Initially I've heard a few folks recommend running a french press through a filter but that kind of defeats the purpose as it is an entirely different drink.

While there's no way to truly eliminate all fines from a cup without the use of fine filtration, in doing so the filter material inadvertently captures the oils released in the process--a crucial signature to FP brewing.

I wonder if anyone has tried pre-rinsing the grounds of fines... So I tried it. Criticisms, good or bad always welcome Using the exact same dose, it came out very watery.

So I'm going to try dosing twice as much and stir. Also I think using water that is boiling will compensate for the loss of heat with the wet cold grounds--hopefully to an appropriate brewing temp.

So the idea is to double dose, pour in some water and stir vigorously, then install filter and pour out the "wash water". Then remove the lid, pour in a normal quantity of water, but rolling, boiling water. Then stir gently for 30 seconds, and let steep for another 4 minutes before serving.

Using a sieve will get rid of the fines with far less effort, I would think.

How do you know that cold water doesn't quickly dissolve a significant fraction of the solubles?
I'll bet it does.

I also wonder about the oil idea. Are you sure that what you perceive as oils isn't really suspended fines?

I've been paper filtering my press coffee lately.

Brew as per cupping. Dose, pour, wait 4min, dunk.... then add 2min to settle, plunge, pour. Fines free.

[creative nickname] wrote:Using a sieve will get rid of the fines with far less effort, I would think.

Shaking with a sieve is takes about 10 times as much effort as rinsing... but unfortunately rinsing method significantly reduces the available solids for extraction thus it required more coffee.

endlesscycles wrote:Brew as per cupping. Dose, pour, wait 4min, dunk.... then add 2min to settle, plunge, pour. Fines free.

In that case your idea of "fines free" is highly subjective. I wouldn't have tried to taken tackle this problem if it had not existed. I've never preferred FP over PO because of it but I make it because SO like it

endlesscycles wrote:Brew as per cupping. Dose, pour, wait 4min, dunk.... then add 2min to settle, plunge, pour. Fines free.

I was just about to make a second cup when I read your suggestion. I thought I'd give it a try. Four minutes of brewing, then I gave the grounds a good 3 minutes to sink after pushing them under. Plunged and poured. It looked good.

And here's what I filtered out of that coffee with an Aeropress:

Let me say it is possible to get a relatively clean cup out of the standard method.. it comes from the initial pour from a very large batch made in an extra large FP that we have. After that, the agitation from the pour has significantly disturbed and stirred up the "silt" at the bottom into the rest of the batch.

This of course is not economical to make one cup of coffee.

jpender wrote:I was just about to make a second cup when I read your suggestion. I thought I'd give it a try. Four minutes of brewing, then I gave the grounds a good 3 minutes to sink after pushing them under. Plunged and poured. It looked good.

How did it taste?

Unfortunately I didn't taste it before filtering. But I'm pretty sure I would have liked it.

Compared to not letting the grounds sink it appeared a lot cleaner. Usually there's a thin stream of larger sized sediment at the end of the pour and that ends up at the bottom of the cup. But the paper filter just had a very fine clay like silt on it. That stuff probably would have mostly stayed suspended.

I don't usually go for a third cup. I'll try it your way tomorrow, without filtering it through paper afterwards.

Another worthwhile trick is to moderately heat the beans before grinding (30 seconds in a microwave typically works well for a medium sized dose). This seems to reduce the production of fines in most grinders, leading to a cleaner cup.

Personally, I don't both with sifting or heating for most of my FP brews, as I find I get great results using an Espro press and the Bunnzilla. But if I had to make do with lower quality presses or grinders, I'd probably end up using the microwave trick more often.