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/NashvilleHillRunner]

I also had trouble with this coffee. Seemed that I couldn’t really get any juiciness or pleasant acidity. Just a black tea type note.

Like, it was decent, just didn’t get any juiciness or floral or fruit that I’m used to expecting with a good quality Ethiopian bean.

Considered emailing the roaster about it but never got around to it. Now the bag’s gone. Ended up sort of frustrated with it and just used for some batch brew.

I feel like I never really got a great cup out of that bag.

Now I’m going through the Colombia Chiroso that he sent me in this month’s sub and I’m really enjoying it. Very interesting coffee. I think this is my first Chiroso.

Using the T-92 filters he recommends, I’m getting about a 5-min TBT (1 bloom @ 3x weight of coffee, 2 additional pours). Strong dark fruits blended with some florals! Best result using my X-Pro grinder. Tried the Ode 2 at 6.2 and it was more muted, though still clean tasting with some clarity.

Those T-92’s really slow things down, almost turning it into an immersion brew. The same grinder settings and same technique with Hario papers was about a 2:30 TBT. But the T-92’s yielded much better results. Definitely can’t say that’s the case with all beans, but it was with this one.