# Strange grinding / beans



## itguy (Jun 26, 2015)

Morning everyone

Had some fun and games this morning with some new Rwandan beans I've not used before. Roasted 20th March so should be just right today.

Set my grinder to the normal ish 'fresh beans' range I've been using with italian blends and it just ran through like water. 18g dose, 36g out in about 7s!!

Tightened it up considerably (more than I have ever ground at before for any coffee) and dosed 18g, 36g out in 18s this time. Plus, when I tamped it I could see that 18g in the basket just didn't look like very much (18g VST basket) as the tamper went lower than I am used to seeing (so therefore more air gap in the brewhead).

Still wanting to stick to 18g dose I went even tighter and managed to get a 36g out in 29s - but the tamper was lower again in the basket when tamping.

Never had this before - very odd. Coffee tasted really good on the last pull but wasted a lot beans in the process, most frustrating.

Any particular tips / thoughts? Is this a rwandan thing? Should I have dosed more and kept the grind looser?


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

You will, super generalisation, find that Africans sit lower in the basket as do many, more generalisation, lighter beans as you tend to grind them finer thus the grinds sit closer together.

Lighter beans tens to grind finer, darker coarser. Africans finer / Brasilians coarser etc etc

If you keep a little log of grind positions for a bean , when you come back to it or something similar it can give you a handy starting point to avoid wastage and you will find many on here do this. Is not an exact science just a ballpark as this years Rwandan will be different to next etc.

Hope of help

John


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## itguy (Jun 26, 2015)

Thanks - that's a really good idea and I hadn't thought of that - keeping a log book!


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