Hello - This is my first post. I'm running into a situation where my coffee filter (Hario V60) clogs and the coffee just doesn't pass through. I'm making the New Orlean Coffee Kit from Blue Bottle, which consists of a bag of their New Orleans Blend, 1 oz chicory. Here's my workflow:

I grind the beans in my Breville Barista Express (purchased ~8 years ago). I set the grinder to the coarsest setting. Dump everything in a pot overnight and then begin the filtering.

First, I pour the coffee through a fine mesh sieve.


It catches most of the grinds, but leaves a weird residue, which is visible int his picture


Finally, to get rid of the residue, I pour the liquid through a v60 coffee filter. THIS is the step where it gets clogged and is frustrating. Any ideas why this is happening? Are my grinds too fine? Is the filter not good?



Also, if you have any advice on how to improve this entire flow, it is welcomed. I really enjoy the new olreans style coffee but this is pretty time consuming (hours).

Hi Shaq and welcome to HB!

I've toyed around with similar attempts. I think regardless of your grind size, even dare I say grinder quality/uniformity, when making large batch extracts like this, the paper filter always will clog if you approach it this way. After sieving the larger particles out, you're left with basically just the micro-fine particles and they, as you clearly note, clog a paper filter quickly. They quickly pile up on each other, locking into tight matrixes and restrict flow.

If you happen to have a large French press, you can use the tried and true French Pull technique, focusing on a very, very slow and gentle pull, which will trap these fines much better, and leave you a rich tasting, very clean brew. If it's a beverage that you make in concentrate, refrigerate then later dilute, then you can leave the liquid in whatever sealed container, let it settle out even more, and carefully pour off everything but the minute amount of sludgy stuff at the bottom.

Hope this helps!

I've made that same kit before. On subsequent attempts I used my toddy coldbrew maker instead but the first time I used a pot and colander as the instructions say. You don't need to use a paper filter and if I remember correctly the instructions don't call for that. Any unpleasant sediment will settle out in your fridge. It is meant to have a lot of body and minimal filtering contributes to this.

maximuslovescoffee wrote:Hello - This is my first post. I'm running into a situation where my coffee filter (Hario V60) clogs and the coffee just doesn't pass through. I'm making the New Orlean Coffee Kit from Blue Bottle, which consists of a bag of their New Orleans Blend, 1 oz chicory. Here's my workflow:

I grind the beans in my Breville Barista Express (purchased ~8 years ago). I set the grinder to the coarsest setting. Dump everything in a pot overnight and then begin the filtering.

First, I pour the coffee through a fine mesh sieve.
image

It catches most of the grinds, but leaves a weird residue, which is visible int his picture
image

Finally, to get rid of the residue, I pour the liquid through a v60 coffee filter. THIS is the step where it gets clogged and is frustrating. Any ideas why this is happening? Are my grinds too fine? Is the filter not good?
image


Also, if you have any advice on how to improve this entire flow, it is welcomed. I really enjoy the new olreans style coffee but this is pretty time consuming (hours).

All you have left is fines if you running it through a kitchen sifter and these fines are going to clog the filter.

When you use Unsifted coffee in pourover the coffee bed itself acts as a filter (not just the paper) so a lot of the fines are trapped in the coffee bed. But if you eliminate the coffee bed and just have the fines and try and filter that all the fines will go no where but clog the pours of the filter. I've run into this problem too by making a couple of French presses for a small group than thinking I'll run it through a v60 to clean it up.... Well instead it just clogged the filter and it was a very slow draw down and this was fresh hot coffee.

Since your sifter isn't a fine mesh you could try a v60 metal cone (that's a fine mesh) and it probably won't get clogged up like the paper, then when it's done you could filter it again in a paper filter. Another option is using a cheese cloth to brew then it's more like a tea bag. A cheese cloth will do a better job at keeping the fines than your kitchen sifter is going to and they can be purchased anywhere and for cheap. But a simple solution (and one you have available to you right now) is to put all the spent grinds in the v60 first and make a flat bed of coffee with it (you can run some water in it if you want to get it even or just shape it) then decant your brew over the spent coffee bed, you're not trying to extract again but you're using the spent coffee as a filter itself to capture all the fines. Dumping it all in a v60 may still clog the filters so it might be better to separate the coarse stuff 6irst (like how you're already doing) and then use it as a first pass filter for all the fines before they comes in contact with the filter and clog it all up.

Aeropress does wonders compared to paper filtering using drippers.
I tried Melitta filters V60 filters and it always took too long and multiple passes. What I settled was pour into filter till full. Wait 5 minutes until the filter stops eventually working. The filter is somewhat fast at first. It starts with a decent flow but eventually stops dripping. At that point I pour off the part that still needs to be filtered in a decanter. Then rinse the paper filter with warm water from the sink and continue filtering with what's left to filter in the decanter. After several passes I can get everything filtered. It takes certainly less time than putting everything at once and wait till it drips itself but also inconvenient. If you want to filter the filtered coffee a second time it takes much less time.
After getting an aeropress I tried filtering cold brew with it and it takes much less time. I filter it with kitchen sieve and very fine mesh tea filter stacked on top of each other into the aeropress. Then I can press it slowly to avoid filter clogging as much as possible. If you press it too hard it kind of chokes like choked espresso. If you wanna filter second time it is much easier. I sometimes cut 3 or more filters from super market paper filters and filter it thru thick paper.
It's about 10+ times more convenient. As I would rather filter 5 lt cold brew with aeropress than half a liter cold brew with V60.