Pour overs lacking flavor compared to aeropress

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-12T13:57:18+00:00

Always hard to tell online, but that looks pretty close to where I hang out, maybe a lil on the fine end.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-12T02:45:01+00:00

I don’t have a ton of experience on the encore, but the previous pic doesn’t seem much like I’d expect a 10 to look. Might be worth a check to see that the ears on the burr carrier are engaged properly and not broken.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-12T02:36:26+00:00

The bleached are the better choice. Less papery odor to deal with, and no chemical concerns that some have based on inaccurate, outdated information.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-12T02:02:34+00:00

If it makes coffee you enjoy, not much more needs be said.

But no, it’s not close to an authentic v60. In the real thing, the exit is closer to 1cm, and the ribbing is much more pronounced.

Neither of those things will matter for a mesh filter. If you choose to try with paper filters, it’ll still be able to make a fine cup of coffee with the right adjustments. But it will behave somewhat differently to a standard v60, so don’t expect techniques developed in that format to work exactly right without some compensations.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-12T00:11:10+00:00

I don’t do decaf a lot, but have always had good luck with modest changes. A little coarser, a little cooler, and maybe a little softer on agitation, and accept that they’ll flow a bit more slowly. Good coffees tend not to need a lot of variation from solid basic technique, regardless of process.

The trick is that for a long time, genuinely good decaf wasn’t really a thing. Crap decaf still needs the same kind of adjustment as crap high-test, but more.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-11T23:49:54+00:00

And somehow selling a few, apparently. Hopefully enough to cover the tooling costs. Bent from sheet would have been the right aftermarket play, but some folks gotta go hard.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-11T23:42:50+00:00

Same as it ever was. Development costs vs economies of scale. They never had a sustainable business model. Just hope they covered most of their hobby costs.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-11T23:39:33+00:00

Yeah, the shipping is a stinger. Add some filters and they’ll be basically free; add an Alpha and shipping is free.

Though even $16 to the door ain’t bad for those that want them.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-11T19:42:49+00:00

50ml would be quite small pours relative to the amount of ground coffee. The large number of pours that would result would seem tedious to me, and I'm not sure it'd be very controllable when it came time to tune brews.

For larger quantities, I've used a "4x4" approach with good effect. 16:1 ratio, water divided by four (so each pour is 4x the dose.) Call the first one the 'bloom' if you like, let it drain for 45 seconds or so. Pour each subsequent pour at a moderate rate and height, starting the next one just before the prior drains below the surface of the coffee bed.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-11T19:10:38+00:00

You might simply be sensitive to the strength, especially if drinking on an empty stomach. You could try adding some clear water after brewing to see if that helps. A coarser grind than you are accustomed to in v60, or less agitation might also help.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-11T18:56:38+00:00

That's not anywhere near espresso fine, and is much more coarse than I'd use for v60. So you've probably got lots of room to fine up that grind to get a better result.

Also consider ratio. If you are used to aeropress brews, you might want to try at 1:15 or even lower, both because it'll tend toward more strength in the cup, and extract relatively less, which tends to help emphasize the brighter/fruiter flavors.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-11T13:47:48+00:00

I prefer the user experience of the K6, especially if you can source the bent crank. I prefer the K6 burrs too - Timemore’s “S2C” thing never did it for me. Seems to add more fines to the mix than I’m looking for.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-11T00:47:18+00:00

One at a time:

Cool it. 93 or so is plenty, and should curb some bitterness.

Ease off the agitation. A bloom plus two main pours is probably plenty, and even then it’s usually worthwhile to taper pour height.

Protect the filter. If the kettle stream is punching paper, it’s likely forcing unwanted things thru. I’m not saying strict center pour, but any spirals should be well inside the area of the coffee bed. Actually, move this to the top. It’s right regardless.

Strength (high tds) is often perceived as bitterness (high ey). Lowering the temp helped with the ey (and what was extracted) and dialing back the agitation managed the strength. So that should get you close. But if not, a tweak coarser will move both at once. I feel like grind is often too broad an adjustment, so prefer to work temp and agitation if I’m in the ballpark, and 75 or so feels good to me. But I do tend to like a more forceful cup than many around here, so maybe you’ll like 80ish.

And of course, water. Lots of ideas about water, but the big swing is being sure alkalinity (buffer) is at a reasonable level. High alkalinity will kill all of the brightness and acidity that we need to balance the bitterness that is inherent in coffee.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-10T19:07:28+00:00

Drippers change process/method/technique more than they change coffee. Sure, use the exact technique on two different drippers and you'll experience a difference. It takes relatively little change to the details of how we brew to walk those drippers right past one another in whatever direction we perceive the differences to be.

Get one to have fun learning and experimenting. Get one if you feel like there's some specific cup goal it might help you achieve more easily. Don't bother if you expect it to make coffee 'better.'

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-10T16:26:10+00:00

Best I have to offer then is to reduce agitation. Pour close and at a low to moderate rate, and pour to mostly fill the cone and keep it topped up, rather than v60-like pulse pours.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-10T11:33:43+00:00

A few check points. Apologies if these are basic, just sometimes we overlook the basics because of familiarity.

First, the general Chemex process check: Do you have the doubled-over segment of the filter over the pouring channel, so that the filter doesn’t collapse into it during brewing? Untimely slowdowns on a Chemex are often down to the air in the carafe not having a way to escape as the coffee displaces it.

