AbleBrewingEquipment wrote:The holes are different on each side. Specified hole size on text side. Larger holes on non text side. So it should be easier to clean with less clogging when used with the text side as the brew side and non as the exit.

@AbleBrewingEquipment

is this true? I thought first as well to use it in the same direction as the standard disk, text side as brew side (version 2). But when I look carefully through the holes with daylight then I think the holes have slightly a larger diameter on the text side (holes slightly chamfered). That would mean to use the non-text-side as the brew side for the diskfine? Am I wrong?

Best regards from Switzerland.
Pat

All coffee ground with an Orphan Espresso Lido Grinder
Recipe: Inverted Aeropress, 15g coffee, 204F water, Stir to deflate bloom, Steep for 1min, press 15-20sec
After working with the Disk Fine for several days now I can say that I really like it and think that it should be in the arsenal of every coffee aficionado who uses an Aeropress. The Disk Fine came to me and was one of options that I did not even know I needed. A stack of paper filters was less than $10 for a year's supply and after two years of regular use I had developed a routine that I could accomplish while asleep. When the first Disk came out I read reviews about it online and just decided that it wasn't for me because the holes were just too large and there was too much resulting sediment at the bottom of the cups. The Disk Fine though with a better hole design coupled with my recent appreciation of good French Press coffee made opened my opinion.
When I first received the disk I had a few trepidations. First was how much trouble cleaning the disk might be? Second will the disk just fall out when I go to put the filter on since I use the inverted method? Third, when pressing with I get leakage out of the side of the filter and down the outside of my cups, making a mess all around me? Fourth, how much sediment will be at the bottom of my cup? Essentially the Aeropress had been in my coffee arsenal as my go to method for a clean, mess free, trouble free cup of coffee. Anything imposing on that philosophy would be nixed from my arsenal.
The Regular Aeropress and the Disk Fine Aeropress give two similar but very distinct cups of coffee. Anyone who has had both French Press and Vac Pot or even regular drip coffee can appreciate the difference in the body of the coffee. This difference can be felt as a heavier thicker and at times almost silt like feeling. While not as drastic of a difference one of the first characteristics that jumps out at you is that the Disk Fine cup has more body to the coffee. Whether it has more solids, more oils, or what have you there is a difference, but not a plus or minus just a difference in the cup. The regular Aeropress is known for its juiciness in character and good flavor profile. This juiciness was still present in the Disk Fine cup but was hidden some by the extra body of the coffee. The flavor profile in the cup while similar had some very distinct differences. In my normal Aeropress all the flavors are there and while some are more forward than others, they are all nicely built on top of each other. With the Disk Fine all the flavors are there but they are more distinct and independent of one another. I also noticed I had brighter flavors come forward more with the Disk Fine. However I also noticed that since all the flavors were highlighted that if there were off flavors in the coffee those were also more prominent. As the cup cooled the cups behaved the same with some new flavors opening up as the temp dropped. At the end of the cup there was another great difference between the two filters. The disk fine had a noticeable amount of sediment in the last sip while the regular paper filter was mostly clean on the bottom. Unlike some other reviewers I found the last sip to be off putting and just had too much sediment for my taste. I must note that it was only on the last sip or two that the sediment was noticed.
The disk was really easy to work with. I used the Inverted method for all my Aeropress cups and found that a rinse of the filter while in the filtercap before I used it caused the filter to stick and not fall out even when held upside down. With the grinds the same, I found the Disk Fine to offer a little more resistance on the press than the regular filter, but the difference was marginal and did not detract from the experience. I noticed no side leakage and no warping of the disk when pressing. At this point in time I see the Disk Fine as a regular in my coffee rotation.
Disk Fine
Pros:
More Body to Cup
Less Waste
Brighter High Notes
Reusable
Easy and less bulk to Travel with
Durable
Easy to work with

Cons:
More Sediment in Cup
Off flavors more prominent

I've actually started using my AP again as my primary brew method at work, I like it so much.

It seems to make a big difference in keeping the excess fines out of the cup, yet still gives a great cup full of body and oils.

Since I typically use the Aeropress as my travel brewer, I was excited to receive the DISK Fine in the mail just before leaving town on back-to-back trips. Perfect test conditions.

