Finally nailed my coffee grind size after 6 months of guessing

I've been making pour over coffee at home for about a year now, and I always just eyeballed my grind size on my Baratza Encore. Every morning I'd get either a brew that took 4 minutes or one that took 2.5 minutes, and I couldn't figure out why. Last week I finally sat down and ran through every single grind setting from 10 to 25 with a timer and tasting notes. Turns out my sweet spot for a 20 gram dose is exactly at 16, not the 18 I was using before. The difference in extraction time was like 45 seconds between those two settings alone. I feel kinda silly it took me half a year to do this, but now my morning cup is actually consistent. Has anyone else found that their grinder's numbers don't match what the manual says?

2 comments

2 Comments

alice_barnes3518d agoTop Commenter

Honestly it's actually surprising your taste buds didn't push you to 16 sooner, the manual numbers are just rough starting points. Tbh that 45 second difference between two settings totally makes sense since even tiny adjustments change flow rate way more than people think.

paigewood17d ago

My Chemex brew time dropped from 5:20 to 5:08 just by bumping my grind from setting 15 to 17 on my Baratza Encore, and the cup had way more clarity. @alice_barnes35 is right that those tiny adjustments really do change the flow rate a lot, especially because the water sits in the filter differently with each notch. I think people forget that even the bean's density affects how fast the water passes through, not just the grind size.