rondi wrote:We have an original bonaVITA, and I roast most of our beans. As we all know a pretty dark roast--into SC (second crack) will weigh much less than a lighter roast for the same amount of bean. Recommendations for our brewer is 60g of ground beans. That's too much for a dark roast--it almost overflows the filter. We use a Virtuoso+ grinder with grind set at 19 and 40 sec time (the max setting) which is not enough to grind my SC (or store bought dark roast) beans--we must add a scoop or 2 depending to get to 60g. Other beans, Like a Kenya which is lighter roast requires only 32 sec for 60g.

What's the answer?
tia, Ron

You're Virtuoso+ grinds by time, not weight, but with grinders like these every coffee has it own grinding time so you need to adjust based on the coffee you're using. The time grind is really only handy to dial in when you're always using the same coffee.

Coffee recipes are more accurate when using weight not volume. So you know with 60 grams of coffee your running 900ml of water through it (or whatever your ratio is). Otherwise you're going to get coffee that will taste strong one day and weak the next day. You may have to adjust your ratio for this coffee but once you dial it in you know for this roast it's x ratio. Keeping notes may be helpful to you if you just want to set a time and walk away so you can refer to your notes for the roast or brand of store bought and know the right time it needs to grind.

Weighing first will be easier then just dump the beans in and run it until there's no beans left which is a really simple approach. You may want to invest in a grinder weighs it for you if you're just tired of figuring it out. The Virtuoso+ is a baratza line. Baratza makes the Sette 270 Wi, Vario-W and Forte all with by weight functions so you can clock in 60 grams and 60 grams always comes out rather than by time.

I'm not into SC+ coffee so I can't tell you what ratio works better but if you want to have the same tasting coffee everyday it's the weight not volume that's going to do that and if you don't already have one get a 0.1 gram accurate scale but with 60 grams it won't matter as much and a regular 1 gram accurate kitchen scale is fine.

I use a 2 tablespoon measure for each 2 cups, usually a little more and always make at least 6 cups