In construction materials such as concrete and mortar are improved by having graded sand =different grain sizes. The purpose being that the finer grains fill the interstices (spaces) between the larger grains giving a denser mix by not leaving water /air spaces between the grains

EG In concrete the cement fills and bonds the spaces in the sand and the sand+cement fills the spaces between the gravel = a denser mix.

Whether this would translate to a denser puck / different extraction in coffee would require considerable testing/measuring of extractions:confused:


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## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

Mrboots2u said:


> Can you explain what the benefits of this would be please ?
> 
> I may have got completely the wrong enf of the stick in this , but why would different paritcle sizes be a good thing
> 
> Are you talking about for brewing espresso ?


x2, thought we were striving for even extraction?


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

El carajillo said:


> Whether this would translate to a denser puck / different extraction in coffee would require considerable testing/measuring of extractions:confused:


For espresso, it would most likely result in a lower good tasting yield...that said, I don' know how much real world impact a 2% variation in burr gap would make. Some folk have experimented with sieving out fines for a steep, then adding them back in for a short period at the end of the steep, but for percolation most folk would be aiming for best uniformity for a given average grind size?


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## dsc (Jun 7, 2013)

I was thinking similar to what EL was describing, a denser, better 'fitting' puck, as the smaller particles fill the gaps between the larger ones and in general you should get a different particle distribution. Not saying it's better as I've never tried it, just something I've noticed on HB in a grinder thread and thought to myself 'hmm I can do this'.

T.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Whilst the variation in particle size will possibly lead to a denser puck it may not be necessarily a good thing. A good extraction needs a puck that is dense enough, but not so dense, or with super dense areas that slow flow without allowing solids to be washed out.

A denser puck slows flow & extends shot time, but after a point, despite shot time getting longer, extraction will start to fall again.

Maybe being able to set the grinder to a smaller gap at the end of the dose might help reduce boulders when single dosing? A sieve/2 sieve test could determine this to a degree?


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## dsc (Jun 7, 2013)

I agree that denser might not be better, but it might as well be or different at least. If it's too dense you can always compensate for it by grinding a bit coarser overall.

As for single dosing and getting a coarser end bit out, surely that means mixing already happens on most grinders which are being used for single dosing. I might experiment with going a few ticks tighter towards the end and see if that changes much.

T.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

dsc said:


> As for single dosing and getting a coarser end bit out, surely that means mixing already happens on most grinders which are being used for single dosing. I might experiment with going a few ticks tighter towards the end and see if that changes much.
> 
> T.


Indeed, hence one avenue that single dosed grinds could possibly be improved with your technology WRT to full hopper grinds.


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## dsc (Jun 7, 2013)

The ZR has a constant weight above the beans to aid single dosing, but there's a point where the weight simply stops working, so I can experiment with dropping the grind setting for the last beans and see if that changes anything.

T.


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