Wingover wrote:Hello everyone, I like to see if you can point me in the right direction on how I should go about fixing a brew problem that is consistent.

I use a Hario V60-02 with a Comandante grinder and I make my own water even thought Vancouver water is not so bad. I have a refractometer and TDS meter. I try to buy beans from good roasters like Gardelli, Coffee Collective and other Nordic or European roasters.

I use small doses like 10g so not to waste too much coffee as I learn. I manage to brew most of the time fairly consisted drink with TDS in the range of 1.25-1.4 with 19-24% extraction but except for one cup of the Gardelli that came up with nice notes and so sweet like someone added sugar to it, every other cup comes out fairly balanced in terms of sour vs bitter but just boring one flavor coffee. No matter what I do in term of temp or grind size.

Any idea on how to go about bringing the different notes into the cup? I like light fruity coffee but just can't get my home brew to taste like the store one.

if you're trying to reproduce what you get at a cafe it is going to be better to try and do exactly what they do. You use a small dose, and I'll bet the cafe uses a larger dose and this might be part of the issue. when you dose up it changes a lot of variables and likewise when you dose down. The Hoffmann/Rao method are good methods not because they are the most ambitious but because they are simple and easily reproduced, you might want to adopt a different method but the more steps added the harder it is to reproduce. Often cafes will do something similar like hoffmann/rao because it makes the pour-overs more consistent and quick but if they're not, ask them what their method is and copy it. Making you're own water is great to bring out better-tasting coffee but still you may want to ask what the cafe is doing and the maybe they are just using tap water so if they are, use what they are using, you might be even able to take some of their water home with you. There are so many variables that it's best just to ask the cafe. Go to the cafe during a low volume time so you're able to chat with the barista and get a more detailed approach.

What did it for us was to up the water temp. Big difference.