Hi,

I am a happy new K30 owner. After using the grinder for 4 months, I am hoping to draw upon the collective experience of other K30 users (or others) to understand how much to nudge (in general) the grinder's dial to affect the bean's resulting taste.

As an example, if using a setting of 3.5 on the grinder, do you need to move it to 4 or 4.5 to see an effect on taste. Again, this is in general since it seems different beans are more sensitive than others.

Current observations going from 3 to 2, or 3 to 4 as an example, does two things:

1. affects the dose enough the timer needs to be adjusted to maintain a consistent dose

2. can be enough to plug the extraction or make the pour too fast.

Additionally, if set at 3.5 and then just off set 1-2 mm either side, there is not a significant taste difference. Either that, or, which is possible, my palate is not sensitive enough.

Thank you in advance,
Stephen

I have a similar amount of time with my K30.

I find moves of about half a "unit" commonly separate beans I'm familiar with, e.g. today my first shot was a Redbird Espresso blend at 3.5 and I went to 3.0 to pull their SO Ethiopia for my next shot. I also find that a half unit change will move me from normale to ristretto for a given dose.

My quantum/minimal change is 0.25 units which is typical as a coffee ages (I run through 8 oz hoppers). A full unit change, in my experience, leads to big changes in flow and taste.

On my machine, my useable espresso range seems to have settled in at 2.5-4.5. I recall pulling either Ritual or Sightglass at a 1.5 but that was soon after I purchased the grinder and have no idea if burr break-in played a role in that. With the exception of Linea, I've sourced my beans from outside the Bay Area for the last few months.

Would be curious to hear others' experiences while acknowledging that past results don't predict future performance, etc...

I have found the range 2.5-4.5 to be the same depending on the bean. Similarly as the bean ages I do nudge it a bit finer, as you say 0.25 or so.

Typically I attempt 14g in basket producing 28g shot in about 28 secs. Once the time of the single/double dose buttons is set I leave them and just follow the nudging to finer mentioned.

I am looking for some direction on the effects to taste. I have been using the diagram in this thread: Espresso 101: How to Adjust Dose and Grind Setting by Taste

Understanding how to apply the theory to know what it is I am testing is something else.

Perhaps I am limiting my experience as I am only using the time adjustments for the single and double dose.

Suggestions?

I find the espresso 101 figure super helpful and keep a copy posted near my machine. Rather than fiddle with grind, I typically find it easier to change dose.

Once I get a bean's grind dialed in more or less, I set my doubleshot button to create a "standard" dose (right now: 3 sec to produce 15g dose of Red Bird Blue Jaguar). I'll change timing of that button while dialing in. I always keep the single button set to 0.3 sec. I then use "taps" on the single button to slightly raise the dose and lower the flow.

My taste leans towards ristrettos so I usually like to slow the flow. Also as a bean ages slower flow (higher dose) is usually the correction. So this set up works well for me. If I'm over-extracting and need to speed my flow up to erase bitterness, I will loosen grind or reduce the time of the double shot button.

Don't know if this addresses your question but hope it helps and thanks for sharing your experiences.

This does help. It gives me an approach.

Using the single dose to tap is a neat idea which I will keep in mind. Currently I am using both single dose and double, so it is out at the moment.

This weekend, I will play with the dose for taste. I actually forgot that part of the 101; I was so focus on the grind. Once I have the strength of the shot I will use the grind to adjust for the bitters.

Cheers!

maudy wrote:Currently I am using both single dose and double, so it is out at the moment.

Keeping a grinder dialed in alternately for doubles and singles is asking a lot of the grinder (and yourself). Obviously each to his own, but you might save yourself a lot of headache by sticking to one or the other (or just splitting your doubles for singles).

Switched this morning from Blue Jaguar to Counter Culture Big Trouble. Completely misfired on my first shot -- figured I'd need to tighten the grind so went from a 4.5 to a 3.5, but that produced a free flowing 23 sec shot.

Digression: I keep the volumetric double shot of my La Spaz Vivaldi II set to produce ~30g shot so a 50% ratio if I'm also using the "default" 15g doze of grounds. Deeper digression: I love the looks/reports about the Linea Mini but the thought of having to manually decide when to cut off every shot -- after some years of volumetric control -- gives me pause.

Any case, I was running out the door so drank down the thin, quick shot. Delicious. Different but delicious. Tonight came home determined to find my usual sweet spot for Big Trouble so tightened up the grind (to ~2.5) and produced a too-slow flowing 45 sec shot that was too-bitter straight but turned in to a nice capp. I've set the grinder back to a 3.5 for a quicker flow, but I'm done with caffeine for tonight so we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Couple of other notes: I change the grind without running the grinder; I'm assuming this isn't doing any serious damage to my K30. Not sure if I want to hear to the contrary...

Also, I don't clear the shoot after adjusting grind. My assumption is that potafilter-side variation, e.g. in my routine, outweighs any consistent difference due to aging/fineness of a relatively small portion of the grinds in my first portafilter of the day. This belief is based on my experiences when I do pull multiple shots, e.g. for guests or on weekend/work-at-home mornings. I don't believe I taste anything dramatically or systematically different from being extra careful not to "mix" coffee of different ages/grinds.

When adjusting your K30 to grind finer, ALWAYS have the motor running!! You Can possible misaligne!!
I have the same grinder, and its easy to adjust when grinding and its just when you go finer on the grind.

/Uldall

Uldall wrote:...ALWAYS have the motor running!!...

Appreciate the friendly advice...two responses.

First, the manual makes no mention of this but does discuss various ways to troubleshoot the problem of "The grinder hums but does not grind" which I would expect is one outcome of a change to a finer setting with the motor stopped. I've had my grinder "hum but not grind" on several occasions but never immediately after a settings change.

Second, I find I need 2 hands to change the grind setting with any degree of control (one hand to loosen/tighten the thumbscrew; one hand to adjust the grind lever). But on the K30 one also needs a hand to depress the activation button to get the motor to spin. How do you overcome the need for three hands when adjusting the grind with motor running?

Uldall wrote:When adjusting your K30 to grind finer, ALWAYS have the motor running!! You Can possible misaligne!!
I have the same grinder, and its easy to adjust when grinding and its just when you go finer on the grind.

I think this may not be true for the K30, but I'm not sure. Your evidence?