Assessing Baratza Vario grind adjustment

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
heshca
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#1: Post by heshca »

I have a Baratza Vario that I'm having trouble dialing in for V60 use. I do not own an espresso machine and the only other brew methods I use are Aeropress and Clever at the moment. My grinder is calibrated based on the instructions provided by Baratza (i.e., listening for motor strain while macro is at finest and micro is at medium). In order to provide you all with as much information as possible I put the micro lever in the middle and stepped the macro level up from fine to coarse and took pictures of each step using 4 beans single dosed into the hopper.

I'd appreciate any feedback about where you think it would behoove me to start with my macro lever. Also, I'm sure you'll notice wide variation in particle size - I'm assuming this is due to my single dosing 4 beans?

Front of the machine demonstrating the placement of the micro lever throughout:



Each of the 10 macro steps represented with 1 being the finest and 10 the coarsest:



The rest are close-ups of the steps with a U.S. penny for reference - apologies for the harsh light, but the grind size didn't come through very well when I used regular lamps:




















samuellaw178
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#2: Post by samuellaw178 »

This is not the best way to evaluate the grind setting. It's heavily affected by the retention & single dosing. Single dosing does change the particle distribution slightly and the difference is amplified when you use such a small amount. I would try making coffee(V60 in yoru case) at setting 7 and adjust from there.

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baldheadracing
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#3: Post by baldheadracing »

heshca wrote:... based on the instructions provided by Baratza (i.e., listening for motor strain while macro is at finest and micro is at medium).
,
FYI, Baratza's current instructions are for burr rub at 2Q. You have the old faceplate - so to translate, the macro runs from 1 to 10 and the micro runs from A to W (top/fine to bottom/coarse in both scales).

Sorry I can't help otherwise - although I do use my Vario for V60, it has been retrofitted with the steel burrs. In any case, my grind setting changes with each bag of coffee; to dial in I keep the micro setting in the middle and keep going finer (sweeter) with the macro setting until the coffee goes bitter, and then go coarser with the micro until that particular coffee is its sweetest.
-"Good quality brings happiness as you use it" - Nobuho Miya, Kamasada

heshca (original poster)
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Joined: 14 years ago

#4: Post by heshca (original poster) »

baldheadracing wrote:FYI, Baratza's current instructions are for burr rub at 2Q. You have the old faceplate - so to translate, the macro runs from 1 to 10 and the micro runs from A to W (top/fine to bottom/coarse in both scales).
Do you have a source for this? I just thought to look at the manual available in pdf on their website and it states to calibrate at 1M.
baldheadracing wrote:Sorry I can't help otherwise - although I do use my Vario for V60, it has been retrofitted with the steel burrs. In any case, my grind setting changes with each bag of coffee; to dial in I keep the micro setting in the middle and keep going finer (sweeter) with the macro setting until the coffee goes bitter, and then go coarser with the micro until that particular coffee is its sweetest.
That sounds like a solid strategy - I'll give that a go.

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tegee
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#5: Post by tegee »

FWIW.....I contacted Baratza on this very "calibration" issue. And they mentioned that either (1M) or (2Q) will work fine. They mentioned that the only reason they went to (2Q) is to give the ability to grind a finer for those end users so inclined. As many of you already know there is a great deal of "overlap" when going down on the micro scale when you are in #1 on macro and up on the scale when you are #2.

When I was using my Vario for espresso use, prior to my Ceado, I was roughly in the 1D-1M range and all was good. When I calibrated to the updated 2Q guidelines I found myself constantly fighting the "overlap" on the 1-2 Macro.

Anyway...to get back on point with the OP. His calibration, whether 1M or 2Q with the burrs just touching should be plenty calibrated for pour over IMO.

heshca (original poster)
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#6: Post by heshca (original poster) »

tegee wrote:Anyway...to get back on point with the OP. His calibration, whether 1M or 2Q with the burrs just touching should be plenty calibrated for pour over IMO.
Right. If anything, calibrating at 1M would be more conducive to a drip-dominant coffee habit than 2Q.

compliance
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#7: Post by compliance »

I just added the steel burrs to my Vario today. I've been trying to repeat the adjustment I did with the ceramics so they chirp at 2Q. I can't. They won't chirp any lower than 3N (I accidentally removed the fine adjustment screw trying). What are people calibrating their steel burrs to? Search didn't find me an answer so I thought I'd check. Do I have to look into the coarse adjustment?

Bob_M
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#8: Post by Bob_M »

I purchased a refurb vario from Baratza and it came with preinstalled metal burrs. I cant remember the exact calibration parameters and the grinder is not with me, but i do remember that the setting was surprizingly high.