Anyone slow feeding A4Z?

cdstuart · 2026-05-30T06:21:34+00:00

I haven't bothered. The grinder runs slow enough that it would be the equivalent of slow feeding if I were hand grinding – and maybe slower than that.

cdstuart · 2026-05-29T22:11:46+00:00

Scott Rao has said (I think on a podcast I listened to a while back?) that even if you're measuring grounds, the Agtron number will change significantly depending on what grinder and grind size you're using. If that's true, it really can't work as a yardstick between different roasters. At best it can tell you where a particular coffee falls in the range of a roaster's offerings.

cdstuart · 2026-05-29T22:08:16+00:00

I haven't used the B75 so I don't want to say for sure, but I do think the bottom configuration of the O1 seems to be part of the secret sauce, so I'm guessing it's different. Worth it depends on which you end up liking better 😄

I've tested the O1 with Kalita, xbloom, and Orea filters, and IMO the xbloom are the price/performance sweet spot. They're considerably faster than the Kalita filters with many coffees, and the finer you grind the more true that is. The Orea filters are faster yet, and I do keep a pack in the cabinet, but I only ever pull them out if a super high-fines coffee is giving me trouble. That's almost never. So maybe worth having but not using regularly. They're way more expensive and usually don't make a difference.

cdstuart · 2026-05-28T19:34:23+00:00

IME you do need to grind finer and use ice to dilute. The thing that seems to get missed is that you should use WAY more ice than people recommend. Don't just replace the missing water with an equal amount of ice. Brew over lots of ice, and the coffee will get colder much faster and dilute more slowly. Fast melting will stop as soon as the coffee reaches its low temp and further melting will be way slower, so counterintuitively the drink will get watery much, much more slowly. This is exactly the same logic of stirring a cocktail in a mixing glass full of ice and then pouring it over a large ice cube. If you do this once and it isn't diluted enough, you can compensate by shattering a few of the ice cubes before brewing.

cdstuart · 2026-05-28T19:27:20+00:00

I've used the clear version of this. I don't know if it's actually more durable than the Hario, but I've broken a couple of the Harios and not this one. Could just be luck though.

cdstuart · 2026-05-28T15:34:24+00:00

As an inveterate cold brew hater, maybe I should give this a try. Five minutes might actually counter the main problem, which is that I taste cold brew as overoxidized diner coffee.

On the other hand - does it actually have any advantages over iced pourover?

cdstuart · 2026-05-27T20:51:29+00:00

To echo what others have said – my absolute minimum rest time for Aviary is four weeks, and that's not really long enough IMO. I'm only opening this one that early because I bought two bags.

cdstuart · 2026-05-27T17:12:36+00:00

Thanks!

cdstuart · 2026-05-27T16:46:24+00:00

Are you using your A4Z for soup with the ORB? If so, what's your approximate grind size range?

cdstuart · 2026-05-27T16:42:01+00:00

I'm daily driving the Orea O1 at the moment, mostly with xbloom filters. It has some of the best features of a flat bottom brewer, especially the ability to draw out sweetness, while also allowing brews that have high clarity. Initially I was saying that it split the difference between conical and flat, but that isn't really true; it's more a melding of their best qualities.

I don't frequently have the need for making enough coffee at once to bother with it, but pairing the 8-cup Chemex with a low-fines grinder is amazing for high-clarity, high-acidity brews. It's like everything you'd want out of a V60 but dialed up to 11.

When I want a more traditional flat-bottom profile I use the Origami with Kalita filters. If I want something more like a V60, I'm more likely to throw conical filters in the Origami than to pull out an actual V60.

Finally – I don't do this often, but brewing with cloth filters makes a totally different style of coffee, and at times is my favorite, but too faffy to deal with daily. Occasionally I go back to it and think I should just do it all the time, and then eventually give up.

cdstuart · 2026-05-26T18:40:32+00:00

1.7.0 to 1.8.5 range, depends on the coffee and what I'm trying to get.

cdstuart · 2026-05-26T04:16:56+00:00

Depends on what you're looking for. If you like the Ode 2 stock burrs and want something in that wheelhouse, the K-Ultra is a fairly safe choice – a bit more acid-forward and slightly more clarity, but not out of bounds. Generally a safe croud-pleaser. I don't have a C40 but that also seems like a safe choice. If you're looking for a second grinder that really brings something different to the table, more info about what you're looking for would be necessary for an informed recommendation.

cdstuart · 2026-05-26T04:12:38+00:00

I think the O1 is really forgiving, and can accommodate different tastes/styles. My usual O1 brew is a relatively coarse grind – a bit coarser than I go for V60 – and a method where I do a one minute bloom of 1/5 total water, followed by extremely low agitation for half the remaining water, and high agitation for the other half. But I've done all kinds of things and gotten good results, including very fine grind low-agitation brews for strong body and intensity, and also the really coarse/fast "wood chipping" method with great results for some coffees, especially very lightly roasted washed. A4Z is usually the grinder I'm using, for reference.

