Fellow Ode brew grinder review - Page 35

Grinders are one of the keys to exceptional espresso. Discuss them here.
violin_geek123
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#341: Post by violin_geek123 »

@Yan and @JacquesCousteaudian,

I just did my morning brew of the Gesha with my Comandante at 20 clicks. 20g to 340g, double pour method as usual. The cup is nice and well extracted (I was in danger of clogging but a slower pour rate and lower kettle height fixed that), and the taste is quite different than that of the Ode. It has good clarity and nice sweetness, but there is also an aspect of the coffee that tastes a bit "dusty", and a tickle of harshness on the end. Overall, the tasting notes are a bit cloudy as compared to my Ode brews from yesterday which really tasted beautiful.

The Comandante gives me better cup clarity than the Niche, but so far not as good as the Ode w/SSP burrs. Is the Ode almost $250 better than the Comandante, though? Well....depends on who you ask. It's really a game of diminishing returns at this point. All the cups I'm getting from all three grinders are delicious and would make me happy; I'm just nitpicking at this point and it also is a totally subjective game, as I don't have a refractometer.

I will add that the absolute best brews I have gotten out of the Ode were at a coarser setting in my Moccamaster. When brewing a larger batch, around 45g/750g at setting #5 on the Ode, the clarity was even more pronounced and the cups were even sweeter than my V60s. I attribute this to a possible better grind distribution in that "medium-ish" range rather than the "medium-fine" range. The grinds at my current #5 look quite similar to the grounds I was getting at #1-#2 with the stock burrs, but the cup profile isn't even comparable.

It should be noted, however, that the SSP Ode as it currently stands is definitely not anywhere near a well aligned EK or anything like that. But for a home brewer, it is totally fine and capable of good extractions.
Brian Hong

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#342: Post by Brewzologist »

violin_geek123 wrote:Hi all,

Well, after about 5 days of using the Ode with SSP Brew burrs installed, I feel comfortable enough to comment on the general performance of the grinder and how its brews stack up to my other main grinders, a Comandante (which I use for brew only) and the Niche Zero (which I use for espresso, Aeropress, and single-cup V60s).

. . .
Brian; Thanks for this review and comparison between the Ode+SSP and Niche. I've been lurking in this thread with interest as I have the Niche and do both espresso and pour over. FYI; I have been using a unimodal grinding technique with the Niche for pour overs that has greatly improved the quality of my V60's, but it's arguably more work and unsuitable if you are making more than a couple cups of coffee at a time.

Yan
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#343: Post by Yan »

violin_geek123 wrote:@Yan and @JacquesCousteaudian,

I just did my morning brew of the Gesha with my Comandante at 20 clicks. 20g to 340g, double pour method as usual. The cup is nice and well extracted (I was in danger of clogging but a slower pour rate and lower kettle height fixed that), and the taste is quite different than that of the Ode. It has good clarity and nice sweetness, but there is also an aspect of the coffee that tastes a bit "dusty", and a tickle of harshness on the end. Overall, the tasting notes are a bit cloudy as compared to my Ode brews from yesterday which really tasted beautiful.

The Comandante gives me better cup clarity than the Niche, but so far not as good as the Ode w/SSP burrs. Is the Ode almost $250 better than the Comandante, though? Well....depends on who you ask. It's really a game of diminishing returns at this point. All the cups I'm getting from all three grinders are delicious and would make me happy; I'm just nitpicking at this point and it also is a totally subjective game, as I don't have a refractometer.

It should be noted, however, that the SSP Ode as it currently stands is definitely not anywhere near a well aligned EK or anything like that. But for a home brewer, it is totally fine and capable of good extractions.
Brian,
Thanks for the info, I am kind of new to c40, only 3-4 brew so far, but my experience with Ethiopian Nensebo Coffee with 20 click pretty much the same as your experience and I am realized the result in the cup not as good/balance in sweetness and acidity as my APEX but a lot better than my m47 in Pour-over especially in clarity.

ode with ssp looks interesting @ 500$...for a home brewer...

PistolPeteJR
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#344: Post by PistolPeteJR »

Brian's review is pushing me to sell my Niche.
I've had it for about a year and a half but honestly on average have used it like 2-3 times a week. It's in perfect condition more or less.

Than I'm just gonna buy SSPs, fit em to my Ode, and call it a day.

