V60 bloom stirring

#1: Post by **neohk** » November 21st, 2019, 9:24 pm

Some advocates using a set number of stir/folding grinds into bloom water whereas I do it rather vigorously, a bit like excavating the blooming grounds and getting to the bottom the filter

Does anything think that would clog the filter, as I don't seem to find that to be the case?
If you are just folding the coffee on the side into the middle, wouldn't there be pockets of dry grounds in the middle somehow?
Thanks

#2: Post by **iBrew** » November 22nd, 2019, 4:53 pm

I use a stir stick to stir the bloom pretty vigorously then use a spoon to give it a spin. The stir stick I use is the glass one from the melodrip, the actually dripper is useless, imo, but the glass stir stick is perfect.

Just be careful when stirring that you don't pack down the coffee and you shouldn't have issues with clogging. I did rip the V60 filter once

#3: Post by ***sigh*** » November 22nd, 2019, 9:28 pm

However you do it, you just want to ensure that you're getting all the dry grounds. I use a Melodrip on a regular basis with their new conical recipe that actually has you stir twice which has really helped to saturate the coffee while reducing agitation versus a normal pourover. It's worked out quite well for me.

I agree the folding isn't going to be super effective, especially in a conical pourover but it might be sufficient for a flat bottom like the Kalita.

#4: Post by **namelessone** » November 23rd, 2019, 8:59 am

If your dry dose is <=15g there isn't much point stirring. For larger brews, usually a very quick wiggle is enough.

#5: Post by **Mbb** » November 26th, 2019, 7:40 am

I dont stir

Too much trouble

Couldnt tell any difference

Waste of time imo. Take something simple, make it difficult.

#6: Post by **erik82** » November 26th, 2019, 10:18 am

I just make a hole in the middle of the coffeebed and pour it in so all of the grounds get wet. That really helps with evening out the bloom. After that I found that I only needed to stir half of what I did before to saturate all the coffee grounds.

Not stirring resulted gave lesser results. This is what all great coffee guru's like Wendelboe, Hoffman etc. did find and did a lot of research on it.

#7: Post by **blkswn** » November 26th, 2019, 11:54 am

I've moved to creating a divot in the dry grounds and then spinning the bloom which seems to work well. Scott Rao seems to doing this now instead of stirring the bloom per his social media comments here and there that I've read. I haven't found stirring or spinning the bloom to cause any choking of the filter, but I have found spinning the grounds later in the pour can choke the filter.

November 26th, 2019, 10:21 pm

erik82 wrote:I just make a hole in the middle of the coffeebed and pour it in so all of the grounds get wet. That really helps with evening out the bloom. After that I found that I only needed to stir half of what I did before to saturate all the coffee grounds.

Not stirring resulted gave lesser results. This is what all great coffee guru's like Wendelboe, Hoffman etc. did find and did a lot of research on it.

with my clumsiness i know the whole thing will end up on the floor in my case, that's why I am keeping to stirring atm.

#9: Post by **namelessone** » November 27th, 2019, 3:24 pm

Stirring does not improve a brew regardless of what Rao, Perger or any of the "experts" says if you are only making smaller brews (<15g). It seems like a lot of these experts try to make brewing seem complicated than it is in order to sell their services? For some proof, just watch the brewing competition routines, you'll rarely see anyone stirring, if it improved the brews so much everyone would be doing it since it would give a clear competitive advantage.

November 27th, 2019, 4:07 pm

Not doing blooming/stirring in competition is an artifact of the Brewer's Cup rules. If the procedure isn't perfectly replicated for all the judges, then points are lost.

That being said, aggressive blooming/stirring itself is an artifact from shops wanting to brew pourover faster. You won't see it in Nel drip ... (which itself is too slow to be used in Brewer's Cup competition).