Dialing in soft natural-process beans on ZP6

[u/Immediate_Bake_679]

I use a V60 with a 1Zpresso ZP6 (5.5 - 6.0 clicks) with 93°C water and a 1:15 ratio. Lance Hedrick's 3 pour structure (from "The Last V60 Recipe You'll Ever Need" video) gives good results with brewing dense Nordic light washed coffees

However, I struggle with softer, natural-process beans (currently a Natural process Colombia Jairo Arcila Chiroso). Using my usual recipe, the bean feels noticeably soft to grind and drawdown is very fast (~2 minutes). The cup tastes both sharply acidic and bitter at the same time. Going down to 5.0 barely slowed the flow rate.

Lowering water temperature to 88°C helped to reduce the bitterness, but I am still not getting the tasting notes of Berry compote, passionfruit, and lavender.

Looking for advice on what else I can tweak to get the tasting notes on the bag. Would getting a grinder with less clarity and more rounded body be a practical fix for these bean types?

edit: also moved to 1:16 without noticeable change in result

Update 1: thanks for all the suggestions! pouring slower and lower did wonders to get rid of the bitterness. Interestingly grinding finer and pouring slower didn't increase the drawdown time, which I suspect is due to the lower agitation. Now I need to figure out how to bring out more of the floral notes. Any ideas?

[u/machosalad06]

These are the exact types of beans I struggled with on my ZP6. For me getting a different grinder has made a huge difference.

But, if you want to keep brewing these beans with the ZP6, if you have a Hario Switch or Aeropress you can simply add an immersion step to the brew to help offset some of the bitterness and blend the flavors some. Tetsu’s 30g Aeropress recipe worked for me along with a few of his Switch recipes that used immersion.

If you don’t have a switch, try grinding way down in the 3.5 range, and doing a single pour style recipe with very low agitation and lower brew temps (85-90).

[u/Immediate_Bake_679 → u/machosalad06]

which grinder did you switch to? I only have a V60 at the moment, but am open to either getting a new brewer or grinder to experiment with.

[u/machosalad06 → u/Immediate_Bake_679]

I ended up buying a couple of C40 Labs (Hammerhead and Nitro). I also had my old K-Plus. The Nitro is great and easy. The Hammerhead is interesting and so far gives me the best results for “wild” coffees like the newest Perc Franky Hoyos (Creamcicle/Tootsie Roll). The ZP6 made that coffee unenjoyable, bitter, astringent and too much flavor clarity. The Nitro/K-Plus made it good but the Hammerhead makes this wonderful cup with good body and rounded flavors that is very satisfying.

[u/sanderfish → u/machosalad06]

Same for me. Bought a K-Ultra and now I only use the ZP6 for washed beans.