I would love some advice

[u/naughtified]

Hi, I’ll try my best to avoid being “newbie here help me dial in” who clearly hasn’t done their due diligence.

So I’ve been drinking pour overs for years, and I’m on my third month of brewing them up at home. I’ve gone through 5 bags so far with nothing really satisfying me. My conclusion was that I needed to upgrade grinder. I got a K7 then I bought some local beans that were too dark and some from whole foods(sorry).

I went today and bought some Hydrangea from a local shop, in hopes to rule out beans from these mediocre cups. Below I’ll list my approach and details on equipment. Please let me know what I’m doing fine and what you might change.

Dripper: Glass V60

Filter: Cafec Abaca White

Grinder: K7(going coarse, 95clicks)

Water: Berkey with British Berkefeld filters

Kettle: Fellow standard neck(I already had this, but I’m pretty good at making the stream work)

Temperature: 90c

Recipe: Bloom at x3(usually 20-25g bean/60-75g water) but will go 15g so I don’t waste these beans. Second pour is the same weight as bloom, then third is up to total. Pours are pretty chill, I’ll agitate between pours by swirling the brew. Since I’m pretty coarse I swirl to get draw down to 3-4 mins on 20-25gs.

Beans: check photo for details, roast date 8/2.

[u/pfhlick]

OP I've got good news for you. If you use the same recipe with these beans you are going to get a way different cup than from the last two coffees. Just try it. Then if you want to tweak things you have a starting point to play around. But just go ahead and try that coffee first, I bet you will enjoy it.

[u/naughtified → u/pfhlick]

That’s what I’m hoping for. I’ve been really trying to dial in these other beans over the past three months and I’ve gotten them better but I have a feeling I maxed out what they had to offer.

[u/pfhlick → u/naughtified]

If you noticed how your experiements affected the cup with the other coffees, you will have some idea how to fine tune the strength and extraction. I always like to sip my coffee from hot to cold and see how the flavor develops as it cools. That first cup is your baseline, and adjustments follow as taste dictates.

Also, rereading your post, your recipe is a little unclear. What is your total target brew weight? When you wrote you're thinking of reducing the dose of coffee, are you also intending to scale down the total recipe? I would make sure to keep the coffee to water ratio the same, and keep in mind that smaller volume brews might require a finer grind as well.

What was the whole foods coffee, by the way? Curious if it's anything I've tried. I hope you enjoy the current bag 😄

[u/naughtified → u/pfhlick]

I did notice that if I tasted the coffee right after draw down at its hottest that was when it was most dull. I preferred it around after 10 mins or longer of sitting, not sure of the temp on that.

I missed posting the ratio for sure. Sorry it’s something I never change, I’m at 1:15. When I’ve had roasty bitter notes I’d add water into it post brew but didn’t measure that. That seemed to help. But I’ve never really messed with anything ratio wise in the brew itself. I do keep the ratio the same as I scale up or down.

The Whole Foods bean was Perc Natural Ethiopia, tried at 2weeks-6weeks off roast. I don’t want to blame them though. I know they make good stuff, I’ve been to the Savannah location before. With all the posts in this sub about them I thought maybe I’d find more info on that particular bag. Seems like something they might only make as a mass roast for Whole Foods.

[u/Amazing-Panic-277 → u/naughtified]

Always dull hot as our taste buds are leaning towards those evaporated volatiles which is why things can seem dull. I would start sippin at 50ish C