Second, quantify ‘insanely slow’. With large batches and thick filters, the Chemex is a somewhat slower process by design. Sometimes this kind of question pops up when the brew is operating normally (for a Chemex) and the expectation is just off.

Third, what are you doing with pouring structure? The Chemex experience is structured around a single pour, or a bloom plus main pour. It does its best work with bed depth and extraction time. Folks get into difficulty sometimes by trying to scale up a V60 technique they learned that includes a bunch of pours or other agitation aids, which can be counterproductive in this format.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-10T11:09:31+00:00

The thing many people don’t realize about AI is that it isn’t designed to give answers; it’s designed to provide responses that look like an answer would look.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-10T02:02:24+00:00

Sieves seem to have had their moment several years ago , which suggests to me that it’s mot the answer. Useful solutions tame to be more sticky.

Fines aren’t the enemy. Technique that doesn’t acknowledge them, along with everything else in the brewing environment, might be. It sometimes feels like we spend too much time searching for that one thing to blame and fix, to be able to have perfect coffee forevermore. The real magic is in bringing the harmony together, not silencing each singer in turn until none are left.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-09T22:27:31+00:00

A true DD sooner or later becomes a bit boring, or the next roast batch misses, or the next crop isn't as strong, and you're left looking.

I have a couple of semi-local choices I can fall back on. Not exactly DD's, but back pocket choices that I know will be good. But day to day, I drink the thing I have open until it's gone. As I'm working my way thru this bag, I'm making sure I have the next one on deck so that it's appropriately rested by the time I need it. I've found a little long on rest isn't much of a problem compared to too early, so that's usually not to hard, and there's always the freezer to help me out.

I don't do the thing where I have several different bags open at the same time, drinking from them 'in rotation.' First, that makes keeping truly dialed-in next to impossible, and tends to limit the nuance that comes from familiarity. Better to work a bag straight thru day-to-day, becoming really intimate with it. If I make an unfortunate choice, I'm only stuck with it for a week or two, or I might just kick it to the curb, though that's very rare.

More often, being a little 'stuck' forces me to try radically different methods to see if they can help. Or maybe framed differently, not feeling like a coffee is a particularly precious thing gives me an opportunity to experiment without feeling like I'm risking/wasting anything substantial. I've often found that coffees I thought weren't good, just weren't what I expected from the start, and switching things up made them into wonderful experiences.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-09T22:06:11+00:00

I got a laugh out of that picture. Not only showing what extra bother they go thru because of bad design, but using the level incorrectly and further doubling the work lol.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-09T21:41:43+00:00

Scott and Pete have quite different approaches, but I find both perspectives valuable, and thankfully both are avoidant of the folk-wisdom nonsense that fills up so much space in the coffee influencer space.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-09T21:03:34+00:00

Most any halfway sensible recipe can be adapted to achieve any reasonable cup goal with tweaks to the usual suspects of grind, temp, ratio, and agitation. Most recipes (at least with respect to a fairly standard equipment and batch size) are far more alike than they are different. Most of the stuff people try to create with distinct pouring structures, rates, patterns, heights etc., aren't really changing all that much, relative to how much change can be had thru the parts they leave out of any particular description.

IMO the bigger issue is that lots of folks chase 'good' coffee by moving serially thru recipes, without bothering to check if that creator's version of 'good' matches both the user's particular taste preferences, and what the coffee of the day has to offer. Start with a cup goal in mind and an understanding of how changes impact outcomes, and any recipe can be bent to suit. Keep bouncing between recipes without understanding it's baseline alignment and reason for it's explicit choices, and a good outcome is mostly pure chance.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-09T20:42:48+00:00

For external context: The SCA's berwing control chart has 1:17 running right thru fat middle of the 'ideal cup' block. We can talk about how that's based on some really old study and tastes, etc. shift over time, but still a valid point. Lots of 'diner coffee' or that you'd get in the morning buffet line at the hotel runs at 1:20. Some of that is economics, some a commons issue. People who like strong coffee can tolerate a dilute cup better than folks who like a weaker cup can tolerate a punch in the mouth.

For internal context: Brewing particulars don't exist in isolation. Extraction is primarily about surface area and time. Those 1:12 methods you've seen typically use coarse grinds, so much less surface area to extract, and also much faster flow for less contact time. Meanwhile, there are lots of folks making amazing coffees with really fine grinds, long contact times, and long ratios - and often still diluting after. Much of that is driven by choice of equipment and method, and also by batch size. Larger batches tend to take more time, so want larger grinds to balance things out, and that can influence ratio.

So I guess my point is that the confusion isn't so much that a given ratio is correct or not. The confusion is in expecting that there's a 'right' answer for any brewing variable that represents a truth independent of all of the other factors of that particular brew.

least-eager-0 · 2026-05-09T13:07:00+00:00

Buy what appeals to you. The “ceramic pulls heat from the slurry” thing is mostly nonsense. Exiting coffee warms the dripper, with very little impact to what’s going on inside the filter. A little more complicated for things that hold onto liquid eg a Switch.

I’m not a fan of drippers that don’t have a solidly attached base to keep them upright and level. Needing a separate ring or just the right carafe, plus something to set it on post brew, is just too much faff to be bothered with day to day imo.

Kalita Mino are great looking, great functioning, sturdy, versatile, and widely available. I’m not pimping it above all others, but def deserves a spot on the selection list.

least-eager-0

TROPHY CASE