jchung wrote:I don't single dose. I always put maybe 200-300g of beans in the hopper. I just hate measuring beans each time before putting it in the grinder. I think people single dose for 2 reasons:

1. They don't want to waste coffee
2. They want to be able to switch beans easily

I would add a third reason as some of use just have a touch of OCD. I don't switch beans alot and wasted coffee doesnt weigh on me. I just like the idea of there not being ground coffee getting stale in the chute...... Right there in front of me.... I can feel it going stale......

Very true .....though it's typically more than just a touch
A lot of times we can't always explain the things we do logically and we know deep down they are insignificant in the cup, but we do it to care for our own OCD tendencies (which a lot of times are bred and nurtured in forums)

When guests watch me tamp 2-3 times until it "feels right", I can never explain to them why I'm doing it and deep down I know there would be no difference if I just did that first tamp and pulled

This becomes evident when watching WBC routines and seeing how simple their process is compared to the "typical" home barista

There is defiantly allot out there that uses a technique that best can be described as OCD.

But it is not only home baristas suffering from it, allot of those working in high end shops have a similar unnecessary complex regime that do more harm then good.

Tamping multiple time is really a bad habit, as it put an unnecessary amount of stress on the wrist, for a pro this can lead to injuries in the long run. So it is something you want to limit as much as possible.

And this is just one of many bizar habits, keeping things simple is what we ought to do, removing all unnecessary techniques that doesn't really do any good for example le all those finger redistribution techniques.

let's get back to the original topic. single dosing.

One of the only worthwhile reasons to analyze "bad habits" is that they usually stem from an attempt to compensate for something that isn't right. Many of the advances on H-B are due to people looking at what they are doing, what others are doing and cogitating over the difference.

Cogitating over "bad habits" can, and does, lead to enlightenment.

Single dose always. But of course it is impossible not to single dose with a Versalab....

Not just for freshness - but also for convenience sake - roast a sample and want to try it while the older batch is still there? NP.. Want to do a tasting of different coffees? NP.

At the moment I'm just keeping a small amount of beans in the hopper. But instead of assuming what I weighed going in is what I got coming out I'm now weighing the basket.

I single dosed on my SJ but stopped doing that as I found it too cumbersome and suspected inconsistent grind sizes....with the Major as before on the SJ I'm using a mini hopper made from thick plastic film (rollled up into a tube) holding about a day's worth of beans. At the end of the day the hopper is empty and I always clean the chute after a grind..
Nowadays I apply a bit of pressure on the beans and find it helps getting a more consistent grind and pou and it allows a bit coarser grind than my usual pretty fine (tend to err on the ristretto side of things)

Waste?, drink more espresso and the waste to pruduct ratio will improve

I only do single dose with the Breville BCG820BSSXL (SGP). Retention is amazingly low at ~1%. The SGP has a straight drop, making for low retention; and admittedly, a tap to the body is needed at the end of the cycle to get <0.2 g retention.

Weighing takes around 20 sec and I don't mind; it's integrated in the front-end of the ritual. I use a 1/3 cup measuring spoon and around ~2/3 full is close to 17 gm, so the weigh process for me is fast, not much dawdling required. I have not cleaned the grinder in a bit of a while. It stays pretty clean, which is unsurprising by virtue of its almost-zero retention. If it occurs to me, I take the unit outside, turn upside down and tap a bit. Then, I use compressed air (from a can) to blow out fines from the short grinder path. In 6 months, I've done this three times.

Beans stay fresh longer with single dose coming from an airtight storage container. Single dosing eliminates potential uncertainty and variability from important aspects of espresso making, arguably, particularly for newbie baristas like me. It nails the dose and makes the freshness factor more consistent day-to-day (probably humidity content as well). Of course, single-serving weighing could not fit into a high throughput setting.

On the other hand, with a bit of attention to bean turnover rate in the hopper, and with some experience, I could see how weighed single dose might become a drag, without sufficient 'ROI' to justify adding value. The opposite approach to weighed single dosing might be keeping a hopper full of beans feeding a doser, for use by 1-2 people making a few shots a day. That approach seems inefficient, to me.

In a similar situation to the Versalab owners - I single dose because I have an HG-1 - its the only option. Regardless, I have always single dosed because for me the options were always worse. The alternatives are either to waste a significant amount of coffee, which I would never be comfortable with, or compromise on the quality by using stale grounds, also not acceptable!

The secondary aspect of single dosing is accurate dosing, I am not sure how people expect to be able to make consistently great coffee if they dont have consistent dosing, its the primary variable - and the first one you look to lock in when dialling in a coffee.