I haven't had a chance to compare my Niche and Ode properly yet myself due to a few circumstances, notably my Ode having issues; but when they send me a new one (assuming it's going that route as I wait on Fellow), I'll be playing around.

violin_geek123
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#345: Post by violin_geek123 replying to PistolPeteJR »

Oof - I don't want to push you to do something you might regret down the line! I still adore my Niche and will continue to use it regularly.

On another note, I brewed another V60 tonight and went down to 3.1 on the Ode and it still didn't clog, and finished at 3:40 with probably the best cup of this Gesha I have yet had.

To everyone who is thinking of getting SSP burrs for the Ode: I emailed with Ryan from Prima Coffee a little bit, and told him my experience. He just wrote today and said that to their knowledge, the SSP Brew burrs are fitting into the Odes that their customers are now getting. That's a very good sign.
Brian Hong

jdrobison
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#346: Post by jdrobison replying to violin_geek123 »

You don't happen to have a Kruve, do you? I'd love to know what your particle distribution is compared to mine, above.

It's sounding as though Fellow jumped the gun on taking the Ode to market. It's one thing to find a Kickstarter campaign, knowing that you're taking a chance on an unproven device. It's risky investing, which I'm willing to do for coffee startups. It's another thing, however, to spend $300 at retail to discover that you have to spend another $200 unless you're only brewing full immersion or controlled drip.

tetontrees
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#347: Post by tetontrees »

Emailed Prima and heard back from Ryan that they don't have an ETA on restock of the SSP burrs. He recommended I check back in a few weeks.

Has anyone found another source for the SSP brew burrs? I emailed Whole Latte Love as well and they only stock the espresso burrs.

PistolPeteJR
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#348: Post by PistolPeteJR »

violin_geek123 wrote:Oof - I don't want to push you to do something you might regret down the line! I still adore my Niche and will continue to use it regularly.

On another note, I brewed another V60 tonight and went down to 3.1 on the Ode and it still didn't clog, and finished at 3:40 with probably the best cup of this Gesha I have yet had.

To everyone who is thinking of getting SSP burrs for the Ode: I emailed with Ryan from Prima Coffee a little bit, and told him my experience. He just wrote today and said that to their knowledge, the SSP Brew burrs are fitting into the Odes that their customers are now getting. That's a very good sign.
The thing is I'm a strict light-roast guy, always settling for fruit and floral, with the occasional nutty twist. For that reason, flat burrs are more attractive to me. In addition, I don't brew espresso at home at all, so I don't have any need for fine grinding.

Just about all of my brews are clogging. I'm using Kalita 185 and I'm alternating between 13g/200ml or 16g/250ml, and I always get clogs. Some of my pours have been unimodal, some multi-pulses. I can't grind under the notch coarser than 5 or my brew ends up at like 3:30 and bitter. FWIW, I've been brewing Friedhats and some Nomad. All the same annoyance.

I never had these kinds of issues pre-Ode, so I'm not ready to blame technique as the main driver at all, pardon the appeared arrogance.

violin_geek123
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#349: Post by violin_geek123 replying to PistolPeteJR »

I'm with you - for filter coffee, I only do very light roasts. The grind profile of stock Ode burrs is very coarse, but I have a feeling that the shape of the grinds or the amount of fines it produces causes brews to clog before one can even get remotely fine enough for a good single cup V60 brew.

For your Kalita, have you considered Scott Rao's tip of putting a cut-out of tea strainer mesh in the bottom to lift the filter paper so that it doesn't adhere to the holes? I wonder if that would improve your brews, especially with the Niche. I also tend to decrease my pour rate and kettle height for these finer grind V60s, as well as swirl very gently, which helps with clogging.
Brian Hong

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#350: Post by Brewzologist »

Pete; I use the Niche for both espresso and pour-over. One thing I found (duh!) was that I needed to blow out grounds when changing between espresso and pour-over to get good results. I use a little silicone bellows for this. It's not as zero retention that way since I'm blowing out grinds that would otherwise be exchanged, but it's the price I pay for wanting to use one grinder for both espresso and pour over. Between clearing grinds and using unimodal technique I have made the Niche work well for my V60's. There are still some fines but they tend to stick high up on the filter and I don't wash them down into the bed.

Apologies for the brief hijack of this thread. One day I still may also pop for the Ode+SSP for a better filter grinder. But frankly I want to wait awhile to see how the Ode holds up to regular use. IMO, right now it's too early to tell and the early production units seem to have variable quality. Will continue lurking here to monitor the early adopters experiences... 8)

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