12mo ago

How do you guys grind your coffee?

I just retrofitted my basic hand crank mill with a 10mm nut, and drove it with a drill. It's so much faster now, but I do wonder if there's actual properly motorized versions of what I just did.

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Like this. I'm running it through a variable frequency drive to limit the revs

Shit i gotta try this with weed

Dave smash coffee big rock

Obligatory James Hoffman clip.

I could not tell the difference between pre-ground and home ground coffee. I am happy with not having a discriminating palate, since pre-ground is easier.
- With dark roast I haven't found much difference either.
  With a local medium roast, I don't know if it was the beans, but I was able to get a pleasant fruity acidity out of my brew that I haven't been able to find with supermarket medium roast grounds.

So you motorized a burr grinder?

Idk with just a cheapo electric grinder thing

Wnh not just buy an electric grinder at this point? People use hand grinders because they enjoy the process.
- Good electric burr grinders are very expensive.
  
  So are good burr hand grinders. My friend paid as much for his hand grinder as I did for my Breville electric burr grinder.
  
  Not really. A Baratza Encore can be had for just over $100 and is perfectly fine for 99% of the coffee population that isn't doing espresso.
- Because i wanted an all metal burr grinder with no plastic in it at all
  
  Hey! You're not OP! Everybody, this guy is a big phoney!

I have a pair of Breville/Sage SmartGrinders (which I didn't pay anywhere near list price for).
One for caff, one for decaff.
I love them, as once I've dialed in the grind size for a bean, and set the timer per shot to hit the correct weigh, I can just bonk the button with a portafilter, and get a correctly sized dose.
While I love experimenting with coffee, once the conclusion is reached, I like to nail down the process so I don't need to think about it until the next bean change.

I do this with my 1zpresso Q2 except I just chuck it directly into the grinder which I find helps keep the beans from jumping out of the grinder.
I do the same thing (with a different grinder) when I need a large quantity of ground pepper.

I tried this with exactly this bur grinder and it melted the plastic washer in the assembly
Granted, I was using it for flax seed instead of coffee (it was my spouse's idea), but be careful with that drill my friend

I used to grind beans at home. But I just don’t care anymore. I just run them through the grinder at Costco.

Yes
I have a special drill at work that is just for grinding coffee
At home I my grinder was half the price of my espresso machine.

Seems like I might be a bit bougie. I have a Breville Dose Control conical burr grinder...

Did the same thing for a while lol, just had to keep the drill going as slow as possible.
- What if you go full speed? Will it break something?
  
  Potentially, you could also melt the grinder and mess up the grind of the coffee.

I had that Harrio as my first grinder, it was alright but the adjustment of grind size was annoying and a single espresso shot took like 10 mins to hand-crank. Within a week I ordered a Eureka Mignon Chrono. Best decision.
Ive since retired my budget espresso machine because having no time to dedicate to upkeep ment it was constantly getting nasty and was just too much hassle, now I have found my happy medium with a chemex.

I did that with mine. But I found that I had to feather the drill a lot to keep the grind consistent.
Eventually I just went back to buying pre ground.
Edit: actually I think I have the pro version of yours. Ended up buying a steel ring to go between the mill to stabilize the central steel pin. Got a more consistent grind after it. But felt I needed to keep the drill at a lower speed.
- Eventually I just went back to buying pre ground.
  This sound!! I recognise this sound! Do you hear it? It‘s the doppler effect of pitchforks being dragged over the pavement.

The 10-15 dollar grinder at Walmart or Target, I forgot which. Can't tell any real difference between that and my wife's burr grinder that is much larger.

I'm not sure I prefer the "actual properly motorized versions" over yours - this is absolutely awesome!

I have a breville smart grinder pro. It's fine, but I'd love to upgrade
- I have one of these too. I concur it does a fine job.
  Jokes aside the only negativity I've heard about these is they are not fine turnable enough at the lowest end of the scale.
  I find I can get an excellent shot with good crema from most beans, but there are still a lot I feel I could go finer on to get a better result. Or just the beans suck.
  
  I have one of these too. Actually, I have two, I picked one up second hand for decaff.
  First world opulence for fifty quid!
  Interestingly, the second hand one goes a LOT finer than the new one.
  I normally grind between 2 and 6 depending on the bean with the first, but the second one if I take it under 8, it happily chokes the machine.
  So I wonder if there is mileage in adjusting the burrs inside (which Sage are keen to tell you not to do!)

Timemore C3 Pro. Fits perfectly with a 2 cup Bialetti for a ~250 mL americano.

I used to do exactly what you're doing in the photo until my wife got tired of me abusing the poor little Hario mill and bought me an electric burr mill. You can probably just use a socket on the Hario but I was lazy and clamped the chuck directly to it.

