Coffee @lemmy.world shininghero @kbin.social 3 mo. ago

How do you guys grind your coffee?

I just retrofitted my basic hand crank mill with a 10mm nut, and drove it with a drill. It's so much faster now, but I do wonder if there's actual properly motorized versions of what I just did.

56 comments

Dave smash coffee big rock
Like this. I'm running it through a variable frequency drive to limit the revs
I could not tell the difference between pre-ground and home ground coffee. I am happy with not having a discriminating palate, since pre-ground is easier.
- With dark roast I haven't found much difference either.
  
  With a local medium roast, I don't know if it was the beans, but I was able to get a pleasant fruity acidity out of my brew that I haven't been able to find with supermarket medium roast grounds.
I do this with my 1zpresso Q2 except I just chuck it directly into the grinder which I find helps keep the beans from jumping out of the grinder.

I do the same thing (with a different grinder) when I need a large quantity of ground pepper.
I'm not sure I prefer the "actual properly motorized versions" over yours - this is absolutely awesome!
Shit i gotta try this with weed
So you motorized a burr grinder?
I’m using a Breville Smart Grinder Pro that I modified to be single dose. I just ordered a DF64 Gen 2, but it hasn’t arrived yet.
- Enjoy the DF64 😃
  
  Thanks, I’m looking forward to it! But also a little nervous that I won’t be able to tell the difference. 😅
This exactly, except Ibuse a DeWalt. I have found that the brand power tool used has little effect on the taste and extraction, however.
I did that with mine. But I found that I had to feather the drill a lot to keep the grind consistent.

Eventually I just went back to buying pre ground.

Edit: actually I think I have the pro version of yours. Ended up buying a steel ring to go between the mill to stabilize the central steel pin. Got a more consistent grind after it. But felt I needed to keep the drill at a lower speed.
- Eventually I just went back to buying pre ground.
  
  This sound!! I recognise this sound! Do you hear it? It‘s the doppler effect of pitchforks being dragged over the pavement.
Obligatory James Hoffman clip.
At the as you exit filthy public grinder at Costco
- To be fair those are nice freaking grinders. They look like niche zeros on fucking roids
  
  you don't know what's in there. could be pumpkin spice.
Wnh not just buy an electric grinder at this point? People use hand grinders because they enjoy the process.
- Good electric burr grinders are very expensive.
  
  Not really. A Baratza Encore can be had for just over $100 and is perfectly fine for 99% of the coffee population that isn't doing espresso.
  
  So are good burr hand grinders. My friend paid as much for his hand grinder as I did for my Breville electric burr grinder.
- Because i wanted an all metal burr grinder with no plastic in it at all
Larger amounts of coffee go in a Baratza Virtuoso, single cups go in my 1zpresso hand mill.

I can't recommend a nice hand mill enough - a hario is fine as a starter grinder but a better mill will be immensely more consistent and much quicker.

I like Baratza for electric grinders, they're a wonderful company. If anything breaks or you need support or parts they're there for you.
- I'll add the obligatory note for anybody new to hand grinders — skip Hario and anything with ceramic burrs and go directly to steel burrs. Yes you're jumping from $40 to $80 but they'll last for many years instead of 6 months and you get consistent grind size. 1Zpresso and Timemore are the most recommended brands.
  
  +1, my hario grinders were terrible for pour over, it was impossible to get a consistent grind out of either a skerton or a skerton pro. I wish I'd stepped up to a 1zpresso sooner. I tried aligning the burrs but never managed to eliminate fines and boulders in either of them, Hario seemed to have issues with the burr shaft being slightly out of true in both.
Timemore C3 Pro. Fits perfectly with a 2 cup Bialetti for a ~250 mL americano.
The 10-15 dollar grinder at Walmart or Target, I forgot which. Can't tell any real difference between that and my wife's burr grinder that is much larger.
The Skerton is a terrible grinder regardless of how you power it.

You might be able to modify a good hand grinder in a like manner but good hand grinders take far less time to grind than a Skerton does. What takes 2 or 3 minutes in a Skerton takes less than a minute in a good 1Zpresso, Kinu, Timemore, Kingrinder or similar.
- The skerton was (is?) A good entry level grinder that will give you very decent results especially for immersion-type brews. It's what I started on and what I still use for on the go use cases. I haven't looked at entry level hand grinders in a while so I guess some developments have happened since I got mine. (Based on a comparison video from james hoffman at the time)
  
  God yes, I tried a friend's 1zpresso and the difference in both grind speed and effort is noticable.
  
  Not sure it was ever a good entry level grinder. 20 years ago it was pretty much the only entry level burr hand grinder that wasn't an old school box style. That was before the Pro version which is sold now that uses many of the modifications that users created to try to make the Skerton perform better. I had one for years and it almost drove me out of home grinding. Luckily better hand grinders came along which while more expensive were substantially better. Now we are in a golden era for good hand grinders at very accessible prices.
I have a pair of Breville/Sage SmartGrinders (which I didn't pay anywhere near list price for).

One for caff, one for decaff.

I love them, as once I've dialed in the grind size for a bean, and set the timer per shot to hit the correct weigh, I can just bonk the button with a portafilter, and get a correctly sized dose.

While I love experimenting with coffee, once the conclusion is reached, I like to nail down the process so I don't need to think about it until the next bean change.
I've been using a LIDO 2 for a few years, but am considering the move to 1zpresso...
- Other than possibly being easier to hold due to the smaller size of the 1zpresso, I wouldn't expect much difference in grind quality between the Lido 2 and even the best 1zpresso
  
  I can sift out about 10% fines with a typical Lido grind. Not inherently a bad thing, but I'm intrigued by the almost-zero-fines of the 1zpresso ZP6. A friend of mine has one, and said he did the same thing -- was sifting daily with his other grinder, but decided to stop throwing away 10% of his coffee. :) Don't get me wrong, the Lido is great and has served me well, and I wouldn't even get rid of it. It's just a different thing, going more unimodal.
At home for espresso I use a Varia vs3 gen2 with the second best burrs (bestness being ranked by price) it's a single dose grinder with good reviews

At work for a plunger (French press) I use a hario skerton, without a drill
Did the same thing for a while lol, just had to keep the drill going as slow as possible.
- What if you go full speed? Will it break something?
  
  Potentially, you could also melt the grinder and mess up the grind of the coffee.
I've got a cheap blender. It does the job pretty well, surprisingly. Though I never make a lot of coffee at once

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