The EK is in fact more home friendly than pretty much 99% of the commercial espresso grinders, that enthusiast tend to buy.

Yes if one only look at size and price it isn't exactly home frindly, but it can be used for SD service without the need for a faff like workarround that people have incorporated in their routines with other grinders. So in a pure usage perspective it is more home friendly

Hopper use is really not a very good solution for +90% of users, as the output is simply to small in most peoples home, this will result in a massive amount of wasted coffee and/or below par shots/coffee, because it is partly brewed on stale coffee.

That is why the ek will be a cheaper solution than a hopper fed one, in the long run.

The Forte shouldn't really be mentioned, as it does not deliver a result in the cup that is anywhere near the quality that can be gained on an EK or any other bulk for that matter.

There is only one grinder out there outside the bulk world and that is the EG-1, as you need bulk burrs for brewed, espresso burrs isn't fit for purpose! And all those bulk brew I have tastes, none is better than the EK, some are similar, other is a sideways step with a slightly different balance.

But there isn't really much of a gain, you'll get a bigger gain aligning the ek's burrs by all accounts. If one wants something new the Eg-1 would be the one to look at

RockyIII wrote:An EK43 seems like overkill for light home use. If I was going to buy a brew only grinder for home use, my first thought is a Baratza Forte BG. It is small, doses by weight, has a grounds bin, and is not the least bit messy.

Rocky

Wouldn't 99+% of people in the world say HBers are overkill when it comes to coffee in general!? I mean why would an EK be overkill but not a super jolly and mini..

RockyIII wrote:An EK43 seems like overkill for light home use. If I was going to buy a brew only grinder for home use, my first thought is a Baratza Forte BG. It is small, doses by weight, has a grounds bin, and is not the least bit messy.

Rocky

plenty of people have EK's at home, agree it's overkill if using only for brewed though

Marcelnl wrote:Links please!!

this is a bit of a diversion from the original question as I think it's more applicable for espresso given it's a bit more sensitive to particle size distribution.

the general ethos here is that it's critical for the pharmaceutical industry to have precise control of particle distribution because there's a direct linkage between particle size and drug absorption rate.

there are lab based mills which do this which are used more in the R&D side of the world, I've not quite yet found anything which quite fits the bill, need to do more research but here's some examples to demonstrate the idea. You'll have to google a bit more about it to read about the tech as there are a lot of different types of solutions out there with pros/cons when applied to coffee.

http://www.retsch.com/products/milling/
http://www.sturtevantinc.com/products/p ... icronizer/
https://www.hosokawa-alpine.com/powder- ... -jet-mill/

malling wrote:There is only one grinder out there outside the bulk world and that is the EG-1, as you need bulk burrs for brewed, espresso burrs isn't fit for purpose! And all those bulk brew I have tastes, none is better than the EK, some are similar, other is a sideways step with a slightly different balance.

But there isn't really much of a gain, you'll get a bigger gain aligning the ek's burrs by all accounts. If one wants something new the Eg-1 would be the one to look at

thanks this is the spirit of how I meant to ask the question, I'm looking at trying to improve on the EK for filter - may be more about replacing the EK with a better filter grinder if the gains are big enough (and then having a dedicated espresso grinder to go with it).

I've already used a Titus alignment tool to realign the burrs to within ~5 microns, would highly recommend using this if you haven't already, the improvement for me was very impressive over using the dry marker method.

if you're after one drop Frank an email info@titus-grinding.de.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkqBkAJAH8A

I own an EG-1 and wouldn't recommend it for just brew. It can certainly make excellent brew, and I'd have no qualms having it as my only brew grinder while using it for espresso too. It's just that the adjustment system is very much espresso oriented. You'll be doing a lot of spinning to change grind size. The EK style dial is much nicer for brewed adjustments IMO.

So I stick to my Bunnzilla and sometimes my Jericho J-500 (Which I think is a rebadged Fuji Royal R-440) for brew. I don't do brew often enough to justify an EK.

Agreed. I wouldn't use an espresso grinder (with micro adjustments) as a dedicated brew grinder.

And I'd put my R120 up against an EK43 any day.

(How's that for starting a s-storm?)

Agreed. I wouldn't use an espresso grinder (with micro adjustments) as a dedicated brew grinder.

I've been grappling with this recently as well. For me, the adjustments aren't the issue since once dialed in, it is a trivial adjustment as the coffee ages.

What I've found is that the fines production from an espresso grinder has a propensity to get over extracted and give me an astringency in my brew (aeropress), effectively shrinking the extraction sweet spot. I need to nail the agitation and timing so that the sweetness is extracted from the grinds without over extracting the fines.

I suppose an experiment with a sieve can quantify the problem rather easily.

My local roaster / cafe uses an EK for their brewed coffee and it tastes delicious

Now I personally think it is streching the definition a bit to far, if we start defining a grinder with bulk burrs, that is capable of doing both brews, as an espressogrinder.

An espresso grinder is a grinder that is designed for espresso service only and that can neither be adjusted (PEAK) to grind to other brews, or uses burrs that is finetuned for espresso. (Yes that includes the Monolith flat)

So even though the Eg-1 has a fine adjustment, and even though the fine adjustment is annoying for drip brew, it is still an all purpose coffee grinder. Remember that the EK is just the other way round.

If you want an all purpose grinder you gonna have to live with some compromises.

Untill now I haven't tasted a truely great drip/imersion coffee from a grinder using espressoburrs, the particle distribution might be one explanation but I would not be surprised if particle shape plays an equal part as well. One thing is for sure the coffee doesn't have the same sweetness nor the same clarity and it's almost impossible to get a great tasting high extraction with it.

I'm not going into a debate wheter one bulk grinder is better than the other, As it is redicules to even surgest so!

malling wrote:If you want an all purpose grinder you gonna have to live with some compromises.

Untill now I haven't tasted a truely great drip/imersion coffee from a grinder using espressoburrs

agree on the compromises part, I'm not looking to make compromises I want to make the best tasting drip/imersion I can via a dedicated grinder, even if that's a dedicated EK set up in the right way just for filter...

I see you have an EK and felgrind, which do you use at home for brewed and why?

the EK has a number of burr options, which would be best for filter if you accept a loss of performance for espresso?