# smart grinder pro - ash taste



## dncarreira (Jul 8, 2018)

Hi!

I was very excited to try my new sgp! Coming from a used pro grinder (casadio enea 64) which is great but is huge and you need to adapt your routine to a series of steps I'd rather not do.

To my dismay the sgp produces a cup that tastes of ash... I have tried 3 different coffees, all within the best period after roast. If I change to the casadio, this taste disappears so I pretty sure it's the sgp.

I have dialed as best I can, and to make the ashy taste disappear I have to sub-extract the coffee.

Has anyone got any clue? Or seen this before?

Thanks.


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## Squidgyblack (Nov 18, 2019)

The step down from the Enea to the SGP is fairly large in terms of going from stepless 64mm flat burrs to stepped 40mm conical.

How long are your extractions? What doses too? And when you say "within the best period after roast", what is your interpretation of this? Ashy would generally mean over-extracted, but can also be from stale beans.


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## dncarreira (Jul 8, 2018)

The énea was very cheap and is very good but inconvenient. I really like the sgp and read good things about it.

I have done lots of shots now since November 29th. Coffee from 6 days from roast to 20 days now, professionally roasted and home roasted. I have done shots from 20s to 33s, and usually 29g to 38g out, from 18g in. I have done some dosing tests but not systematically.

If it's over extracted then the usual obvious corrections are not working. Either I'm missing some simple stuff or if this is so complex I'm going to have to return it...

This weekend I'm going to try different dosing... I've seen contradictory opinions on more/less dosing, fine/coarser, but it seems more intuitive to just lower extraction, so up dosing, more coarse, less time seems to be direction...

This is so associated with this grinder that I am hoping someone else will have faced the same thing... I also have a pretty bad Krups grinder and I get better coffee from it.At least it doesn't taste like an ashtray.


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## dncarreira (Jul 8, 2018)

Just to close this topic... I have returned the grinder, not really because of taste, but mainly because I couldn't get the dialing procedure as usual - grind finer, shots take longer. I did a whole set of testes and as grind settings got finer the timings of the shots were all over the place. Also very clumpy, and channeling issues. Tried very hard to keep it, but just couldn't get it under control. I forked the shipping costs to amazon uk, waiting for the refund and start looking at other grinders. Using my trusted enea meanwhile.

As for the ashy taste it dissipated almost entirely. Don't know why... it may have been something about fresher beans producing not enough/too many fines? I could still taste a faint burnt flavour but I got that from the enea too so may be from overheated brew water.

Another thing that added to the confusion is that I compared to shots using another grinder - enea with 64mm flat burrs. While producing better flavours it was not that different which made the decision harder to send it back. The big difference I noticed was dialing the enea is super easy - things work as expected, finer grinding get longer shots, until choking or channeling. Not with the sgp as I explained above.

The stepping of the sgp did not really bother me, it was quite enough. If I needed to get more control I would change the dose a bit. The only small issue with the steps that surprised me was that you are not sure what step you are on, really. You can feel the steps and watch the numbers on the lcd, and they don't follow quite right. Sometimes the number changes sometimes it does not. After a while you wonder what step you're really on.

I have had a few sage machines and I love them for the smartness and little details that make our lives easier. I wanted to keep the sgp and would recommend it nevertheless to anyone who is less experienced or demanding. For this price you get timed grinding, almost stepless, portafilter holder, grounds cannister, great range from espresso to drip. But it didn't work out for me... the next best thing costs upwards of 350€ (sette 270 and a big range of flat burrs grinders)... I got the sgp for 160€.


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## Bica60s (Dec 3, 2019)

That's a real shame for you dncarreira. It does sound like you're not quite sure where the issue lies perhaps? I use the sgp and it's been very reliable to date with everything bar one bag of stale very dark roast beans which I couldn't get a fine enough or consistent grind from. With everything else it's been consistent and a joy to use. Good luck with the replacement. As you say, you really do need to double, at least, the budget to better it for a new machine.


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## dncarreira (Jul 8, 2018)

Bica60 that's really true, and makes me sad and frustrated I couldn't getting it working for me... but after a whole month of trying and failing I had to give up. If only I could have my enea to be as user friendly! Hate to keep tapping this beast to get 3g out of it or how the coffe just flyes out of it. The coffee is good though. Now I'm looking at 250€ alternatives...


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