Hello HB!

I have been using a Gaggia MDF with doser as my main grinder for various brew methods (French, V60, Chemex, Aeropress). I don't have an espresso setup and plan to continue focusing mostly on those brew methods for now.

My Gaggia's doser lever broke and I'm ready to move on. Budget $500 up to $1000. Am I going overboard with budget for a brew grinder?

Baratza Forte-BG (Flat Steel) - $919
Compak K3 Touch - $584
Eureka?
etc.

I like the Baratza because of the supposed longevity and automation gimmicks.

Recommendations?

Thanks!

I spent less than $500 on my Eureka Brew Pro and honestly, it's really solid. It's sole purpose in my home is V60 and the rare Aeropress.

Well this was a short thread. I had looked at the Eureka in the past. Found where to get it at under $500 shipped from Europe. AND it's made in my hometown. #WIN. Thank you!

Elliot,
I just got a Baratza Forte BG w/ the steel burrs over the Holidays per Scott Rao's Blog post praising it and have been very happy with it.

https://www.scottrao.com/blog/2019/1/5/ ... -is-better

I went ahead and aligned it using Jake's method for achieving perfect alignment and couldn't be happier.

The Alicorn: Achieving Precision Alignment with the Baratza Forté/Vario
Baratza Vario Super Alignment owner experience

While I use it mostly for espresso, I bought it to also have a commercial quality machine at home for grinding coffee samples for cupping as well as V60 brews.

The scale is nice if you feel like loading up the hopper, but right now I am single dosing into one of these for espresso:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RR ... UTF8&psc=1

and the regular bin for brew.

While I have the option to buy ceramic burrs in the future if I want to, I am currently happy with the steel burrs for both brew and espresso at the moment and have not reached out to Baratza for the ceramic burrs yet.

Hope this helps, good luck on your purchase!

The owner of the original Alicorn does not use it for espresso at all. Just drip/brew... where he says it's better than his Monolith Flat with SSP burrs. Again, for brew.

-Peter

Mitch,
did you flip the rubber flapper while you were in there? I found on my Vario that it greatly reduced retention (as long as you manage static with RDT), and made the grounds super fluffy. Not that fluffiness is confirmed to improve taste. Also I never had the shutoff hopper. Just the regular one. Jake says the regular hopper makes single dosing easier. And it's a direct fit on the Forte.

-Peter

I've not yet, every time I was in there I thought about it, is there somewhere it's posted what to do? I RDT with my BDB steam wand every time I'm using it for espresso, which is 99% of the time right now.

For the Vario yes. Here: Single Dosing My Baratza Vario Success!

Should be eminently similar for the Forte.

The rubber flapper provides compression and turbulence to knock off static. But if you're doing RDT, you don't need the homogenizing obstruction. Cleaner fluffier flow.

-Peter