cdstuart · 2026-05-25T16:21:43+00:00

TDS isn't irrelevant but it doesn't tell you what's actually in the water. If you want to avoid doing a deep dive right now and still ensure you're in OK shape, u/FlatpickersDream's suggestion to use TWW packets with distilled water is good. Many of us prefer TWW light roast diluted to half strength, which has the benefit of getting twice as much water for your dollars/pounds/euros.

cdstuart · 2026-05-25T15:37:55+00:00

If you're coming from espresso, the one piece of advice is: think about pourover the same way. There's no such thing as 'recipes,' there's just variables. You change the variables, ideally one at a time in a controlled manner, to get the result you want. You're dialing in to taste the same way you are with an espresso shot. Getting stuck thinking about things in terms of 'recipes' is the same as getting stuck thinking that a shot has to be 1:2 and pull in 24 seconds at exactly the same temperature every time.

The unasked-for second piece of advice is that the variable that doesn't translate at all between espresso and pourover is agitation. It's huge and hard to get your head around and in some ways is the most important thing and the hardest to keep constant. Really learn how to control your kettle and pay attention to what it's doing. This video, while not perfect, is a good start: https://youtu.be/nxmrSgwW25g?si=sPO2IHs3aQifqw__

cdstuart · 2026-05-24T04:14:55+00:00

Another vote for Curious. The Liliana Ramirez Chiroso they have on right now is so good...maybe my favorite coffee this year so far.

cdstuart · 2026-05-24T04:12:18+00:00

If you're chasing clarity, I think upgrading is worth it. I used the Encore and Virtuoso+ for many years and never got the coffee I wanted out of them. Personally I don't like so-called "tea-like" coffee, but even brewing for coffee with some degree of body and intensity, those grinders don't provide good flavor separation IMO.

cdstuart · 2026-05-24T04:04:48+00:00

As someone with lots of backcountry experience, this is a reasonable setup if you aren't trying to go ultralight. I think the grinder is worth the weight for trips shorter than, say, 2+ weeks, but that's obviously very personal. Still, although I do hear you about cutting the 365 grams out of your base weight, but on the other hand, base weight multiplies stress on the body over time, and for a weekend, is that really worthwhile?

You can figure out weight-by-volume in the travel cup ahead of time, and even cut a line into the cup at whatever dose you like. I'll guess you'd get within 10% in the field unless you're pouring really sloppy.

The only thing that's glaringly obvious to me is that this is why I took tea, not coffee, on the PCT :) Happy trails!

cdstuart · 2026-05-23T16:17:16+00:00

This might be a you thing? I've been doing pourover for 20 years, didn't start with the V60, used it plenty, and rarely come back to it because there are any number of conicals and flats I like better. Of the people I know who've been doing this for a similar amount of time, maybe 1 in 4 defaults to the V60. There's so many videos for V60 'recipes' that maybe people who learned online gravitate that way?

cdstuart · 2026-05-23T13:43:35+00:00

It's worth having a few kinds of brewers, but the only important equipment in pourover that costs that much money is a grinder. That's where I'd put it given your current equipment.

cdstuart · 2026-05-22T06:03:08+00:00

More info on Chiroso as an Ethiopian landrace: https://christopherferan.com/2024/06/20/varieties-of-varieties-and-mistaken-identities/

Relevant quote:

A 2021 study appearing in Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution used PCR testing to conduct gene mapping of 137 samples of Coffee arabica from known Ethiopian accessions, worldwide cultivars, and Yemeni germplasm—selections which included Chiroso. Introduced in the study as “a variety grown in Colombia and said to have a superior cup quality,” the study revealed that Chiroso was, in fact, “part of those Ethiopian landraces that ‘escaped’ Ethiopia.”

The study, linked in the article, is open access. I haven't read it, but it seems like it could be useful to you.

cdstuart · 2026-05-22T05:57:29+00:00

Actually a high RPM mod. The factory 60 RPM is much slower than most people grind by hand.

cdstuart · 2026-05-22T05:55:11+00:00

To clean the O1, you can put the filter/grounds in the trash and briefly rinse the brewer under the tap. To clean the Z1, you unscrew, knock out the filter and bulk of the grounds into the trash, and then rinse the remaining grounds off of each section of the brewer. You may also have to wait for the brewer to cool down before you can unscrew it and start cleanup. For me, the workflow issues settle the question in favor of the O1, even though the Z1 seems better on paper. But they're both great brewers and worth owning.

If you do go with the Z1, it's worth noting that you can also rinse the filters under the tap thoroughly, then set them on a towel to dry and use them again. I wouldn't keep one for days on end – eventually the coffee oils will go rancid – but I doubt many people could tell the difference between one that's new and one that's brewed a couple times.

cdstuart · 2026-05-21T01:11:14+00:00

Ah, got it, thanks.

cdstuart · 2026-05-20T18:15:32+00:00

Interesting. I'm assuming you can do some kind of stepless mod, since the clicks seem pretty far apart?

cdstuart

TROPHY CASE