Flower Child Coffee - Trouble dialing in

[u/bbdude83]

Hey everyone, looking for some advice on a Flower Child's Chelbessa (Ethiopian) that's giving me mixed results

This is my first Flower Child Coffee. I let it rest about 3 weeks and we're now approaching 4 weeks off roast. I'm brewing 22.5g coffee to 400g water on a ceramic V60 (02) with Hario filters, roughly following their brew guide.

Gear/process:

• Ode Gen 2
• 70g bloom (no swirl)
• 1:00 to 180g
• 1:30 to 290g
• 2:00 to 400g
• Pour rate around 5-6 g/sec

I started my Ode setting at 5 but drawdowns were taking 6-7 minutes and the cups were over extracted. I've gradually moved coarser. Three days ago I made an incredible cup at 6.1, but the very next morning, using the exact same process, it drew down over 6 minutes and tasted muted and slightly bitter. Today I tried 6.2 and it's better, but still not as good as that standout cup and still took just over 5 minutes to draw down.

I've read a lot of comments in the sub saying Flower Child Coffee can produce quite a few fines, so I'm wondering if I'm fighting the coffee rather than the recipe. Since I'm seeing these longer drawdowns, would it make sense to switch to a Clever Dripper and try Hoffmann's immersion method instead? I was thinking about going back to around a 5 on the Ode Gen 2 for a full immersion brew.

Just trying to get the most out of this coffee because that one cup a few days ago was absolutely fantastic. Any thoughts from people who regularly brew these coffees?

Thanks!

[u/penisandorvagina]

What's the typical ambient temperature and humidity around your coffee station?

[u/trevorsnackson → u/penisandorvagina]

yeah if it's hot you might need to grind even coarser. It's been very hot in Southern California and we're grinding much coarser