Fellow Stagg XF Dripper - Page 2

Coffee preparation techniques besides espresso like pourover.
jevenator
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#11: Post by jevenator »

tv79 wrote:Made my first brews with the XF this morning and was absolutely amazed at how quick draw down was at the same grind (coarsest setting on Vario w/ steel burrs, calibrated at 1A) as I was using for V60/Kalita.

For my first attempt, I went with 16:1 @ 200°, 70g bloom, then at :45 filled the brewer, after which point I just topped off till I hit 500g. This completed right around 2:00, and not surprisingly was severely underextracted.

After dumping the first batch, I decided to lengthen brew time using 4-6 and same dose/grind/temp. So 5 pours every :45, with 500ml completing around 3:30. The result was still underextracted but drinkable. I plan on sticking with this again tomorrow, but going 1-2 macro notches finer.
Are you going to try their suggested fillup method?

tv79
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#12: Post by tv79 replying to jevenator »

Tried it this morning. Went all the way down to 5 on the Vario and again TBT including 30 sec bloom was under 2:00. Result was underextracted but drinkable. I suspect around 2:30-2:45 would be ideal, but I'm going to have to go significantly finer to hit that target.

I'm still shocked at how quickly draw down is on this thing, but then again I'm comparing it to 500ml V60/Kalita brews, which is on the larger side of what most folks seem to brew.

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TomC (original poster)
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#13: Post by TomC (original poster) »

tv79 wrote:
I'm still shocked at how quickly draw down is on this thing, but then again I'm comparing it to 500ml V60/Kalita brews, which is on the larger side of what most folks seem to brew.
I found on my first brew with it that the drawdown was basically instantaneous, basically the moment I stopped pouring, I was looking at the bed of grounds again. But I'm all but certain that I was channeling right off to the sides of the filter column. My second, and all my subsequent brews that I did a stir on during "wetting" all had normal, if not slightly slower than normal drawdown times. Which of course, makes sense for a taller, narrower column (once fines get to play their part).
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TomC (original poster)
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#14: Post by TomC (original poster) »

Separately, I made three different batches with it last night paired with my Ratio 8 brewer. It just barely fits with my Thermos insulated carafe. But like I guessed, it fits nicely with the narrow shower head of the Ratio 8. But one coffee outgassed more than the others and pushed over the top of the filter before I could catch it. This was with doing a 33g batch for a half liter of coffee. The previous two batches were 30g. Not sure if I had it at it's tipping point dose-wise, or if it was just a fresher coffee that hadn't out-gassed as much.
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tv79
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#15: Post by tv79 »

TomC wrote:I'm all but certain that I was channeling right off to the sides of the filter column.
Funny you should mention that..I gave a passing thought to channeling earlier, but figured since it's happened every time that it probably wasn't the case. Now I'm thinking you may be right. I wouldn't say drawdown is instantaneous in my case, but it's definitely much faster than I'd expect with such a tall brew bed. I've intentionally avoided agitation since I generally feel it contributes to more inconsistency, but in this case it might be necessary.

On a related note, I do find pouring near the edge to be a bit awkward. Since grinds settle between the filter ridges, I want to make sure they contribute equally to the brew, but pouring too close to the edge seems like some water might bypass the filter due to such a narrow brew column.

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Shawnaks5
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#16: Post by Shawnaks5 »

I'm glad to see a thread on this device on HB. I've had the XF for well over a year now and just started using it regularly a few months ago. Was using the Aeropress a lot but finally decided to give the XF a shot. At first the XF worked pretty well and I was liking the taste of the coffee. Recipe 40g coffee 600ml brew water yielding 519ml in the cup. I used the G4 setting on my Forte BG calibrated at 2Q.

I ran out of filters and ordered more from Amazon. Then my brews starting taking way longer (2 min longer). I coursened up the grind. No Joy. I thought it had to be the filters so I contacted Fellow directly and they were kind enough to send me another box of filters. Same issue. Even when I pour water in the filter by itself with no coffee it drains way slower then my first box of filters. Long story short I have stopped using this brewer. I'm frustrated by this because I really liked this method because it was faster/easier and the coffee still tasted great. The brewer is just sitting in my cabinet now. I have not contacted Fellow again about the issue. Has anyone else noticed this issue? Do you guys mind wasting a filter for me and just pouring water through it while it's in the brewer with no coffee to see how the water drains?

On another note I do agree with tv79 about the grinds settling between the filter ridges. It's very awkward to pour near the edges so I'm never sure that all the grinds are contributing for an even extraction.

dale_cooper
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#17: Post by dale_cooper replying to Shawnaks5 »

Curious - how long of brew time are we talking? When you say, "no joy", what do you mean? Are you not happy because its taking too long, or because its over-extracting? Given that cupping brews are literally grinds sitting in a cup for 8+ minutes, I'm not sure why you would potentially be opposed to the long brew. Doesn't the kalita wave present the same problem with grinds staying in ridges?

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Shawnaks5
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#18: Post by Shawnaks5 »

It went from around 3.5-4min up to 6 min. When I say "no joy" I meant coarsening up the grind didn't produce a faster brew time due to what I believe is an issue with the filters. No joy is something we say a lot at work when something doesn't work. I did not know that about cupping brews. I've only cupped coffee once at a coffee shop that I used to frequent and didn't pay attention to how long the grinds sat in the cup.

I wasn't happy because it used to not take that long and for it to all of a sudden take 2 minutes longer was really strange to me. The coffee did taste over extracted to me. I've never tried a Kalita wave filter but I do use the Blue Bottle filters and I've heard they are similar. The filter ridges are much closer together on the XF so it's easier for the coffee to get stuck between them and it's much harder to pour near the ridges on the XF which seems to lead to coffee that is not contributing to the extraction.

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TomC (original poster)
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#19: Post by TomC (original poster) »

Messes definitely happen. This is another 33g batch ground very coarse. And I took my eye off it for a split second.

I'll either have to cut my batch size or do some odd start-stop (that Id rather avoid) when brewing fresh roasts.

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tv79
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#20: Post by tv79 »

I've found Fellow's instructions to be rather inconsistent. Both their video and the instructions that come with the brewer recommend the Fill-Up method. Then there's this Q&A where they recommend pulse pouring.

I reached out to them for clarification and it turns out they (or at least the guy that emailed) actually do recommend pulse pouring, at least for larger volumes. What he suggested was a 16:1 ratio, pouring in 50-100g increments, with TBT under 4:00. Apparently there is an issue where doses over 25g can clog the filter if you pour in large increments. Side note: If this does happen, you can try gently pulling up on the filter to create some space between the filter and floor of the dripper.

So for this morning's brew, I went back to my usual 4-6 and ground at Vario setting 6. Even stirring after the bloom, draw down was still surprisingly quick. For fun, I even gave the dripper a few spins after another pour, but it didn't seem to make a difference. I didn't see any obvious sign of channeling either. I'm going to try going 1 notch finer tomorrow and see how it goes.