I have a Niche grinder and just recently started playing with a hand grinder with pretty standard 47mm Italmill burrs. I have dialed both in for 30 second shots on the Breville dual boiler. For some reason, the shots from the hand grinder seem to have a thicker body and a more intense and sweet flavor.

I don't want to be hand grinding all my shots... so does anyone have ideas why this might be? Do I need to aim for longer shots with the Niche?

My guess is that somehow the grind distribution is affected between the 47mm and 68mm burrs and this is different between all different types of grinders as well. Therefore each grinder has its own sweet spot to dial in for the best taste and therefore the time of the shot is the fairest way to judge the grinder. It's better to dial it in both by taste and see what you would prefer and make your decision then. I'd keep the weight consistent and just vary the time by how fine/coarse you grind.

GregoryJ wrote:Do I need to aim for longer shots with the Niche?

Yea, I'd try it. Grinders with a tighter particle size distribution can handle larger and longer extractions. For an extreme example, with a cheap grinder like a Porlex or Hario that produces a lot of fines, you'll want to extract less to minimize bitterness. Dialing in by taste is really the way to go, rather than by time.

GregoryJ wrote:I have a Niche grinder and just recently started playing with a hand grinder with pretty standard 47mm Italmill burrs. I have dialed both in for 30 second shots on the Breville dual boiler. For some reason, the shots from the hand grinder seem to have a thicker body and a more intense and sweet flavor.

I don't want to be hand grinding all my shots... so does anyone have ideas why this might be? Do I need to aim for longer shots with the Niche?

Whats special about 30 seconds....
Adjust the niche shot til it tastes better?
Are you actually weighing output too or just time to stop your shot?
Too little info to compare grinder v grinder imho

Nothing special about 30 seconds, I just thought I would get similar or better shots with the Niche keeping all else equal. Yes I keep an 18:32 ratio constant for all the shots.

GregoryJ wrote:I have a Niche grinder and just recently started playing with a hand grinder with pretty standard 47mm Italmill burrs.

Can you be more specific with what hand grinder you are using? There can be more reasons to have a better shot out of the 47. Maybe the hand grinder is better aligned than the Niche.

This was with the 1zpresso JE plus. I also have a Bplus Apollo at work which I think has the same 47mm italmill burrs that I can test with. I will try dialing in the Niche better soon though!

Is the Niche's burr-set fully broken in?

I have had it for about a year and run about 1 lb through per week. So I assume it's broken in but not sure how to tell!

It's broken alright!