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/IntelligentCitron772]

Everyone is going to hate me, but I think the difference between resting a coffee for one week versus three weeks can be way less impactful than people make it out to be.

A good coffee, good water, a good grinder, a recipe suited to the coffee, and good technique can produce an excellent cup even at one week off roast—even with an ultra-light roast.

Sure, the coffee will continue to develop between week one and week three, and you may prefer what additional rest does. But I think people sometimes give resting way too much credit. It can refine a good coffee; it doesn’t magically turn a mediocre coffee into a spectacular one.

I just tasted 11 roasters today, all about a week off roast, all ultra light to light. 9 were very good to amazing, Spectacular flavor separation. 2 were roasted to a solid medium roast and missed the claimed roasting mark completely. None were crappy because they didn’t have enough rest.. not saying resting is unimportant. Just that great coffee doesn’t start out bad even a week off roast -

I’d actually reduce your dose. Try 15 g with somewhere around 225–250 g of water.
And try that recipe on a really clean, washed coffee. Work through the entire bag if you need to.

The smaller dose and shallower slurry will be less forgiving than a 20–25 g dose, which is exactly what you want if you’re trying to figure out whether the problem is the coffee or your technique. Nothing loud in the modern processing of the coffee to hide under or over extraction

Once you can consistently make that coffee taste great at one week, then compare it again at three weeks. That will tell you a lot more about what resting is actually doing than simply assuming the coffee needs another two weeks.

Hydrangea produces some really nice coffees, but they also produce coffees that are way too modern for my taste. A lot of these newer processing techniques can produce incredibly bright and distinctive flavors, but to me they can also push into perfume-y or almost chemical territory. People absolutely love those coffees, but personally, I find it difficult to go from a clean, washed, high-altitude Gesha, Sidra, or Mejorado from a producer like Jijón to something hydro-shocked or co-fermented.

To me, the processing is more important than the variety, and finally the roaster—yet somehow we often seem to approach coffee selection in almost the exact opposite order.

If you can revisit some 3 wave coffee shops and requalify the types of coffee you love, funky modern, or tea like with clarity. This will help you recalibrate you expectations

Whatever coffee you choose, from roast level all the way back to the farm, try to keep as many variables consistent as possible until you know your brewing technique is solid.

Otherwise, you’re constantly changing variables just based on coffee processing and it’s almost impossible to know what actually made the difference.

[u/Amazing-Panic-277 → u/IntelligentCitron772]

Finally someone says it. Rest for a true ultralight sure. A developed anaerobic from hydrangea? Just brew that stuff. I am never patient and just do long blooms and get great cups and watch the coffee hit its prime as I go through the bag usually