Hi all. I'm facing some problems, having just gotten into making my own coffee at home. I purchased an Aeropress and Porlex mini hand grinder to grind my beans at home.

The first time I made a cup of coffee using the aeropress, the flavours came out rich and robust, delicious and fragrant! It might have been a little bit of beginner's luck, but no matter how I try and replicate the exact process, subsequent tries haven't been able to produce that same cup of coffee. Instead, the coffee comes out tasting slightly burnt, and quite flat.

I'm wondering if this has to do with how fast I grind my beans using the hand grinder. I took about 7min the first time around to grind my beans (somehow I didn't realise the knob was designed in such a way to ensure continuous grinding, silly me). The second and third time around, I'd grind about 20g of beans in just under 2 minutes - I really worked those muscles then!

Would really appreciate your advice!

Perhaps it's a silly question, but how many days have elapsed between the tasty grind and the current attempt(s) that are resulting in the bad taste? I'm wondering if perhaps you're dealing with now stale beans.

Dave

Hi Dave, I tried making my second cup just a day after my first! All in all, its been a total of 1 week since i've opened the bean pack.


Lauren

There is no way you could burn the coffee with a hand grinder unless you motorize it. Extraction time, water temperature, grind size is the key, keep looking (changing) at them.

A bean pack, as in prepacked supermarket beams or from a reputable roaster with a roast date on it?

Other than that, temperature may be too high or any of the other variables....

can't burn the beans with a hand grinder. Can make more static with a fast grind though, which could affect extraction. More likely aging beans. Keep them sealed in the freezer after you open them.

"About" 20 grams is not the same thing as 20 grams. Heck! For many home scales, 20 grams isn't even 20.0 grams.
How are you regulating and measuring the water temperature?
If it was a vacuumed brick or package of beans I would expect exactly that result. Tastes great when first opened, then the next day they taste many weeks old, because they are!

So, if you are the same (no antibiotics, etc.), and the water is the same, and the brew temperature is the same, and the water temperature is the same, and the mass of beans is the same, and the grind is the same, and the volume of water is the same, and the brewing time is the same, and the brewing device is the same ... Must be the beans.

Randy G. wrote: If it was a vacuumed brick or package of beans I would expect exactly that result. Tastes great when first opened, then the next day they taste many weeks old, because they are!

+1
Exactly my thoughts as well.

The Porlex is a metal-bodied grinder, and if the beans were getting hot enough to actually burn them, you'd feel the heat through the metal body, and it would be too hot to handle comfortably.

I used the Porlex and Porlex mini daily for a year, and ground slowly sometimes (mostly if I was surfing the web while grinding), and fast other times, and never wound up with differences.

There are a limited number of variables to control:

1. Water source (my coffee was good at home, and bad at work, due to differences municipal water supplies
2. Water temperature
3. Brew time
4. Bean quality
5. Grind
6. Bean freshness

I used to grind enough beans at home, to make my first cup, and carry the remainder to work, and make a second cup a few hours later, around mid-morning. The mid-morning cup was noticeably degraded, just from having grounds be 3-hours post grind.

From reading your questions, I'd say the difference is probably in the beans. How are you storing them? You said, "bean pack" - do you mean vacuum-packed beans? It doesn't surprise me at all that they are degrading quickly, once the vacuum is gone. Those vacuumed bricks DO usually taste good right after opening, but due to the increased shelf-life, they often degrade REALLY fast once opened.

Storage is a big issue - beans degrade in the presence of the big 3: Light/heat, moisture, oxygen. I buy my beans freshly roasted, usually via mail order. Usually, they are 2-5 days post-roast when they get to me. I divide a 12-ounce bag of beans into 3 parts - 4 ounces go into an Airscape canister (if it will sit out on your counter, get the stainless version. If it's in a cabinet away from light, then glass or plastic versions are fine), and the remaining 8 ounces go into two vacuum bags, which I check every couple of days to make sure they are holding a vacuum (beans outgas, so they often don't remain bricked in the first week after packing them).

I'd suggest going to a local coffee shop, and getting some freshly roasted beans, and then seeing how they work for you. If you are going to be storing them in a valve bag, do what you can to remove as much air as possible from the bag, once opened.

Randy G. wrote:"About" 20 grams is not the same thing as 20 grams. Heck! For many home scales, 20 grams isn't even 20.0 grams.
How are you regulating and measuring the water temperature?
If it was a vacuumed brick or package of beans I would expect exactly that result. Tastes great when first opened, then the next day they taste many weeks old, because they are!

So, if you are the same (no antibiotics, etc.), and the water is the same, and the brew temperature is the same, and the water temperature is the same, and the mass of beans is the same, and the grind is the same, and the volume of water is the same, and the brewing time is the same, and the brewing device is the same ... Must be the beans.

It's a valve packet, and roasting date was on 16th Nov. Might that have something to do with it? Time to find a way to ensure I can retain the flavour of my beans as long as possible. In the meantime, I"ll be dreaming about that perfect first cup of coffee. Thanks for the help!