My first trip was out to Southern Oregon on business. I brought along 12 oz. of Ecuadorean coffee that I had just received from TONX. While at the office I was using the DISK fine/AeroPress combo with a 1930s Dienes coffee mill that I cleaned up for a co-worker. This particular mill grinds suitably for drip and aeropress, but does produce more fines than most of the hand mills I've used. (I believe this is a function of the fact that it is a side- rather than top-cranking coffee mill.) My second trip was a week-long loop around Guatemala, an actual vacation. I ordered a Guatemalan coffee from Klatch to take along for that trip. I used my standard travel mill, which is a Hario Mini Slim. I'm not crazy about that grinder, but that's part of the reason it's perfect for travel purposes. Simple, compact and unbreakable is my preference for travel. Since the DISK Fine can be stored in the Aeropress, it fits that bill.

Here a some observations from those trips:

OBSERVATION 1: In spite of the fact that the Dienes grinder I used in Oregon produced more fines than I am used to, the resulting cup was cleaner than expected. The first couple times I used the DISK Fine, I studied the bottom of the cup carefully. While some sediment does pass through the metal filter, the quantity is pretty insignificant. For example, the resulting sediment is much less than what one gets using the classic Chambord French Press, even with a good coarse grind. Personally, I like to grind for Aeropress slightly finer than I do for drip and quite a bit finer than I do for French Press. Nevertheless, I found that the cup brewed with the DISK Fine was good to the last drop. No need to toss out the last sip. Truly impressive performance in this regard.

OBSERVATION 2: My general impression is that the DISK Fine is a pretty seamless substitute for the paper filters. While I didn't taste cups made with the DISK Fine side by side with ones made using the standard paper filters, I did have these back to back. They were equivalent to my tastebuds. I didn't really prefer on over the other, even though I prefer pourover brewing with a paper filter at home over French Press. If you prefer French Press to drip brewing, you'll probably prefer the DISK Fine filter over the standard Aeropress filters.

OBSERVATION 3: While the DISK Fine filter is a great addition to my travel brewing kit in general, I'm not sure that I'd take it camping. In situations where there was running water handy, I felt that the DISK Fine brewing experience was comparable with the standard process. However, when we were camping on the beach in Guatemala (at a surf camp), it was awkward to remove and rinse the DISK Fine filter between back-to-back cups. In this case, the whole brewing process was a lot easier if I just used the paper filters, popped the puck into the trash, and started a new cup with a new filter.

FWIW, here's my take on the typical non-inverted Aeropress brewing recipe:

1. Grind ± 24 grams of coffee roughly at a drip grind, maybe a little finer
2. Heat brew water to ± 200 degrees
3. Bring the press and the coffee cup to temperature with hot rinse water
4. Load the coffee grinds and pour off the rinse water
5. Wet the grinds and let them bloom for 15 - 20 seconds
6. Add water slowly until it reaches the top of the Aeropress, agitating the grinds as you pour
7. Stir the grinds for 10 - 15 seconds
8. Wait 15 - 20 seconds, then plunge slowly

The total time from bloom to press is typically in the 1:30 - 2:00 range, a bit longer than what the standard recipe calls for. I never use the plunger to create a vacuum in the tube. After the ground are bloomed in Step 5, there is very little drip through during steps 6 - 8.

This produces a tasty cup that is an excellent substitute on the road for a homemade pourover. I've also used the Aeropress for weeks at a time in the office. It brews a great cup. I'd probably use it more at home if it weren't plastic. (Sorry, I'm a bit of a plastic-phobe, and my wife is even more so.)

Overall, I'm impressed with the DISK Fine product and will keep it with my roadie brewing kit.

jbviau wrote:On the review/recipe page, Prima indicates there will be some sort of voting system to decide the winner. Not sure how that will work since I imagine it would be impossible to actually try out all of the different recipes.

Hey Josh, thanks so much for all your support through this! We appreciate so much the energy that the coffee community has put into this. I know Able has been greatly encouraged by the positive response for both Disks. I did want to mention something regarding our blog-post you quoted. When we first began this, we thought that a voting system would work well. The more we have thought through the logistics, the more this seems unrealistic. For one thing, it could turn into a popularity contest that revolves around the person brewing, as opposed to the DISK Fine method itself. Also, since there are only a select few who actually have a DISK Fine (just over 100 with the DISK Fines we gave away in the contest and Able gave away separately), it brings the amount of people who can "legitimately" experiment and vote down to a very small amount (especially since experience proves not all 100+ would vote)... and this is added to the fact that it is tempting not to vote for anyone's recipe but your own .

Because of these difficulties, we felt that the better option would be for us to choose the winner by doing testing in-house. Details about the method and criteria will come in our blogpost announcing the winner. Hope that clarifies a bit. We have officially edited the blogpost to reflect this as well.