Just when you think you're making progress...

Made an afternoon cup. Kept everything the same except went to 0+8 for the grind. The last cup what I thought was a dry finish, which I thought meant slightly over extracted. This afternoon cup was really bad. Tasted watery but also really bitter at the same time. Maybe I went the wrong direction with the grind.

Anaasebo, where does your Lido actually bottom out. Mine is at -1 clicks from the blue lines. Just trying to compare your setting to mine. I think the blue line is not very accurate, I've read that some people have their bottom out on the blue lines matching up but others can be as much as -2 clicks back from that.

What kind of scale are you using?

https://www.amazon.com/Ozeri-Digital-Mu ... zeri+scale

Nothing too fancy but I think it should be accurate enough

I live in SLC as well. I would look into your water. If it's tap, it won't make a very good cup at all. Fridge filter water was ok for me.

I was actually just reading up on water. I know we have pretty hard water. The water filter that we use (https://www.amazon.com/ZeroWater-ZD-013 ... B001CUMLOK) came with a thing to measure the TDS. I don't expect it to be super accurate but it reads our tap water as having a TDS of 187. With a fresh filter in our water filter that same thing reads 0 TDS. I'm not sure which is worse and it sounds like both high and really low TDS can cause problems.

I'd like to rule my water out but I'm not sure I'm at the point where I want to get all Walter White yet. If I was to buy some bottled spring water, what's a good one to get? I actually brewed a few cups with some bottled spring water earlier this week but I think my grind settings were so far off at that point that it wasn't going to make a difference.

MikeFlores300, what do you do for your water?

FWIW: I use Gerber Pure (mineralized) or distilled water remineralized with a Third Wave Water capsule

Happen to know anyone that has it in stock? For $10 I'm willing to give it a try. I'd really like to not have to go down that road though because I don't like the thought of wasting that much plastic buying a jug of water once a week.

One advantage of the TWW option is that you can take a refillable container to most supermarkets and buy distilled/RO water by the gallon. (My buddy in the barista guild has done the math and reckons you want about 1.5 gallons per 12oz bag for brewing purposes.) at this point, it's probably only available by mail order, though; since Shopp is $5 per order, it's best to order 2 or 3 pouches at a time. (You can get better deals via their Kickstarter, but those won't ship right away.)

The Gerber Pure option is handy because you can find that at most pharmacies and many groceries and big box stores. But then you're recycling gallon jugs a couple times per week. (I might feel bad about that if we didn't have a soda stream; that thing keeps truckloads of Topo Chico bottles out of the waste stream in our house.)

dfinn wrote:Much better! It's actually enjoyable to drink this morning.

I went with:

320:16 as Eastsideloco suggested
water right off boil so probably 203'ish
30s bloom with 50g water
pulse pours to 320
finished brewing at 3:17

It's pretty good although I'm not quite getting any of the flavors Bird Rock suggests for this particular bean (raspberry, citrus, hibiscus). I think I'll experiment going slightly finer until I get some negative tastes and then back off.

I really appreciate everyones help for getting me on the right track. It seems as though I can't trust my taste buds when it comes to sour vs bitter.

edit: when you guys are trying to dial in a grind, how much of an adjustment do you make each time you brew a new cup? Given that I'm on a Lido 3, do I go 1/4 of a click, 1/2 a click, full click?

Here's a pic of my grinds for a 22g/340mL cup. I would grind slightly finer for lower doses of coffee. You can also try experimenting with temperature. If you're going off the boil, I would probably wait 1 minute before pouring depending on how full your kettle is.

We use the Kalita in our Roastery shop for hand pours. I found that, especially with very fresh coffee, it benefits from a double bloom and a drawn out pulse finishing 3:45-4:00

Recipe for 300g water:

19g coffee
30 gram bloom, 30 seconds
30 gram 2nd bloom, 30 seconds

Slow pulses, very careful not to disturb the bed of grounds. Finish pouring ~2:30