Single Dose "Endgame" Grinder Suggestions? - Page 2

Recommendations for buyers and upgraders from the site's members.
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spiffdude
Posts: 359
Joined: 14 years ago

#11: Post by spiffdude »

Well, OP is looking at grinder for espresso and pour over, and is looking at things like Lagom p64, Bentwood Vertical, Weber EG1.

So I think we're all assuming light to medium roasts and flat burrs of various big-ish, titan-ish sizes yeah?
Damn this forum, I've had too m..muh...mah..mmmm..much caffeine!

Starspawn2318
Posts: 140
Joined: 2 years ago

#12: Post by Starspawn2318 »

Had a P64. Used it for espresso and pour over. Tried it with SSP HU and SSP MP burrs. The grinder itself was phenomenal. Terrific build quality. It's built to last for sure. No need to fuss with alignment. Very little retention. The only issue with the grinder itself was that without modification the portafilter would fall out of the portafilter forks so I would have to hold it in place while grinding or apply some type of grippy tape to the forks to hold it in place. The reason I sold it was that I found the burrs a little limiting. The SSP HU were nice for espresso but I didn't love them for pour over. I wasn't personally a big fan of the SSP MP. I found them pretty unforgiving. I thought the grind range for good coffee was very narrow.

Now I'm a few weeks into using a Kafatek Monolith MAX with the LM burrs. So far its phenomenal. The build quality is just as good as the P64. As far as workflow, so far there is a bit more retention and I actually need to use a puffer to push the residual grinds out. With the p64 I didn't have to use a puffer but for this grinder so far its mandatory. The portafilter stays in the forks for this grinder since the forks are adjustable which is nice. The biggest difference has been in the burrs. The shuriken 98mm LM burrs are what makes this special in my opinion. Very Very forgiving burrs. I can get a decent espresso with a very wide range of grind sizes. Its been rare that I get a shot thats not at least decent, even the first time dialing in a bean. When it's dialed in the shots are phenomenal. The shots almost always seem quite balanced with the right amount of acidity and very little bitterness. Pourover has been good, but been doing more espresso lately. Been using this on all bean roast levels so far with good success. Been pulling ratios from 1:1 to 1:2.5 with great success. Thin body in the espresso unless the shot is close to 1:1. The shots tend to pull quite fast so I've stopped using VST baskets with this, otherwise I can't slow them down.

Overall not having to use a puffer was nice on the p64 so maybe it gets the edge in workflow but the results in the cup have been far superior in the monolith max. Not even close. That being said I never tried the cast burrs for the p64 of which there are now two types so that is a variable I can't comment on. I love the max and will getting an MC5 in the spring to compare.

Hopefully this is useful.

buckersss
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#13: Post by buckersss »

There are lots to choose from, some may not be as value conscious a choice as others. For the price it's probably hard to beat the P100.

Others not listed are EK43, PK100, Mazzer ZM.

The ZM has 83mm burrs. From what I gather there are less espresso focused burr choices at this range but I may be wrong. Having said that I read cast burrs are coming to 83mm and not 98mm.

On the note of the PK100, id be real curious to get my hands on the PKF, but it is not a single dose grinder. The PKF has blind burrs. The PK100 might too, but I'm not sure. At the 98mm size I do think that SSP has blind burr options. Not sure if they offer them for all modalities though.

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