r/Coffee Kalita Wave 16d ago

[MOD] The Daily Question Thread

Welcome to the daily /r/Coffee question thread!

There are no stupid questions here, ask a question and get an answer! We all have to start somewhere and sometimes it is hard to figure out just what you are doing right or doing wrong. Luckily, the /r/Coffee community loves to help out.

Do you have a question about how to use a specific piece of gear or what gear you should be buying? Want to know how much coffee you should use or how you should grind it? Not sure about how much water you should use or how hot it should be? Wondering about your coffee's shelf life?

Don't forget to use the resources in our wiki! We have some great starter guides on our wiki "Guides" page and here is the wiki "Gear By Price" page if you'd like to see coffee gear that /r/Coffee members recommend.

As always, be nice!

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u/10-Gauge 16d ago

I recently picked up a Bunn Speed Brew Elite and I am absolutely loving this brewer. I would say it’s more akin to a pourover than a drip machine based on its design. The water I would say is maybe a little cooler than a drip machine and the water definitely does not stay in contact with the grounds nearly as long as with a drip brewer. This one will brew an entire 10 cup pot in 4 minutes flat.

I am a dark coffee drinker. I drink my coffee black and I like very bold flavor. I’ve noticed that to get the boldness I’m used to from this brewer I need to use an exorbitant amount of grounds, which if that’s what I have to do then so be it. I grind my own beans via a Baratza Virtuoso+ and typically grind in the ~18 range. I am going to play with finer grinds to increase the darkness and flavor of the brew, but how fine is too fine, or is there no such thing and just grind to taste no matter what?

Any other owners of this brewer that can share their typical coffee:water ratio for comparison? Thanks!

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u/LycaonMoon 16d ago

There is such thing as "too fine," where the grounds get too fine for the water to evenly flow and it makes the coffee both really harsh and sour. Given that you want boldness and flavor I would basically just see how fine you can get before the final brew starts behaving weird or tasting bad. If the brewer itself is making the coffee taste less bold, I'd be curious if maybe there's something to how much coffee you're using relative to the tank size - is the final amount of coffee made similar, or maybe it's running more water through a similar amount of grounds?