# How important are grinders in brewed coffee?



## nightslayer (May 29, 2016)

An espresso person myself, but have a friend who brews with V60 and is moving on to the Kalita, who uses pre-ground beans. I have recommended that she grind the beans herself, but she has gotten lazy with a hand-grinder. She is keen to move to an electric grinder, but the only issue is that her budget is not very high. There are a range of run of the mill grinders which would play havoc with espresso machines but how particular is brewed coffee with grinders - would it be unspeakable of to get, say, a Krups GVX or something of that calibre?

My apologies if this has been posted before - scrolled through the last few pages and did not see much discussion of grinders!


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

V60 & Kalita are pretty forgiving of grind, but the Krups might be pushing her luck, I had one in the office for a bit...it made a lot of dust at all settings & was a pain to clean. You can get 'not awful' cups with French press & Clever, but I don't fancy her chances with drip.

What about the Wilfa?

If brewing by the cup (


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## nightslayer (May 29, 2016)

MWJB said:


> V60 & Kalita are pretty forgiving of grind, but the Krups might be pushing her luck, I had one in the office for a bit...it made a lot of dust at all settings & was a pain to clean. You can get 'not awful' cups with French press & Clever, but I don't fancy her chances with drip.
> 
> What about the Wilfa?
> 
> ...


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## 4085 (Nov 23, 2012)

I can recommend the Wilfa.....5 year warranty and a good pedigree

https://www.slurp.coffee/en/shop/grinders/wilfa-coffee-grinder-wscg-2/

there is a newer version as well

https://workshopcoffee.com/products/wilfa-grinder


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## the_partisan (Feb 29, 2016)

Grinder matters quite a bit in my opinion.

The Wilfa WSCG-2 (or the newer CGWS-130B) is a decent entry level, much better than Krups I think. Preground isn't a terrible option if you can consume it within a week. Freezing preground would be another option.


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## YerbaMate170 (Jun 15, 2015)

It's obviously subjective, but I make brewed coffee with a £20 odd pound hand grinder which I'm guessing isn't the most accurate thing, and I rate my own brews as to my tastes, better than what I get at most cafes. Point is, I'm not using a fancy grinder and I can get really good coffee.

Bottom line, a good grinder will of course help but if you master the other aspects of brewing you can get tasty results. (I use a Cafeor and I believe a Porlex mini)


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

YerbaMate170 said:


> It's obviously subjective, but I make brewed coffee with a £20 odd pound hand grinder which I'm guessing isn't the most accurate thing, and I rate my own brews as to my tastes, better than what I get at most cafes. Point is, I'm not using a fancy grinder and I can get really good coffee.
> 
> Bottom line, a good grinder will of course help but if you master the other aspects of brewing you can get tasty results. (I use a Cafeor and I believe a Porlex mini)


Sure, but bear in mind your unfancy grinder performs relatively normally, it's cheap & unfancy because it is small & you provide the motor. Whereas the Krups may not perform 'normally' despite being about the same price & having its own motor. Porlex may not be fancy but it's certainly adequate.


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## Stanic (Dec 12, 2015)

Willfa is ok if you don't have anything better, it has a large particle size distribution, meaning you get lot of fines and boulders together at the desired setting


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Stanic said:


> Willfa is ok if you don't have anything better, it has a large particle size distribution, meaning you get lot of fines and boulders together at the desired setting


But is that unusual for a conical burr grinder with small burrs? All burr grinders make boulders & fines at all settings. Too many would mean it would be impossible to get a clean, sweet brew. If a balanced & tasty brew is possible, then the boulders and fines are within normal tolerance.


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## Stanic (Dec 12, 2015)

Just saying...I had a chance to compare it to the Mahlkonig Kenya, and the taste difference is very noticeable, increase of 'clarity' in cup, much better separation of taste tones.

Here is a comparison collage of macro photos of grinding output I've done at work to help with settings. l plan to do the same for Feldgrind and Kinu M68.

edit - cafe concept is a rebadged wilfa and the settings were derived from what the café owner used for aeropress, drip and chemex


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## the_partisan (Feb 29, 2016)

Bulk grinders with large flat burrs seem to perform noticeably better than small conical grinders in my opinion as well. But they're not really practical for home use, unless you have a lot of spare room. You can get tasty brews from Wilfa, but they're not as clean/clear as what you can get from an EK43 and you can't push the EY as high without getting bad flavours. I think @MWJB had good results sieving the grounds, but it just feels like even more faff to me so I have not bothered with this yet.

Also flat burrs seem to grind coffee differently, the coffee has more of a sliced look, rather than crushed which is typical for conical burrs. So visual comparison is a bit difficult.


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