How much coarse coffee does a baratza yield after sifting?

Coffee preparation techniques besides espresso like pourover.
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Mohammad
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#1: Post by Mohammad »

Hello :D

This is regarding grinding for drip and french press. When I grind coarse on the versalab then sift to remove the fines and the smaller grinds I end up with only about two thirds of the original coffee. I get 40 grams from grinding 60 and so forth.

I'm considering the baratza virtuoso or preciso for coarse grinding but I wonder how much wasted sifted coffee it will make me save? Can someone with such grinder use a coarse sieve with maybe 0.8mm holes and report the results?

samuellaw178
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#2: Post by samuellaw178 »

I have a picture of my french press grind from Preciso. I can only say it does a very damn good job in grinding coarse. Seems very consistent and not too much fines(compared to other grinders).

This is without sifting by the way. I could try sifting but I am not sure if I have a 0.8mm sift


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jbviau
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#3: Post by jbviau »

Hi there. I've got a Preciso, too. The other day I was messing around with a kitchen strainer, using it to sieve my press grind (setting #34F, if it matters). I don't know how big the spaces are in the metal mesh, but a 1000 micron (1.0 mm) steel ball bearing doesn't quite fit through them, so it's probably close to what you asked for. Anyway, I gave 21.9 g. of my press-ground coffee a thorough shaking using this strainer and ended up with 20 g. of ground coffee remaining. That's only 8.7% loss. Not bad, right?

What was sieved out:



A closer look:



Bottom of the cup brewed afterward in my Eva Solo 0.6 L (damn, I missed a few fines!):

"It's not anecdotal evidence, it's artisanal data." -Matt Yglesias

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Mohammad (original poster)
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#4: Post by Mohammad (original poster) »

Appreciate your help thank you. Less than 9% loss compared to my current 33% loss is significant. It now seems like a worthy investment. I wonder if the virtouso with the new 2012 burrs performs as well as this? Does one still notice a difference after sifting even with this level of grind consistency?

jbviau
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#5: Post by jbviau »

Right, the new Virtuoso has the same burrs as the Preciso, so it should perform similarly. In fact, I don't ever use the Preciso's micro adjustment lever for non-espresso brew methods. I've only sieved my coffee that once, so I'm no expert, but I thought it did give the coffee I brewed with it a slightly cleaner flavor profile; not sure it was cleaner in a *good* way though. If and when OE's Lido hand mill comes out, I plan to sieve again and compare its press grind to the Preciso's.
"It's not anecdotal evidence, it's artisanal data." -Matt Yglesias

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EricBNC
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#6: Post by EricBNC »

If OE decides to use the Ascaso burr set I wouldn't hold out for better quality for press - that set is the equal of the older Virtuoso set - not bad by any means, but not equal to what the Preciso is capable of producing.
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jbviau
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#7: Post by jbviau »

Will be interesting to see what happens. There's "good for a hand grinder" and "just plain good." How does the older Virtuoso compare to, say, your Peugeot hand mill with respect to coarse grinding?
"It's not anecdotal evidence, it's artisanal data." -Matt Yglesias

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EricBNC
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#8: Post by EricBNC replying to jbviau »

What would be the point? I can grind with either or the Preciso, or, etc... But can someone still buy the old Virtuoso? Are all the old Peugeot's on eBay worth having?

The Preciso is excellent at press and you can easily acquire one - a better question - and one I can not answer - is how good does the Ascaso I-2 Mini grind for press?
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jbviau
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#9: Post by jbviau »

Oh, I was just thinking out loud, and I know you've owned and tried both of the ones I mentioned. I don't particularly relish the idea of traveling with my Preciso! What's the best travel grinder for press these days? Maybe the OE-PFP, though I haven't played with one. I'd imagine OE expects the Lido to surpass it.
"It's not anecdotal evidence, it's artisanal data." -Matt Yglesias

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#10: Post by jbviau »

Just a quick follow-up to report that I got my hands on an old #20 testing sieve in mint condition (shown below). It does a nice job of filtering out particles below 0.85 mm. When I ground 20.1 g. of coffee using the same setting as before on the Preciso (#34F) and sieved it, I was left with 16.8 g., i.e. 16.4% loss. So, the strainer I'd been using before must have finer mesh.

"It's not anecdotal evidence, it's artisanal data." -Matt Yglesias

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