Baratza Vario too fine for drip/French press

#1: Post by **JerDGold** » November 13th, 2015, 12:52 am

I've read a lot of people using the Vario for Drip and FP, and since I bought my K10 I've been wanting to use it for that. However, even at it's lowest setting it's way too fine for FP, and too fine for drip as well. I've manually adjusted the re-calibrate screw almost all the way down and took out/reinstalled the burrs but still...way too fine. I have the ceramic burrs, but I can't image steel burrs would make THAT big of a difference.

Why can't my Vario produce coarser grinds? Should it be able to?

#2: Post by **wsfarrell** » November 13th, 2015, 2:18 am

The Vario makes great drip/French grinds. There are two different calibration procedures for the grinder: fine and coarse. Just doing the fine calibration might not allow you to grind coarse enough for pourover. Here's the Baratza pdf describing both procedures:

http://www.baratza.com/wp-content/uploa ... al-new.pdf

I switched to the steel burrs when I moved my Vario from espresso to pourover duty, and I believe they are considerably better.

#3: Post by **coffeechan** » November 13th, 2015, 9:54 am

From what I can remember reading, the ceramic burrs are designed to grind significantly finer in granularity for espresso and creates more fines to contribute to optimal flow in espresso shots. The steel brew burrs create a grind with less fines and better consistency in coarser grind sizes, which is better for drip and French press. Calibrating will help and doesn't cost anything, but the steel burrs might get you what you want in the end. Google the official baratza page for the steel burrs and it'll confirm the better for brew/press statement.

#4: Post by **turtle** » November 13th, 2015, 2:16 pm

Back when I had a Vario-W I used it for espresso which it did a fine job on.

Once I finished my custom super jolly I replaced the ceramic burrs in the Vario with steel ones and used it for brew grinding.

You "can" adjust the ceramic burrs to a coarser setting as suggested but if you want to use it for brew, press, vacuum, you should consider swapping out the burr set. You won't be able to grind fine espresso but it makes a nice brew grinder.

Either way, you have to make a decision.

Brew grinder

OR

Espresso grinder

you will never get both from the same machine