Thank you everyone!

To answer some of your questions, my brewer is a Bonavita 1800 - the 8 cup one recommended by the SCAA. It is known to always brew at or damn close to 200 F. Today I made my usual 20 oz and at the 4 minutes mark, simply pulled the pot from under the machine and immediately removed the brew basket. Coffee taste how I remembered it used to taste. Problem solved. Though I do not know why, but since upgrading from a a Breville to Fellow Ode my coffee is taking much longer to get through the grounds to the pot. Even on a coarse setting the problem persists. Using less grinds only helped the other day because it simple takes less time for water to work through less grinds than more grinds.

I should probably consider a new auto drip brewer. If I want to discuss this, should I make a new thread comparing a handful of models, or can we do that here?

Does anyone have any suggestions that may allow me to avoid buying a new brewer? My machine is regularly descaled / cleaned using Urnex products.

The brewer you have is a decent machine. I bought the smaller version of it for my college-student daughter. The real question is: Are you happy with the coffee you get? If so, I wouldn't buy a new brewer until the one you have breaks. The thing is, an auto-drip machine is designed to be highly convenient, which means you don't get control over much of the brewing process, not without adding significantly to the price (and often, not even then). They also make it much easier to get a bigger batch of coffee. I'm still struggling to produce 24 ounces of good coffee in one go with my large Stagg XF dripper (12 ounces, no problem).

And if you DO want control, then why not switch to or at least play with a manual method? The advantage is that they are inexpensive to get going in. A lot of the advice you got - to adjust water temperatures, ratios, blooms, and control over the drawdown - are all things that can be done with easily with a manual pour-over brewer. The Hario V60 is a solid choice and it's inexpensive to boot: https://www.amazon.com/Hario-Ceramic-Co ... 000P4D5HG/

You'll need a method to heat water. For years, I used a microwavable ceramic teapot - one just big enough to hold he amount of water I needed, so a pretty small one, with a lid to help with heat retention, and a thermometer. I used this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XD ... =UTF8&th=1
Or, you can even use your current brewer to heat water. If you have an electric teapot already - even better.

I actually own a gooseneck kettle, and I suppose I could use my thermo works meat thermometer to tell water temperature, right?

I'm just hesitant to try pour over because all of you seem to make threads airing your frustrations with pour over technique, lol. And I don't know if I'm patient enough to do try my hand at that. My first experience with a plastic metlita went horribly.

A plastic V60 does a great job with minimal fuss and cleanup. The video's technique is "ultimate" in that it is not complex and not very tweaky. For probably under $20 for the dripper and a pack of filters, it is certainly less expensive than hoping another automatic is better than what you already have.

Whitecrane wrote:II'm just hesitant to try pour over because all of you seem to make threads airing your frustrations with pour over technique, lol. And I don't know if I'm patient enough to do try my hand at that. My first experience with a plastic metlita went horribly.

Well... yeah. We're all a bit obsessive compulsive, and in search of the perfect cup.

Really, you seem to have a bit of it. I mean you are willing to interrupt your auto-drip machine in order to avoid blooming your coffee.

The worst that will happen if you try out a V60 is that you'll get a bad cup or two and need to brew another. You'll only brew a few bad cups - it doesn't take long before you'll consistently get drinkable cups, if not good ones. I never brew bad cups anymore. It's just that good cups are uncommon and great cups are rare and I'm still learning how to make good and great more common.

I do firmly believe that an auto-drip machine has its place. And they excel at getting drinkable cups pretty easily and consistently. It's just that in my experience, that's where it stops. And you might just continue playing with the variables you do have easy control over: grind size, ratio, and coffee beans. You might just continue tweaking with that machine until you get the best cup you can out of it, then when you are ready for more control - get a v60. And yeah, the thermometer you have will do fine.

My wife just pulled an electric, digital thermostat Bonavita Gooseneck kettle out of the closet that I didn't know we had...

::Shrug::

V60 is newbie friendly? I know there are a dozen options nowadays.

baldheadracing wrote:V60 isn't newbie friendly. Getting consistent results can be difficult.

This.

The clever coffee is a great way to start, very easy and very forgiving. Or go for a hario switch, which is basically a clever meets v60 hybrid. If you do that, wait until the v03 model is in stock, I suspect the v02 would be too small for you.

It's possible your old grinder just ground coarser than the fellow ode, even at ode's coarse settings.

There's some really solid applicable brewing tips here in this thread and I must say, the folks here at HB have provided more useful and concrete information that Hoffmann's (otherwise wonderful) videos. I had an inkling before James posted his video that he'd miss the more nuanced and better methods of brewing darker roasted coffees

I seriously think once enough coffee/speciality coffee enthusiasts make their preferences known for 2nd C coffee that is well developed and has primarily roast flavors contributing to the cup profile; when they start communicating amongst themselves and apply the same level of furvor and diligence the younger light roasted crowd does, they'll really move the goalposts and see dark roasted coffee really take some well earned steps forward in this market.

I can think of at least 4 roasters off the top of my head that can out-roast the best light roast trained roaster, on a cupping table blindly.


Cathy your post is priceless. Thanks for sharing your methods and struggles and successes