Larger amounts of coffee go in a Baratza Virtuoso, single cups go in my 1zpresso hand mill.
I can't recommend a nice hand mill enough - a hario is fine as a starter grinder but a better mill will be immensely more consistent and much quicker.
I like Baratza for electric grinders, they're a wonderful company. If anything breaks or you need support or parts they're there for you.
- I'll add the obligatory note for anybody new to hand grinders — skip Hario and anything with ceramic burrs and go directly to steel burrs. Yes you're jumping from $40 to $80 but they'll last for many years instead of 6 months and you get consistent grind size. 1Zpresso and Timemore are the most recommended brands.
  
  +1, my hario grinders were terrible for pour over, it was impossible to get a consistent grind out of either a skerton or a skerton pro. I wish I'd stepped up to a 1zpresso sooner. I tried aligning the burrs but never managed to eliminate fines and boulders in either of them, Hario seemed to have issues with the burr shaft being slightly out of true in both.

I mostly drink pre-ground but when I grind it myself I use Baratza Virtuoso grinder.

Hand ground with a Zassenhaus mill.
Got another in the cellar im 3D printing some gears to fit a stepper motor to it. Just got to get the ratio high enough for enough torque. Don't want the large gear too big, so need some more reduction.

I use a varia vs3 at home, and a hario skerton hand grinder at work
I chose the varia for its excellent reviews at its price point, and the hario for being good enough
I haven't tried driving the hario like yours, but also I don't have a drill at work

Capresso Infinity. It is an inexpensive conical burr grinder. I bought mine in 2012.
Mine lasted about 4 years before the thermister died. I replaced it with a 1Ω resistor and it works no problem. I've had to replace that resistor about every 4 years, three times so far, most recently a couple months ago. I would guess it is there to limit heat in the motor but the motor has not yet failed so 🤷.
I grind 60g of medium fine or 40g of coarse just about daily and it has otherwise held up fine. In the summer for the last few years I grind 120g of coarse every few days for cold brew, that is a longer grind and probably the most risk of overheating but hasn't really affected the life AFAICT.
You may be able to spend more on a grinder that lasts more than 4 years, but this is a cheap and easy fix if you're handy with a soldering iron.

At the as you exit filthy public grinder at Costco
- To be fair those are nice freaking grinders. They look like niche zeros on fucking roids
  
  you don't know what's in there. could be pumpkin spice.

I’m using a Breville Smart Grinder Pro that I modified to be single dose. I just ordered a DF64 Gen 2, but it hasn’t arrived yet.
- Enjoy the DF64 😃
  
  Thanks, I’m looking forward to it! But also a little nervous that I won’t be able to tell the difference. 😅

That timemore hand crank one, I drove it with a drill a couple of months ago for fun but I don't want to ruin the hex shaft if it slips.

I thought this was a meme until I read the description XD
I use the Lagom Mini which has been great

Alton Brown did that with a pepper grinder.
So .. hell yeah!👍

I've been using a LIDO 2 for a few years, but am considering the move to 1zpresso...
- Other than possibly being easier to hold due to the smaller size of the 1zpresso, I wouldn't expect much difference in grind quality between the Lido 2 and even the best 1zpresso
  
  I can sift out about 10% fines with a typical Lido grind. Not inherently a bad thing, but I'm intrigued by the almost-zero-fines of the 1zpresso ZP6. A friend of mine has one, and said he did the same thing -- was sifting daily with his other grinder, but decided to stop throwing away 10% of his coffee. :) Don't get me wrong, the Lido is great and has served me well, and I wouldn't even get rid of it. It's just a different thing, going more unimodal.

The Skerton is a terrible grinder regardless of how you power it.
You might be able to modify a good hand grinder in a like manner but good hand grinders take far less time to grind than a Skerton does. What takes 2 or 3 minutes in a Skerton takes less than a minute in a good 1Zpresso, Kinu, Timemore, Kingrinder or similar.
- The skerton was (is?) A good entry level grinder that will give you very decent results especially for immersion-type brews. It's what I started on and what I still use for on the go use cases. I haven't looked at entry level hand grinders in a while so I guess some developments have happened since I got mine. (Based on a comparison video from james hoffman at the time)
  God yes, I tried a friend's 1zpresso and the difference in both grind speed and effort is noticable.
  
  Not sure it was ever a good entry level grinder. 20 years ago it was pretty much the only entry level burr hand grinder that wasn't an old school box style. That was before the Pro version which is sold now that uses many of the modifications that users created to try to make the Skerton perform better. I had one for years and it almost drove me out of home grinding. Luckily better hand grinders came along which while more expensive were substantially better. Now we are in a golden era for good hand grinders at very accessible prices.

I found a shitty little electric grinder on the side of the road in Massachusetts a decade ago. Still using it, it's great.
Edit: it's a Proctor-Silex with the little plastic dome so maybe a bit bougie

This exactly, except Ibuse a DeWalt. I have found that the brand power tool used has little effect on the taste and extraction, however.

At home for espresso I use a Varia vs3 gen2 with the second best burrs (bestness being ranked by price) it's a single dose grinder with good reviews
At work for a plunger (French press) I use a hario skerton, without a drill

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