Adjusting the grind as you go through a bag of beans

wilburpan

I’ve heard that as you work through a bag of beans for espresso, it’s common to have to grind finer as time goes on. This has been my experience for the most part. Our usual pattern is to pick up a bag of beans from our local roaster, which lasts for about 2 weeks. At some point during that 2 week period of time, I’ll tweak my grinder to grind finer to get the taste to what I’m looking for.

With our current bag of beans, I’m a little over 1 week in, and I find myself adjusting the grind coarser to get what I want. At the beginning of this bag of beans, I was happy with our espresso, so it’s not like I started from a point where I was grinding too fine, and am now adjusting for that.

Is it weird that I am experiencing this, or is it weird that I don’t wind up doing this more often with other bags of beans?

Of course, I’m letting the taste of the espresso drive the adjustments, so I’m not being dogmatic about the “grind finer as you go through the bag of beans” thing. Just curious as to what other folks have experienced.

tompoland

wilburpan I find myself adjusting the grind coarser to get what I want.

has your humidity changed? that always messes with grind settings 100% of the time.

tompoland

wilburpan are you still using the 9barista? I’m asking because it may make the “grams in : grams out” ratio a bit harder to determine than it might be with an espresso machine with a scale sitting under the cup.

I guess you are basing the “need to grind coarser” on taste as opposed to weight?

JHCCoffee

When I used to open an entire bag and work through it, the flow would increase as the beans staled, so I would grind finer to offset. Its the “norm”.

But … staler beans need more extraction. And faster flow can indeed extract more; think of water running past a boulder and removing the surface silt and eroding the boulder itself. Counter intuitive, but it works.

These days I avoid the staling issue by resting my coffee for the desired period (a point of debate) and then dividing the pound into 2 day vacuum sealed portions, which I then freeze until I need a 2 day portion. As I consume about 1 lb a week, my portions are 115g.

ValentinoAzzurro

Staling isn’t the chief issue. What affects the density of the beans to the greatest degree are changes in humidity. I roast in 500g batches, on average lasts me 6 days. I normally allow 48hours for ‘resting’.
Given Irish weather, it’s a very rare week when I don’t have to adjust my grinder at least twice.

Waitforme

500kg over 6 days 😳

I take it you don’t sleep much 🤔

tompoland

Waitforme 500kg over 6 days

500kg of coffee beans in 6 days = nuclear reactive.

but 500g is still pretty impressive 😀

ValentinoAzzurro

I’VE CUT DOWN!

wilburpan

tompoland We have central heating/cooling, and the house is reasonably well insulated. I won’t say that the humidity has been rock-solid, but it’s also not changing any more than at any other time.

I can confirm this as I have a hygrometer in my shop (humidity also affects how wood behaves), and it’s been at the same reading.

wilburpan

tompoland Still using the 9Barista. Still love it.

Right – the move to grind coarser is based on taste, not weight. I use 19g of ground coffee, and in my hands, the 9Barista has been remarkably consistent in terms of output, so I don’t think it’s a matter of different volumes of extraction.

Just to recap, because there are factors being brought up throughout this thread that aren’t completely relevant to my situation:

Usual experience with a bag of beans in the almost 2 years that I’ve been using my 9Barista:

Start using beans, tweak a little because it’s a new bag.
After several days, shots are a little acidic, and extraction time is a little fast (about 3-5s), so tweak my grinder (DF83) to grind a little finer.
Finish bag after 12-14 days.

What’s happening with the bag in question:

Start using beans, tweak a little because it’s a new bag.
After several days, shots are a little bitter/strong, and extraction time is longer, so tweak the DF83 to grind coarser
Still working through this bag, but should be done at the 12-14 day mark.

For me, this grinding coarser thing is an outlier event. That’s why I’m asking if others have had the experience of adjusting their grinder to go coarser as you go through a bag of beans.

Verion

When I roast, I typically rest for 7-10 days.

Without a doubt, when I start to use the batch, I will have to move my Niche settings for espresso up and down (8-12) throughout. I generally achieve 1:2 ratio within the 30 second shot (+ - 3 seconds) and dialing in every few shots is ok for my workflow.

Bosses1

@“wilburpan”# Are you using an electronic grind on demand or an older model manual / flick lever grinder? There should be no reason to adjust the grind over such a short period unless you are keeping the bag in the fridge unsealed and condensation or moisture is on the beans prior to grinding. If you are working to the old style recipe (correct) you should be targeting on a single shot 30 ml in aprox 30 seconds. Blade adjustment should be done as blades wear and you should always be adjusting finer. Unfortunately over recent years people in their wisdom are changing recipes using scales etc which is a crock of. A reason why you may be seeing inconsistency with your pour could be the incorrect loading in the portafilter and if under loaded it will run faster, overloaded run too slow. Cheers.

tompoland

Bosses1 @wilburpan has a DF83 if memory serves me correct.

wilburpan

Bosses1 For clarity and context, I use a 9Barista and a DF83. With the 9Barista, the only variables I can change are dose and grind. My dose is always 19g, and I haven’t changed that with this bag of beans.

I’ve had the 9Barista long enough that a conservative estimate is that I’ve made over 1300 shots with it. The DF83 I’ve had for a little over a year at this point, so that’s over 700 shots with the 9Barista/DF83 combo. So that’s plenty of experience at this point. I don’t think that inconsistency is the issue here.

I’m reading “blade” as “grinder burr”. Please let me know if I am wrong.

John_Yossarian

tompoland This was what I read as well. I did not get the “blade” in the story.

Bosses1

wilburpan I see, I actually thought we were talking about commercial machines,I only just looked up a 9barista machine to see what it actually is, totally different to commercial equipment. I am unfamiliar with them so my comment was not applicable. Cheers.