jaychocolate Senior Member Joined: 16 Jul 2012 Posts: 3 Location: CA Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Mon Jul 16, 2012, 4:40pm Subject: [Q] French Press and Coarse Grind
I bought Bodum Chambord french press (12-cup) and Hario Mill Canister C manual hand grinder and moved on from Keurig.
I'm bit confused though as a newbie..
How many rounds of grinding is considered a coarse grind..? I can't seem to gauge. It seems like for one Bodum scoop of whole bean to go all down the grinder and to be grinded, it takes about 30 rounds of grinding.. unless I'm missing something, there is noway to control the fineness or coarseness.
Is there an option to control to make this a coarse grind or say fine grinding.. since not all beans seem to go down in any thing less than 30 rounds of click.
And when you say not boiling (but hot - according to the manual), is there any chance of French press cracking if I pour boiling water? I'm not too sure how hot is supposed to be hot. The coffee isn't too hot on my first try. It is rather lukewarm.
Also is it not possible to brew only one cup? I tried one cup and the plunger can't even reach the water with coffee in it. So I had some extras left over when I did a second try (picture 4).
And I'm assuming it wasn't plunged down correctly if I see some black stuff on bottom of my coffee cup..? I pressed it down till as much as I can go down though.
This is the result of my second try. I attached the pictures.
But is this good for coarse or too much/too little? The manual is in Japanese so I tried my best to figure out, but it seems like turning right (which is what I did at first) makes the bean finer and turning left makes it coarse, but I'm not sure if turning a little bit makes it less coarse..
Posted Mon Jul 16, 2012, 6:48pm Subject: Re: [Q] French Press and Coarse Grind
Your 1st picture looks like a good grind. Not coarse (which I do not recommend for press); yours appears to be a fine grind.
I have a breville smartgrinder and set it for "4" cups, and use 10 oz of water with that to make a mug of coffee. Always comes out full bodied & rich which is what you want a french press to be.
Len
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
jaychocolate Senior Member Joined: 16 Jul 2012 Posts: 3 Location: CA Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Mon Jul 16, 2012, 7:11pm Subject: Re: [Q] French Press and Coarse Grind
CoffeeRoastersClub Said:
Your 1st picture looks like a good grind. Not coarse (which I do not recommend for press); yours appears to be a fine grind.
I have a breville smartgrinder and set it for "4" cups, and use 10 oz of water with that to make a mug of coffee. Always comes out full bodied & rich which is what you want a french press to be.
Thank you for the reply. I tried again and the picture below seems like it's a coarse grind, but does it look okay, or it's little too much or too little coarsed?
Posted Tue Jul 17, 2012, 7:56am Subject: Re: [Q] French Press and Coarse Grind
jaychocolate Said:
Thank you for the reply. I tried again and the picture below seems like it's a coarse grind, but does it look okay, or it's little too much or too little coarsed?
It's always tough to give a definite answer on an image. My best advice is to try it in the press... if it tastes weak and watery, go finer, but if it tastes strong and very bitter go coarser.
Posted Tue Jul 17, 2012, 4:31pm Subject: Re: [Q] French Press and Coarse Grind
As to the grinder, it appears to be adjustable in the same way the Hario Skerton is. You'll need to remove the top nut, pull off the handle, and pull of the washer with arms, then you can adjust grind size by turning the cog left or right. Essentially, this pulls the center (or bottom) burr up of down, thus adjusting the grind size fine or coarse respectively. Standard screw thread rules apply: right = tight = fine, left = loose = coarse. Lock in your setting by replacing the nut with arms, handle, and top nut - in that order.
Do not grind by turning the handle counter clockwise. This may not hurt the grinder, but it will do nothing good for your coffee. Also, please note that hand mills are not especially well-suited to coarse grinds, so you may want more of a medium (kosher salt) grind, depending on your tastes. The issue is that the lower burr is typically free to wobble slightly as it turns, and at coarser settings, this creates what we call boulders and fines: a mix of very coarse and very fine particles, which will not extract evenly. I wouldn't worry about that too much if you are happy with how your coffee tastes though, it's just a consideration if you're seeking improvement in the cup.
As to brewing with a french press, it is absolutely possible to make one cup, in any sized press. Simply add as much water and coffee as needed for that one cup (I like about 20 grams of coffee, and 300 grams of water, which is a slightly high brew ratio). Sludge in the bottom of a cup is, unfortunately, normal for french press. There are numerous methods for removing that, such as pouring through a paper filter after pressing, not pressing at all - but pouring the coffee out with the filter set high in the carafe (my preferred method), or installing an alternative or secondary filter in the press. Other than that, there are some presses, like the Espro press, that are engineered to reduce sludge, at a higher cost.
jaychocolate Senior Member Joined: 16 Jul 2012 Posts: 3 Location: CA Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Tue Jul 17, 2012, 9:19pm Subject: Re: [Q] French Press and Coarse Grind
Thank you for the very detailed reply.
I found the English manual and figured this out. I've been trying out various coarse and I finally seem to have found the one that looks very similar to images floating around on Google.
However, I have yet to see any of my brewed coffee come out to this light color.. I think I could fool someone and say this is a red tea or black tea.
Is it because the coffee is light flavor? According to the coffee bean manufacturer, it is light nutty, easy to drink flavor.
I love the taste. I think it's one of the best I've had, but just wondering because of the color.
As to the grinder, it appears to be adjustable in the same way the Hario Skerton is. You'll need to remove the top nut, pull off the handle, and pull of the washer with arms, then you can adjust grind size by turning the cog left or right. Essentially, this pulls the center (or bottom) burr up of down, thus adjusting the grind size fine or coarse respectively. Standard screw thread rules apply: right = tight = fine, left = loose = coarse. Lock in your setting by replacing the nut with arms, handle, and top nut - in that order.
Do not grind by turning the handle counter clockwise. This may not hurt the grinder, but it will do nothing good for your coffee. Also, please note that hand mills are not especially well-suited to coarse grinds, so you may want more of a medium (kosher salt) grind, depending on your tastes. The issue is that the lower burr is typically free to wobble slightly as it turns, and at coarser settings, this creates what we call boulders and fines: a mix of very coarse and very fine particles, which will not extract evenly. I wouldn't worry about that too much if you are happy with how your coffee tastes though, it's just a consideration if you're seeking improvement in the cup.
As to brewing with a french press, it is absolutely possible to make one cup, in any sized press. Simply add as much water and coffee as needed for that one cup (I like about 20 grams of coffee, and 300 grams of water, which is a slightly high brew ratio). Sludge in the bottom of a cup is, unfortunately, normal for french press. There are numerous methods for removing that, such as pouring through a paper filter after pressing, not pressing at all - but pouring the coffee out with the filter set high in the carafe (my preferred method), or installing an alternative or secondary filter in the press. Other than that, there are some presses, like the Espro press, that are engineered to reduce sludge, at a higher cost.
Here as usual, you can use 9-10 grams of coffee ground and 150-200 ml water, as SCAA suggested. The point is to disturb the coffee ground in the water to make it well mixed with water, until almost all of the ground down to the bottom of the cup, except few of the very big size of ground.
If you want to make it faster, grind the beans to smaller ground, almost near espresso. Then you need only about 1-2 minutes and the coffee will taste as good as it should be.
It is important to know that it does not care about the grinding size, coarser or finer are ok.
For the different beans, you can try hot water at different temperature. You may get surprised.
Peter in Beijing ------------------- http://www.kaffa.cn/ ------------------- I am looking for the way and the place to extend our trainning courses.
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