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Less astringency: Grind finer (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by [email protected] to c/coffee

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A lot of people already know this, I'm sure, but it's a bit counterintuitive, and here's hoping it helps any beginners scrolling through.

This is particularly the case for pour over and drip coffee. I long assumed that an astringent flavor/feeling, sorta mouth-drying and unpleasantly mouth-watering at the same time, with a biting aftertaste, was a result of over-extraction, since it can feel sorta similar to bitterness. With that, it seemed to make sense to grind coarser, which obviously didn't help.

In the end, going significantly finer brought a much fuller and sweeter extraction, minimizing the astringency without increasing bitterness at all.

A caveat, of course, astringency can indeed come from over-extraction, so this isn't a guarantee. If you're already coarse, try finer. But if you're grinding super fine, the opposite might go for you/those beans.

TL;DR: if you are having issues with astringency, it might be intuitive to go for a lighter extraction with a coarser grind, but try going finer for richer flavor instead.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm not super sure how light it is. I would have said it's a medium roast, but the bag said it was for filter. Maybe it's the chocolatier notes that I'm kind of disappointed with and tried to escape from with the courser grind, but who knows. The coffee's nice, but it's Brazilian, so I should really have seen this coming.

I'll give a finer grind a try tomorrow. Like you say, it's pretty easy to experiment, so why the hell not! I've been using water straight from the boil to brew. Seems to work well, and I don't see any point in playing around with that. I got a next level so that I wouldn't need to upgrade my crappy kettle, and I'm quite happy with that for now. Grinder is a niche, so I don't think I'll be upgrading that any time soon either. I realise it's probably not the best for pour over, but I'm happy with it.

Either way, I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for the tips

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Niche is definitely good enough to get a quality cup, and sounds like you've got a great setup for what you're brewing. If you do ever try a cone, you can still get some great results with a $9 V60 and a classic kettie spout, too, especially if you pulse your pours.

And yeah, like you say, a Brazil is almost always going to be chocolate forward, so that makes sense. They are also often roasted medium to city/dark, so I wouldn't typically recommend easing off the water temp, but a few degrees can make a bigger difference with darker roasts, in case it is one. But it does sound like you'll find what you're looking for more with a higher elevation and lighter roast. I'm personally a huge fan of Dune coffees.

Hope grinding finer is great! And if not, you're one step further along in the process of elimination haha.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Well all I can say is thank you, kind internet stranger. I tried grinding finer, and got a really lovely sweet and balanced cup. Honestly, I wasn't expecting anything, but it was like a completely different bean.

When I first got the bag, I tried grinding in the middle of the "pour over" range on the niche (35), which gave the results I describes initially. Ended up pulling back and settling on 40. It was pleasant there, but nothing special. This morning I tried 30, which felt extreme, but it was super nice!

I learned something new today thanks to your post!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Ah that's so great to hear! It was an epiphany for me when I got a better cup this way, so I'm just so glad I got to share it with at least one person!

Thank you for the update, and happy pouring!