Grind retention

Kelsey

I'm not sure how many of us single-dose, but I'd imagine that for a lot of us who home-roast, we tend to single-dose more than just load up the hopper and let it rip.

As a result, I've become increasingly interested in the very boring topic of grind retention. It's one of the things I like most about the Vario and the HG One - near zero grind retention.

Recently I've started doing something that I swore I'd never do: weigh my beans.

I purchased a little digital scale (recommended by Lacehim at $8 on eVilBay) and have achieved much greater consistency by dosing 20 grams into my 22g VST. YMMV depending on the machine.

Wanting to know how well the Breville Smart Grinder performed, today I also measured the output.

I weighed 20.0g of beans and loaded into the hopper. I've developed routine where I run the grinder until it's clear, whacking the hopper while it's clear to dislodge any remaining grinds.

Result: 19.9g.

I can live with that.

Dry_bean

Yep, I single dose Kelsey. I use a Mazzer Mini, weigh my beans, 18 grams into an 18 gram La Marzocco basket. Have never bothered to weigh the results however will do so and report back.

Koffee_Kosmo

I use the volume method to measure a dose that marries up with the basket I am using It's simply one of those double spout shot glasses that have graduated markings and its very acurate KK

Kelsey

We both know that Bezzeras are a bit sensitive to dose, given the low showerscreen. Some people might say that means they're utterly incapable of making a good shot. Those people would be wrong. :stir KK, are you measuring the volume of beans or the volume of grinds? DB - looking forward to the results!

Koffee_Kosmo

@Kelsey Volume of whole beans go into the shot glass to be ground KK

derrilex

I just keep beans in the hopper. Now it's chopped it holds bugger all anyway but I've found a much more consistent grind with a bit of bean weight above the burrs. Also great for taking the edge off beans that are too fresh due to poor forward roast planning :laugh: As for weighing - mods, we need a too anal emoticon please. :rofl:

Dry_bean

Just did a before and after weigh. !8.02 grams in 18.03 out :🙂 obviously very little in it. My grinder starts pretty clean and finishes the same way. I went through the process as normal, grind, clear chute, dose, sweep doser, dose last few dregs. What I can tell you is that when I do my grinder clean every six months or so, I get between 3 and 4 grams of caked on grounds from in and around the burr chamber.

Brett_H

Dry bean. wrote:

Just did a before and after weigh. !8.02 grams in 18.03 out :🙂 obviously very little in it. My grinder starts pretty clean and finishes the same way. I went through the process as normal, grind, clear chute, dose, sweep doser, dose last few dregs. What I can tell you is that when I do my grinder clean every six months or so, I get between 3 and 4 grams of caked on grounds from in and around the burr chamber.

This is an excellent point and unless you've cleaned your grinder thoroughly before your weigh in-weigh out you may actually be getting a similar amount of grinds to beans but from a different batch ??? My two big commercials as well as Mr Rocky would retain grinds from previous shots unless I swept out the chutes or as in Mr Rocky's case used the click-clack. I see my extra intervention as the price I pay for big stable consistent burrs.

askthecoffeeguy

I'd probably cry if I measured my wastage from the cafe from the weekends trade when we're doing 10kg per day 🙁

Jonty

Personally I load the hopper on the M4D, grind the first 3-5g for the bin and then grind by sight. I do two 20g shots in the morning and what ever is left in the hopper get ground through and into the bin. I would say I waist about 7-9g everyday. Not an issue for shot reproducibility and I don't worry about the loss as home roasting is a saving within itself 😉 Jonty

Dry_bean

Didn't take long for the topic to change from (grind retention) to (this is how I dose.) :🙂

derrilex

My Eureka retains heaps and I don't care. There ya go, back on topic 😃

Jonty

Dry bean. wrote:

Didn't take long for the topic to change from (grind retention) to (this is how I dose.) :🙂

Arh DOH I think I might of been part of the digression

Dry bean. wrote:

Just did a before and after weigh. !8.02 grams in 18.03 out :🙂 obviously very little in it. My grinder starts pretty clean and finishes the same way. I went through the process as normal, grind, clear chute, dose, sweep doser, dose last few dregs. What I can tell you is that when I do my grinder clean every six months or so, I get between 3 and 4 grams of caked on grounds from in and around the burr chamber.

So a lepoard doesn't loose it spots hey :-*

askthecoffeeguy

I haven't measured or weighed for grind retention on my Breville smart grinder - but I do like how the dose is minutely adjustable, so I grind into my coffee storage canister which came with the sunbeam em480 and transfer the grinds from there to my Rancilio Epoca at home - and from there there minimal to no wastage that im aware of 🙂

askthecoffeeguy

askthe coffeeguy wrote:

I haven't measured or weighed for grind retention on my Breville smart grinder - but I do like how the dose is minutely adjustable, so I grind into my coffee storage canister which came with the sunbeam em480 and transfer the grinds from there to my Rancilio Epoca at home - and there's seems to be minimal to no wastage that im aware of in this process 🙂

Jonathon

I dose into a light plastic party glass, for a few reasons, but principally for weighing, I find it's easy to weigh 18g each time. I've written its weight, 4.4g, on the underside so I don't have to zero the scales, which is handy incase you're weighing and you suddenly forget whether or not you've zeroed. Also, it's cleaner than dosing into the PF from my K3, zero mess and if there's a bit of clumping, a quick shake side to side declumps very nicely. Although being very light plastic there is the risk of introducing a little static. Cheers Jonathon

conikal

Dry bean. wrote:

Just did a before and after weigh. !8.02 grams in 18.03 out :🙂 obviously very little in it. My grinder starts pretty clean and finishes the same way. I went through the process as normal, grind, clear chute, dose, sweep doser, dose last few dregs.

But ..by doing the ....."clear chute, dose, sweep doser, dose last few dregs" ... exercise, you are admitting there is significant grind retention ! for a true "retention" check, you need to start with a "clean" empty grinder, load a known weight of beans, grind, and weigh only those grinds that fall out the chute.

Brett_H

conikal wrote:

But ..by doing the ....."clear chute, dose, sweep doser, dose last few dregs" ... exercise, you are admitting there is significant grind retention ! for a true "retention" check, you need to start with a "clean" empty grinder, load a known weight of beans, grind, and weigh only those grinds that fall out the chute.

Absolutely! As a big commercial grinder owner if I didn't sweep the grounds out I may never see some of those grinds ever again ??? Seriously this is way I was alluding to above. Welcome Jonathon!

saoye

This is my pet hate! Here's what I do to eliminate grind retention from the mazzer mini E doserless: 1.Weigh beans for shot 2.Grind beans 3.Clean neck with long brush 4.Clear chute with long brush 5.Use Q-ball air blower to clear chute Most people would not be this bothered. Anyways, you'll see from the video that if you don't do anything from a cleaned out grinder you will leave behind about 4g of grind which stays there until the next grind. Sorry about the lighting in the video... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76ffYo2m-c0

askthecoffeeguy

nicely demonstrated example Saoye - but I'm guessing that youre actual routine when making a coffee is much quicker - otherwise the basket would be cold and cold baskets = sour coffee!