dianahayes•28d agoMost Upvoted

My buddy Jim said to use a finer grind for my Chemex, I thought he was nuts for 6 months

Jim's been roasting beans in his garage for like 10 years and he kept telling me my coffee was sour because my grind was too coarse. I told him I knew what I was doing, I'd been watching YouTube tutorials and everything. After 6 months of drinking mediocre cups I finally caved and tried his way with a setting 15 on my Baratza instead of 20. First cup was night and day different, actually smooth and sweet instead of that thin acidic taste. Anyone else have a friend who turned out to be right about something you were stubborn about?

3 comments

3 Comments

blair_martin28d ago

Grind size is personal preference though (especially between different brewers), so I don't think Jim's way is automatically right just because he's been doing it longer. You might have just needed a slightly finer grind, but going from 20 to 15 is a huge jump that could easily over-extract on a different bean.

lily7028d ago

Jim's been at this for a decade, he definitely knows his stuff (and I bet your cups are way better now). I had the same thing happen with my coffee scale, turns out eyeballing it was the problem.

roberts9527d ago

lol sounds like Jim was the final boss of coffee advice and you just didnt want to admit it. Going from 20 to 15 on a Baratza is wild though, that's like saying "ok boomer" to extraction science and getting proven wrong instantly. Bet you felt like a dummy when that first cup hit different after all those months of being stubborn.