The relationship between bean development and grind/brew time
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Roasty
- Supporter ♡
- Posts: 135
- Joined: 9 years ago
In my readings lately, I've come across the idea that the more developed a given coffee is, the longer it will take to brew and therefore the coarser it will need to be in order to hit a target brew time.
In experience, lately, I've noticed that the last couple of roasters coffees I've bought (Intelligentisa and Tim Windleboe) have required a much coarser grind, to hit my target brew time, than the coffee I roast. I use a chemex, with the same coffee:water everyday, with a target brew time of 3:45. My "home" grind never usually needs adjusted more than +/- 2 turns on my breville smart grinder. However, with Intelli and Tim's coffee, I've had to go about 8-10 turns coarser to hit my brew targets. Does this indicate that their coffee is better developed than mine, or is there other factors at play?
I've considered the idea that it could be because the roast of these other roasters is lighter and more fines are created during grinding. But I use a sieve on all my ground coffee, so I can't imagine this is the cause. My general practice is the Rao method of development/roasting, and for what it's worth, I like my coffee better than these roasters, which is probably all that matters, development be damned.
Thoughts?
In experience, lately, I've noticed that the last couple of roasters coffees I've bought (Intelligentisa and Tim Windleboe) have required a much coarser grind, to hit my target brew time, than the coffee I roast. I use a chemex, with the same coffee:water everyday, with a target brew time of 3:45. My "home" grind never usually needs adjusted more than +/- 2 turns on my breville smart grinder. However, with Intelli and Tim's coffee, I've had to go about 8-10 turns coarser to hit my brew targets. Does this indicate that their coffee is better developed than mine, or is there other factors at play?
I've considered the idea that it could be because the roast of these other roasters is lighter and more fines are created during grinding. But I use a sieve on all my ground coffee, so I can't imagine this is the cause. My general practice is the Rao method of development/roasting, and for what it's worth, I like my coffee better than these roasters, which is probably all that matters, development be damned.
Thoughts?
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aecletec
- Posts: 1997
- Joined: 13 years ago
In my understanding, the more developed a coffee is generally the more soluble it is... so when you grind coarser it extracts less quickly to reach your goal... so far making sense as underdeveloped coffees often flow faster and are harder to extract... but hitting a target brew time is a bit confusing because of all the other factors - using extraction/tds helps because it's a more consistent measure that doesn't rely on unknowns in brew time like dose, flow rate etc.
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andyhao
- Posts: 1
- Joined: 7 years ago
Do you know when Intelligentsia's and Tim's coffees were roasted? I found that fresher coffee, with a higher amounts of stored CO2, brews faster because the CO2 somehow propels water through the grounds, meaning you'd need a finer grind. I don't know how fresh Intelligentsia's retail coffee is but it could be a big acting factor in the brew times you're getting.
