Terranova wrote:I am using the "low fines" for filter and syphon but spro is tasting great too.
The "high uniformity" are inside my EK43 and they extend the espresso range a bit, with a good set of Mahlkönig burrs you are also lucky but they are never made as accurate as SSP burrs.

A rule of thumb is, "the less forgiving, the more parallel the burrs".
When little changes have a huge impact, although still reproducible that is a good sign.

Thanks Frank. Is there not much taste difference between "low fines" and "high uniformity"? Have you also tried "Low Uniformity"?

Terranova wrote:I am using the "low fines" for filter and syphon but spro is tasting great too.
The "high uniformity" are inside my EK43 and they extend the espresso range a bit, with a good set of Mahlkönig burrs you are also lucky but they are never made as accurate as SSP burrs.

A rule of thumb is, "the less forgiving, the more parallel the burrs".
When little changes have a huge impact, although still reproducible that is a good sign.

Hi Frank,

Thanks for that. Super useful. I, too, would like to know the taste difference between them.

Specifically, I like spro with lots of clarity of flavour and sweetness; I don't mind high acidity and don't care about body and I use lighter roasts. Do you have a sense that one burr set is better than another for this? I also use the EK for a lot of cupping.

Cheers,
Luca

Terranova wrote:I am using the "low fines" for filter and syphon but spro is tasting great too.
The "high uniformity" are inside my EK43 and they extend the espresso range a bit, with a good set of Mahlkönig burrs you are also lucky but they are never made as accurate as SSP burrs.

A rule of thumb is, "the less forgiving, the more parallel the burrs".
When little changes have a huge impact, although still reproducible that is a good sign.

Hi Frank,

Do you know anything about SSP casted burrs? It seems they are advertised as having the lowest fines?

Second question is that I want the best filter burrs (in a properly aligned EK or your Nautilus!) but also would like the Turkish ultra fine powder to be good because I've been getting some amazing brews using a Turkish grind a vacuum pump and flask (essentially a Siphon but more controllable). The question is which SSP burr is for me from your experience? I've asked Hansung...

bytheway wrote:Hi Frank,

Do you know anything about SSP casted burrs? It seems they are advertised as having the lowest fines?

You are reading the wrong way. The cast burrs have the most fines. " >" is more, ">>" is much more.

Perhaps this will be helpful to folks, my report from this morning's coffee grinder party:

Titus burr carrier + SSP "low uniformity" silver knight burrs installed. I did nothing to align the stationary burr.

10 lbs seasoned on grind 6

V60 on grind 6 behaves the same during brew. 22:375 ~3:30 brew time. 1.59TDS / 23%EY virtually unchanged.
Flavor: far juicier and somehow clearer than usual. Startling

EKespresso. Decent e61 9 bar profile, 18:36
EK1 choked the decent
EK3 gushed at 22 seconds
EK1.5 54 seconds, 20.9EY

"Far juicier and somehow clearer than usual" : what is usual?

Can you explain the EKspresso part? What are you saying what th this?

Usual for the coffee I was brewing. It's my own roast, been tasting it for a few months.

I pulled espresso shots ground on the EK43, 18 gram dose, aim for 36 grams yield, on my Decent espresso machine. I first tried max fine, grind setting 1, and it choked the machine. Then I coarsened considerably to grind setting 3, and it gushed. I went finer to 1.5 and got 36 grams out in 54 seconds, with a 20.9 extraction yield.

FWIW I pulled another shot using the Blooming espresso profile on the same 1.5 grind setting and was only able to pull ~45 grams out before the profile auto terminated. 23.5% EY

RobindG wrote:<image>
You are reading the wrong way. The cast burrs have the most fines. " >" is more, ">>" is much more.

I think the variable that is being described is the least of amount of fines, ie the cast burrs have much less fines rather than much more fines. The reason I'm saying this is that the one listed second is the low fines version, so why would a burr named "low fines" have more fines than the other two (high uniformity and low uniformity)?

Hi Mark,

Thanks for that. Another piece of the puzzle!

When you talk about the low uniformity burr set leading to results that are jucier and clearer, what are you comparing it with? The stock burr set? Or another SSP burr set? Edited to add: Maybe "low uniformity" is low uniformity relative to the other SSP burrs, but not relative to the Mahlkonig burrs?

Would be great to hear what your taste comparisons are with the DE once you feel you have it dialled in. I, too, had issues with the blooming espresso cutting short. I edited the profile to extend the second last step to something like 30 seconds so I can stop it manually. Come to think of it, though, I don't know if stopping there leaves the machine at the temp setting from that step, rather than going through to the final temp reset step so the machine idles higher. I'll check.

Cheers,
Luca

luca wrote:When you talk about the low uniformity burr set leading to results that are jucier and clearer, what are you comparing it with? The stock burr set? Or another SSP burr set? Edited to add: Maybe "low uniformity" is low uniformity relative to the other SSP burrs, but not relative to the Mahlkonig burrs?"

Correct, prior to my burr and carrier change, I had the Mahlkonig stock burrs from....2013? Can't remember exactly when I bought this EK. I used the marker test to align the burrs, but really how close can you get with that?...Total guess, they've had maybe 1000 lbs go through them.

I spoke a lot with Hansung from SSP and it's all so, so confusing. Here's my current understanding:

"Low uniformity" is simply a shorter primary peak on the ground distribution chart compared to the "high uniformity". Hansung says it's better for drip in that it adds more complexity than the "high uniformity". He said the "high uniformity" burrs excelled for single origin espresso, but since I'm mostly brewing and cupping and only occasionally brewing espresso, he recommended the "low uniformity" burrs. My sense is that the "uniformity" burrs both have less fines and outperform the stock and SSP cast burrs. According to SSP, their cast burr is similar but improved geometry compared to MK stock burrs. And cheaper. Also according to the very confusing website, the "low fines" burrs have more fines than both of the "uniformity" burrs. The "low uniformity" and "low fines" have the same primary distribution peak but the "low fines" makes more fines, hah!

Strangely, the "ultra low" aka "low fines" burr (depending where you look) has more fines than both of the "uniformity" burrs, which to me sounds more like it's "low fines" compared to stock or cast burrs, but not "low fines" as in "the lowest fines burr SSP makes". Hope all my quote signs are helpful