RyanJE wrote:Oh and what "sieve" would people recommend! I'm sure the mesh size varies greatly?...

I'd recommend using a sieve at about 300 or 400 microns, or 40/50 mesh, any smaller and you'll be left with too many fines, too big and you'll lose a higher percentage of grounds from your initial dose as more mass is sieved out.
The more you shake the sieve, the more fines you will produce, however I imagine you will fairly quickly reach a point where you will be sieving out the same amount of fines as will be produced and you will just very very very slowly lose overall mass.
You could also use a standard kitchen sieve to remove chaff and boulders. some coffee beans will end up slipping between the burrs sideways and become planed, If you were concerned enough you could re-grind and re-sieve the boulders but thats a lot of hassle for about 1 gram of coffee.

Because of the absence of (so many) fines in your brew, you can grind finer and extract more, and we all know that extraction = tasty.

Try searching for Zooplankton Sieves, Endecotts Sieves, Tamis/Passing Sieves, fine mesh Flour Sieves. or just buy some micron mesh and fit it over the top of a jar lid or something.

Alternatively, there's something called the Rafino out soon. Google that.

While a slow and precise pour / series of pours is good for the extraction segment, I like to do a very fast pour for the bloom segment. This ensures that no air ever gets to the grinds before the bloom segment is completed. This was what was making the big difference for me in not allowing the fines to "glue" the boulders and mids together.

All of the suggestions so far are great. If I go finer than coarse drip grind I tend to have more problems, but that's using Chemex paper filters.

Here's a link to the Rafino sieve. Looking forward to playing with one in a couple of months.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ra ... ing-system

The best fix is still a grinder upgrade, but sieving and even double grinding could help.

Would not double grinding increase fines? Likely reduce boulders, though?

Well, sure. But the way the Rafino people do it, is to only double-grind the boulders that get pulled out by the unit, and then re-sieve the double-ground boulders. So yeah, there would be more fines produced, but they'd be sieved out.

Tim Wendelboe recommends double grinding with the first grind a bit coarser to get a more consistent particle size from a low-cost hand grinder. You'd probably increase the fines, since this is a no-cost solution I recommend you try it and see if the increase in grinds consistency outweighs the increase in fines.

If I were spending money, I'd buy a better grinder before I bought a sieve set unless there's some reason you need to use a low-cost hand grinder.

You could look into making a poor-man's coffee sieve, it works pretty well with low-end grinders to remove the fines: Brewing with the Clever Coffee Dripper

A good brew grinder will significantly improve your cup. When I moved from Baratza Encore to Bunn G1 used even with old burrs, coffee was way better. Check out used bulk grinders. Always some out there cheap. Saw five G1s on Craigslist the other day.