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Coffee beans smell/taste bitter after grinding
Vi Monks
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm having some issues with bitterness in my coffee, and I think I've isolated the problem, but I'm not sure what to do about it. First, my setup: I'm using a Baratza Maestro grinder, a Chemex, and a good electric kettle (so I know I'm brewing right at 200*F). I'm using very high quality beans. They smell delicious.
The problem, I think, is my grinder. I've had it for five or six years now, and I probably haven't cleaned it as often as I should have. It's had some pretty shitty coffee go through it over the years. There's a fairly strong bitter smell coming from the inside of the grinder, and the coffee itself, after I grind it, smells extremely bitter -- nothing at all like the whole beans smell. Last night, I completely disassembled the grinder and cleaned everything. I let the burrs soak in vinegar for a little while before cleaning them again. The bitterness is still there.
Anyone have any idea what's going on or how I can fix it? Is there anything I can do to clean my grinder more thoroughly and get whatever is causing that bitterness out? I'm tempted to buy a small manual grinder just to see if that solves the problem.
The problem, I think, is my grinder. I've had it for five or six years now, and I probably haven't cleaned it as often as I should have. It's had some pretty shitty coffee go through it over the years. There's a fairly strong bitter smell coming from the inside of the grinder, and the coffee itself, after I grind it, smells extremely bitter -- nothing at all like the whole beans smell. Last night, I completely disassembled the grinder and cleaned everything. I let the burrs soak in vinegar for a little while before cleaning them again. The bitterness is still there.
Anyone have any idea what's going on or how I can fix it? Is there anything I can do to clean my grinder more thoroughly and get whatever is causing that bitterness out? I'm tempted to buy a small manual grinder just to see if that solves the problem.
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If so, is it the plastic container that catches the ground coffee? Plastic can absorb a lot of stuff.
If the grinder itself doesn't smell, are you trying different roasts of coffee? Some batches are just super bitter.
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It could be that your grind size is way too small, and you're generating too much friction heat when you grind. That can happen.
The grinder does smell bitter, and it's the grinder itself. The plastic container smells fine. I've tried a few batches, and they all come out with that bitterness. The beans in this batch don't smell bitter at all before I grind them, though it is an African blend, so some brightness is to be expected, of course.
As Barrakketh mentioned, it's a Baratza Maestro, which is a pretty good conical burr grinder. Not top of the line, but it shouldn't be generating much frictional heat. My grind size is well above espresso anyway, so I don't think that's the issue.
Wow I completely slid over that part.
I'm wracking my brain, here. It could be that you've got some nasty coffee oils stuck to the parts, but a vinegar soak and scrub should've fixed that. Maybe the bushings on your motor are burning out and affecting the coffee flavor?
You could grab a Hario Skerton hand crank. They're about 30 bucks and a total pain in the ass, but it'll help you pin-point the problem. I have one for emergency bean grinding if the power goes out (hah...I've got a problem).
That's actually one of the grinders I was looking at. Are they fairly consistent? I was also considering the Porlex mini.
If you smash up some fresh beans this way, you can then open the zip-loc to get a concentrated whiff of the beans. If the beans smell the same after this, then it's the beans. Usually bitterness is not imparted in a regular step in the process, but it's possible that something is up with your grinder. If it were me, though, I'd chalk it up to the beans being overroasted or burnt slightly, but not enough to show it on the outside of the bean.
I've used the same conical burr grinder at home for about 2 years, after my older one crapped out after 4 years. Both of them had a wide range of beans go through them, including some flavored coffees (!!). In no situations did any flavors or bean smells persist beyond the next couple grindings after I switched to different beans.
Just did as you suggested, and I think that might be it. I only used a few beans and they obviously weren't ground up as much as when I run them through my grinder, but they certainly had a much sharper, harsher smell to them after I smashed them up. I also just brewed another cup with a finer grind (approaching the coarser end of espresso grind now) and using about 50% more beans to slow the brew down, and the brightness was greatly reduced. It's still a very bright cup, perhaps overpowering the more subtle flavors a little bit, but it's quite a bit better than before. I suppose I'll wait until I get another batch of beans (hopefully something less bright) and see how that goes.
Thanks for your help, everyone. On a final note, any other tips for cutting down the brightness and letting some of the more subtle flavors come out? I'm considering dropping my water temperature a few degrees for the next cup. I'd like to find a way to use less beans, if only because 30 grams for a 10 oz. cup is getting a little pricey. I know using too little coffee will result in a bitter cup, but what if I cut back to 25 grams or so and ground it finer, like a very coarse espresso grind? Anyone done that in a Chemex?
Get yourself some Powdered Brewery Wash (PBW) from a local homebrew store. It's meant to dissolve organic solids from the fermentation step during brewing. However, I've used this on my dad's coffee pot with some really hot water and it ATE every bit coffee stain/debris/oil/etc away within a couple of minutes. Should be safe for stainless steel/plastic/glass, but avoid if you aren't sure what the burrs are made of.
Looks like some good stuff! Even if my grinder isn't causing any issues, I might look into getting some.
30 grinds is like insane for 300mls. Using too little doesn't result in more bitter flavours. Steeping coffee (water contact time) further makes coffee more bitter, Not using less
I use like, 12/200 for a v60, and while you do use more for a chemex, I would use a range of 22-25 for 300 mls, although at that stage you've extended your contact time with your coffee for so long that you are getting close to over extraction issues. I'd cut it back to maybe a range of 16-18/250 if you are still looking for a larger cup.
Finally, brightness isn't a very controlable item, brightness is far more intrisnic for the bean itself, and brew methods tend to balance body/brightness rather than brightness and the more subtle flavours, I would look at your beans rather than your brew method in order to find more interesting things in your beans.
Satans..... hints.....
Not sure from your post what timescale this problem has occurred over but the beans aren't extremely freshly roasted are they? Sometimes they need a few days after roasting to taste the best. If the problem is not diminishing after 5 days or so this isn't it though.
Oh, and I use about 18 grams for V60 or Aeropress.
I was using 20 grams per 300 mls previously. Then I made a cup with about 30 grams and using a much finer grind, slowing down the brew, and that seemed to improve things a lot without tasting like I was over extracting. But for my cup this morning, I was planning on cutting back to 20 grams again (or perhaps just over, as you suggest), but keeping the finer grind, to see if that results in a good cup. When I was using 20 grams with a coarser grind, my total brew time (after blooming) was only 90-120 seconds.
And as for the beans, yeah, I've pretty much decided this batch just isn't my favorite. I'm subscribed to Tonx, so I don't choose what beans I get. The variety is pretty nice, but sometimes I get stuff I just don't care for. But really, the cup I made yesterday after slowing everything down was much better than my previous attempts, so there's still good coffee to be had here.
They're not extremely fresh, no. I made my first cup about 48 hours after they were roasted, which was on the 12th. I think this batch of beans is just much brighter than what I'm used to drinking, and it's taken some fiddling for me to get a cup that I like out of it.
My Encore came with these grinder tablets; that might do the trick
Also, if possible, avoid grinding super oily/dark roasted beans in there since that's likely what's going to cause those odors/flavors to stick around.
The discussion has moved a bit beyond the OP at this point, but I'll keep those grinder tablets in mind! And I typically don't get very dark roasts, so that shouldn't be an issue.