# First post after years of lurking – a video of me brewing V60, looking for critique



## iwobobul (Dec 6, 2020)

Hi, I've shot a video of myself brewing a V60. I started brewing it at home around 2 years ago, and this is as far as I've got.

My problem is that sometiems I get really really enjoyable cups - fruity, sweet and clear, but half of the time I get weak and hollow, or bitter, or muddy/powdery cups.

I use same setup, same 5 or 6 varieties I've selected from what's avaialble locally (I'm in Ukraine). So this inconsistency is really upsetting. Also I'm trying to develop my pallet, but I solely rely on online sources, and it's sort of tough to do that by yourself, so I am in a constant state of doubt - the cups I do enjoy - are they really good? Or are they just not as awful as the others? How do I know what is good?

I have a very decent budget to update my gear, but I don't want to be a gear addict, and I think with coffee it's easy to become one. I would rather prefer to understand what I'm doing wrong, and then be able to choose gear to help me fix those issues, via improving my technique. For example just recently Niche added some stock and I impulsively and mindlessly jumped on it, but for some reason my transaction was reverted. And I'm happy it did, because now I'm reading more opinions and people say Niche can do ok-ish pour-over, but something that's dedicated to pour-over will provide much better results.

The video of me brewing is below, I would appreciate if someone who's experienced with v60 can watch it and provide some critique/feedback. Thank you!


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

@MWJBIs your man in this area....definitely going to be able to help you sort this out. Welcome to the forum...


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Welcome to the forum.

Do you need to make such large brews? Larger brews have a tendency to be more silty, even if under-extracted...so the temptation is to grind coarser to reduce silt, but then your brews get more under-extracted. Is there no way you can get by with 400-500g brews? I used to make 600-660g brews daily, it's hard to avoid silt at these sizes.

If you can confirm a brew size that you can stick to, then we can go forward.



iwobobul said:


> My problem is that sometiems I get really really enjoyable cups - fruity, sweet and clear, but half of the time I get weak and hollow, or bitter, or muddy/powdery cups.


 You are noting different faults, rather than a trend towards a particular issue. "Bitter/muddy/powdery" suggest too fine a grind or too much agitation (like your swirling at the end of the brew).

"Hollow" is a strange word to use (I know, you see it around, but still it's a bit like describing a colour as 'intelligent', or a smell as 'tall'. I'd suggest using more coffee/less water to bolster the strength (I tend to prefer drip coffee over 1.4%TDS, unless a very flavourful bean - but brew for the many, not the few.)



iwobobul said:


> And I'm happy it did, because now I'm reading more opinions and people say Niche can do ok-ish pour-over, but something that's dedicated to pour-over will provide much better results.


 I don't know what grinder in the Niche price range could be described as "dedicated to pourovers". The Niche is plenty capable. You might prefer a Forte/EK-43/Ditting but these cost a lot more.

If you are going to stick to using a regular kettle, I don't think that the Hoffmann method is for you.

The most important thing you need, to move forward, is to log what you did & keep a track of scores, then be able to sort & identify what is working. The brewing part is actually very consistent (if proven to work & consistent inputs), the flavour preference still moves around a lot because coffees differ & roasting is less consistent (which can prompt you to going into endless loops of adjustment to try and 'fix' oddball roasts). You can reasonably expect the majority of your brews to extract well and your average preference scores to be higher than neutral, but there will still be the odd coffee that is hard to accommodate & slight variations cup-to-cup with the same coffee.

Your water doesn't seem to be very hard, do you know the bicarbonate/KH/alkalinity? (This affects brightness in the cup and the silty sensation in the mouth).


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## iwobobul (Dec 6, 2020)

MWJB said:


> If you can confirm a brew size that you can stick to, then we can go forward.
> 
> 
> 
> > 6 hours ago, iwobobul said:


 I brew for three people who are all quite thirtsy for coffee, so even 750g are often not enough. I end up brewing 650 or 750 in the morning, and another batch of 650 later in the afternoon. Indeed all the recipes are focusing on around 400-500 gram batches, but I'll have to brew twice in a row, two times a day if I brew this little. It's doable.



MWJB said:


> You are noting different faults, rather than a trend towards a particular issue


 And that's exactly what conduses me as well. It's as if someone was changing the grind setting one way or another, while it actualyl stays untouched. It must be some other variable, liek temperature or how aggressively I pour or agitate, that changes the taste so drastically.



MWJB said:


> I don't know what grinder in the Niche price range could be described as "dedicated to pourovers"


 I saw this person saying Fellow Ode is better for filter coffee then Niche specifically. Some commenters seems to agree.






Also read that udner some Niche reviews on youtube.

I'm open to get an electric pouring kettle, as I can see how having more control over agitation and agressiveness of pouring can help me control things better.

Thank you for the comment and for sharing the sheet in private messages as well, that is really helpful!


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

iwobobul said:


> I brew for three people who are all quite thirtsy for coffee, so even 750g are often not enough. I end up brewing 650 or 750 in the morning, and another batch of 650 later in the afternoon. Indeed all the recipes are focusing on around 400-500 gram batches, but I'll have to brew twice in a row, two times a day if I brew this little. It's doable.


 OK, so how about another brew cone &server, making 2x500ml brews, or a little smaller. You could maybe make them simultaneously (I did used to make 3 brews simultaneously in the morning, but this means 3 sets of scales, or very large scales, might not be practical with limited space).

Brewing 650ml and 750ml brews, without methodical changes is equivalent to changing grind setting, or pour rate. It's a significant difference.

I would ignore that video without some data. They seem to have "tested" too many grinders & methods to really get to the nub of things. Hoffmann rated the Ode similar to the Wilfa flat, I have a Wilfa flat and a Niche and there is no significant difference between them.


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## A-ron (Dec 16, 2020)

Welcome


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## iwobobul (Dec 6, 2020)

@MWJBI have followed your recommendation and got an electric pouring kettle. After regular kettle it's so much more controllable, that now I think I don't agitate the slurry enough, as my drawdown time increased by 30 seconds on average in the past two days that I'm testing it.

I have gotten a second cone and a Clever as well, I might just brew Clever for my family and a V60 for myself, since they don't really care about the nuances as much.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

iwobobul said:


> @MWJBI have followed your recommendation and got an electric pouring kettle. After regular kettle it's so much more controllable, that now I think I don't agitate the slurry enough, as my drawdown time increased by 30 seconds on average in the past two days that I'm testing it.
> 
> I have gotten a second cone and a Clever as well, I might just brew Clever for my family and a V60 for myself, since they don't really care about the nuances as much.


 You agitate the slurry enough, in fact you likely do it too much.  It's hard not to with the right grind size & a gooseneck.

Anyhow, glad you can see a solution on the horizon. When you feel you want to optimise your V60s, just say the word


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## iwobobul (Dec 6, 2020)

MWJB said:


> You agitate the slurry enough, in fact you likely do it too much. 🙂 It's hard not to with the right grind size & a gooseneck.
> 
> Anyhow, glad you can see a solution on the horizon. When you feel you want to optimise your V60s, just say the word 🙂


 Will do, I am slowly getting prepped to start scoring things and make some sense of it all.


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## LittleCottage (Dec 29, 2020)

Not sure if you've seen the Filtru app. I use it quite a bit and it tracks all the variables i have when doing pour-over, Maybe worth a look.


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