[jeebsy]

Or try it a bit earlier, in 5 min increments, see where you get a balance between sweetness & hotness?

Do you just spoon off the top when you're trying in this way? Or pour?

 

[MWJB]

Do you just spoon off the top when you're trying in this way? Or pour?

I pour a little in a cup & swirl it to cool to my preferred temp (after pouring off & discarding the oily bit). I keep the lid on, so the pot doesn't keep cooling down every time I have a taste.

 

[NickdeBug]

Today's brew not as successful as hoped.

used 32g of coffee (same Foundry El Salvadorian), with water up to the line - approx 600ml. Medium grind, although my first attempt with Hario Slim and it looked like there was quite a range of particle sizes present.

Water from work Marco dispenser. Forced boil cycle during pot warming so brew temp was probably 30-45 secs off boil. Steeped for 45 mins.

Result was a bit thin on flavour and had a slight metallic aftertaste. No sweetness or richness at all.

I had bigged the Sowden up a bit at work and brewed some for a meeting with my boss. He thought that it was great and rushed off to order one for himself, but I was a bit disappointed.

I guess that I need to play around with grind and timings a bit. Harder to do when you are making a pot at a time when compared to espresso!

going to try some Rocko Mountain tomorrow which I love as espresso and flat white. If anyone has a recommended brew for this bean I am all ears

 

[MWJB]

You're an iron man if you're grinding 30g on a Hario slim, what sort of setting are you at?

Did you weigh the water?

 

[NickdeBug]

I weighed the water to the line the first time I used it (yesterday). To the line it was about 630g.

Not sure on how to tell setting on Hario. Like I said, this was the first use. I wound it in as fine as it would go and then went back about 4 clicks if that helps. It didn't take as long as I thought that it would, maybe 2.5 mins, so maybe it was a bit coarse.

 

[MWJB]

Was there much silt in the pot? Did you see many large chunks in the grind? Not sure how good the Hario will be at fine enough settings, before you start getting too many fines in the pot? Maybe err on the coarser side, to reduce fines & sieve out any big chunks?

4 clicks on my old Slim would have been very fine....would have taken a good 5 mins to grind.

 

[NickdeBug]

Not a huge amount of silt and yes to some gravelly bits. I will try and take a photo tomorrow when back in work and upload. It certainly wasn't fine. I had taken some in the previous day that I had ground at fine/medium at home. The output from Hario was definitely much coarser.

Yesterday when I washed out the pot (sans filter) the first fill looked distinctly coffee coloured. Today it looked more like water, so I guess far fewer fines making it through the filter.

Might take in some home ground and compare to Hario tomorrow. I'm assuming that coarse = longer steep time required

 

[MWJB]

I'm assuming that coarse = longer steep time required

Too coarse and you'll never get a decent extraction. Going fine isn't going to speed things up significantly, though you could updose & settle for a lower extraction? Still don't want to be super coarse though.

 

[NickdeBug]

Okay - here is a photo of grind size. Sorry, realised afterwards that I should have put something in the photo for comparison.

Left to right - Hario 4 clicks left from min (very uneven, with large chunks), Hario 2 clicks from left (like slight coarse salt, better distribution), Sage Pro setting 30 (fine sand, but not powdery).

I will try a brew with the latter in a minute to see how it goes. Hario doesn't seem to go that fine even at lowest setting.

View attachment 12733

 

[MWJB]

Okay - here is a photo of grind size. Sorry, realised afterwards that I should have put something in the photo for comparison.

Left to right - Hario 4 clicks left from min (very uneven, with large chunks), Hario 2 clicks from left (like slight coarse salt, better distribution), Sage Pro setting 30 (fine sand, but not powdery).

I will try a brew with the latter in a minute to see how it goes. Hario doesn't seem to go that fine even at lowest setting. From what you're posting it looks like the Hario might have an issue.

Farthest left is never going to work...might be worth taking out your Hario burrs and checking that the outer burr is seated so that it is tight against the grinder body with no visible play between the burrs at tightest setting? The burrs may move a bit together, that's normal.

 

[NickdeBug]

Found out the problem. I was being a bit too delicate with adjustment. Not wanting to force it I hadn't realised that there were two more clicks from what I thought was the finest point. Consequently 4 was actually 6.

Finest setting looks pretty powdery now.

Thanks for your help

 

[jeebsy]

You can shim the outer burr if necessary