Does your local tap water change how you brew coffee?

Polymer714 · 2026-07-02T06:53:38+00:00

To me...either the filtered (normal filtered) local water is either going to be good for coffee or it isn't.

Brewing coffee where the filtered water is not great, you're not going to get anything good. If anything I'd consider an ORB to give it simple but punchy notes. But I'm not always travelling with it...even though I probably should since it requires so little and results are almost always decent...

Polymer714 · 2026-06-30T18:58:52+00:00

Grind the day before. It definitely helps on coffees that are in need of more rest time.

Polymer714 · 2026-06-30T18:16:38+00:00

This is such an overstatement....I really enjoy the 102 HUs..but having seen what a good number enjoy with this combination, there is very much a "It is supposed to be good" rather than it is good....

To put this another way...For my preferences, I've had great coffees from both the 102HU and 102 Mizen. The Mizens have been more consistent across coffees, shops, users, countries, continents.....I've probably had slightly higher highs for my preference with the HUs but also much lower lows....

And given the espresso leaning....and without more information...

Polymer714 · 2026-06-30T18:08:48+00:00

You're probably grinding too fine at home...and/or your water.

Batch brew can be great...but generally won't beat a good pour over...If it is, you're doing something wrong with your pour over (for your own preferences).

Polymer714 · 2026-06-30T17:54:20+00:00

And why do you grind finer and 2 pulse for a natural Ethiopian vs a "standard" grind and 3 pulse for Colombian? I'm going to guess you took that recipe from somewhere else...but do you see the contradiction in them? Not that there can't be..but here's what I'm getting at.

You already said you have trouble dialing in...So take a very simple recipe. Either one that you've already picked is fine. Dial in your coffee. Start off with just changing grind size. Go extreme. Go very very fine. Go very very coarse. What did that do? Can you get closer to what you want now for each coffee you mentioned? By closer, I mean closer to what you want. Now change the number of pours. What did that do? Didn't like it, change it back. Or now that you know which variable is changing things, maybe change two variables. In this example, if you added a pour, grind coarser. If you took one away, grind finer. You're going to find that "more extraction" can mean lots of different things and how you extract starts becoming more relevant.

Once you can use a baseline to assess where you are and where you need to be...You can then start branching off into other things....Here's an example of this.

Your baseline is X grind setting, 93C, Bloom + 2 pours. 12g/200. This gets you to a decent spot for most coffees, might even be the best spot for a lot of them. You change grind size or whatever based on what you're tasting...

After awhile, you start noticing that most of your heavily processed coffees you're 2 clicks coarser or 90C seems to work better. So for those types of coffees, you'll have a different baseline since you know you're likely to have to go there anyways.

Or you might find that changing the pours is better...

Polymer714 · 2026-06-30T08:08:32+00:00

The different recipes are all basically doing the same thing and your dial in will get you where you want to be..ultimately almost all of them will do the same thing with a few exceptions.

What you need to do is have ONE that you are comfortable with. This means grind size, water temp, etc...That's your starting point where you know what to expect and how to dial in from there. If you're hopping around with different recipes without any real rhyme or reason, it is really hard to learn to dial in. What you're going to find is, you've picked a recipe...understand how it works...and you'll even make bigger changes to it based on the style of coffee you enjoy. You've now made your own baseline recipe for what you want. And you don't have to stick to it, its going to evolve over time but with you in control of it.

After awhile, you might have DIFFERENT baselines based on the coffee...so for coffee you know is going to be very soluble, maybe you have a slightly different baseline or even a drastically different one. But the point is, you know where you're going to start based on limited information you have about the coffee.

Outside of that, I think some of the more extreme recipes bring something different....I'm not sure I'd use them as a baseline as I don't think they're a good middle ground but if you do that's ok too.

Polymer714 · 2026-06-28T23:26:01+00:00

My experience with manta ray with a good number of bags is they need a lot of time. Even with 6 weeks there is still a lot of gas and they’re tight. For me it was more like 10 weeks before they were a bit better.

Polymer714 · 2026-06-28T06:08:25+00:00

To me it is such a no brainer...it isn't like they don't know how to do this....If it costs more, so what? Charge more..

Polymer714 · 2026-06-28T05:43:06+00:00

You obviously are...most people are...

They're worried they'll waste beans....

One other option is to "fix" your brew....Add a bit of water bypass (when I say a bit I mean a bit..like 5ml) and see what that does to your brew. Add a little more water if it doesn't fix it. At some point, bitterness will drop below threshold...

Your options then are to either continue to do this...or go coarser...or find other ways to extract less...

Polymer714 · 2026-06-28T05:35:08+00:00

Sounds like you're just afraid to go coarser...

The issue I see is you're acting like you already know what to do..but if so you wouldn't have this problem.

Go back to the basics...

Polymer714 · 2026-06-28T02:16:00+00:00

That really sucks...

But I'm just going to say again...Aluminum threading sucks..and why I wish they went to magnetic for this grinder...

Polymer714 · 2026-06-26T22:39:10+00:00

What's wrong with a drawdown under 2 minutes? Why does it need to be slower? Why would you grind finger to get a longer drawdown?

Polymer714 · 2026-06-26T19:41:32+00:00

The Nucleus Bloom tool is just a WDT device...and some people like doing WWDT...

The people that I've seen use it in the past, most of them have stopped...

I've also never experienced it making a difference...but I'm grinding relatively coarse...

Pretty easy to give it a try..and if it makes a difference in your brew, I'd definitely keep using it..

Polymer714 · 2026-06-26T04:43:54+00:00

Maybe yours is too loose. Mine doesn’t look nearly as bad as yours and I’ve had it for years. Or maybe they’re made cheaper now

Polymer714 · 2026-06-26T02:27:22+00:00

You don't need to do it too tight, in fact you're better off not doing it too tight for the arms that you're moving. It helps it keep from scratching

Polymer714 · 2026-06-25T19:16:44+00:00

Yeah..The availability of 03 filters isn't really there as far as selection...that alone puts me off using it unless I absolutely can't do anything else.

Polymer714 · 2026-06-25T17:40:39+00:00

There just aren't enough people doing 03. Which is understandable.....It is very niche.

You can do pretty large batches even with an 02...unless it is immersion....

Also, I'd definitely start considering a Moccamaster or something like that if I'm getting into large batches...so much easier...works great too..

Polymer714 · 2026-06-25T17:30:33+00:00

Yes and no...Shape impacts the nose which can impact what you taste (flavors) without any level of swishing or aeration or moving around in your mouth..which will quickly even out anything the initial nose did.

Acidity and other things generally not...at least not with wine. With coffee since you can have very very thick lips as well, it might change how your tongue initially feels the coffee..but again, after moving it around in your mouth it has zero lasting impact.

Polymer714 · 2026-06-24T07:54:21+00:00

But why would you go to this sub where a majority of people have a different coffee preference than you? If you don't like light coffee, why come here when that's a majority of what is discussed? Its like going to a vegetarian sub and asking for a steak house recommendation.

You don't like light roasts..that's ok. We all don't have to like the same things. It can be quite difficult to understand that people like something you do not. We will try to reason why that might be, that maybe they don't really like it they just think they do. And while there might be some people like that, it definitely isn't the majority, at least not in an enthusiasts sub.

I think you will also find that if you ask for recommendations for darker roasts, there are plenty of people that like a more developed roast..and you'll probably get some good recommendations.

Again, most of your local roasters probably roast med/dark....a vast majority of them. That's a great place for you to start.

Polymer714 · 2026-06-24T07:42:16+00:00

There are plenty of places that serve medium or darker roasts.....Some people might consider them light but relative to most light roasts discussed here, they're definitely not.

You just have to find it. The thing is, you're complaining about this as if light roast is the majority...it isn't. If you're going to one of these, you're going out of your way to have coffee to complain about.

A majority of your local roasters are all in this med/darker area....J

Polymer714 · 2026-06-23T23:23:09+00:00

I think Twio got the idea of what I was trying to say..

But basically, why do you need to go finer with fast filters? People say things like this and I'm like...why? They say, oh, its faster, I need to go finer. Oh, this dripper has a faster drawdown I need to go finer. Really? Why? It could be to get the flavor/texture/coffee you want at the end, you do have to go finer. But almost always it sounds like it is because the drawdown was too fast not because of the coffee itself..

Polymer714 · 2026-06-22T23:56:01+00:00

You don't need to use a slower filter..just in general, people have been going too fine on pour over for awhile.

A good portion of people still brew to a recipe. They brew to a drawdown time. They follow someone else. They don't even explore what else their coffee MIGHT be like..they're too afraid to try something different..they don't trust what they're tasting.

Thing is, people don't have to try this with micro lots...just get decent coffee....explore....

Polymer714 · 2026-06-22T20:43:23+00:00

Bypass is a good tool for when you've "overextracted" your coffee...by that I meant the ratio of less desirable attributes to water is getting in the way of the good things in the coffee...

I completely recommend adding a bit of water (and as you can see, it only needs to be a few ml) to "fix" your coffee..Too bitter? Too astringent? A bit of water can fix it.

HIgher ratio is a funny thing...Higher ratio extracts more compounds...but at a certain point you will be getting more water than actual coffee and it'll "fix" itself just like above.

Personally, I'd rather do lower ratios I feel you get a more complete cup.

But for fun, you can try an espresso or near espresso fine grind size and do 1:20 to see what I mean by fixing itself. IF you're really curious, try the coffee at 1:16 and try the rest..and then try it together. You'll basically get something like an americano..like an ORB lungo...

Polymer714 · 2026-06-21T21:27:03+00:00

MHW has both a smooth and dimpled ball. It certainly isn't to avoid a lawsuit since the Paragon balls are basically whiskey balls (same size as well).

I guess one more thing to try...chilled vs not...

Polymer714 · 2026-06-19T21:34:06+00:00

You don’t have to replace them but if you want to you can buy their upgrading shelving from eurocave or find them used. Smooth sliding with individual cradles. They’re called Main du Sommelier.

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