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Creating New Coffee Blends on-the-run with Dynamic Blending

K_Bean_CoffeeK_Bean_Coffee
edited January 1970 in How to improve your coffee
Hi all,

I have been using a technique I'm calling dynamic blending.

What does this mean?  ...well, I have a 2 grinder setup. 

The LHS grinder if full of a killer bean.  That's the bean with punch and unique characteristics.  Right now that's Yemen Mocha Ismaili.

The RHS grinder is full of my single origin of the week.

So what's the dynamic part? Basically, I grind different ratios every day.

For example, this morning I ground approx 10g for the RHS grinder, then 5g from the LHS grinder, then another 5g from the RHS grinder.

Tomorrow I will try another ratio.  I get a different blend every day :)

You don't need 2 big grinders for this.  Try the same, but use a hand grinder for your middle "killer bean" layer.

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  • readeralreaderal
    Out of all the people that make up terms for things, whether they have a term or not, I declare you the king Paul :) :P But to the topic at hand.. given you have a killer bean - what are you hoping to gain by this process?
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  • Koffee_KosmoKoffee_Kosmo
    Looking at it from a roasters perspective In the past I roasted several small batches of green beans I had on hand I would blend roasted beans in a similar fashion and grind them together This is how I developed my own blend preferences But I'm sure that this method was used well before I was born - but it's a very sensible approach to blending KK
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  • readeralreaderal
    Yeah so I'm wondering not if Paul is advocating a way of determining a good ratio to stick to in the future, but a means of exploring beans this way all the time. Hence the question :)
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  • Koffee_KosmoKoffee_Kosmo
    on 1487994847:
    Yeah so I'm wondering not if Paul is advocating a way of determining a good ratio to stick to in the future, but a means of exploring beans this way all the time. Hence the question :)
    Bean flavours change daily so it's a changing proposition no matter what ratio one uses KK
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  • readeralreaderal
    Exactly.
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  • Brett HBrett H
    How do you maintain the consistency of your extraction if two grinders with different beans, different coarseness and different amounts are constantly changing?  You are blowing my mind with your cavalier disregard of the sacred laws of coffee.  :thumb:
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  • K_Bean_CoffeeK_Bean_Coffee
    Good points guys. There are 2 reasons for this approach. The main reason is to get a little more variation in the daily espresso.  eg, no Yemen one day, 10% another day and 30% another, and so on. The second reason it that I don't want to waste my Yemen on latte drinkers, so when I have visitors wanting lattes they get just my SO. I find that if I get the get the grind size for the Yemen in the LHS hopper just right for full Yemen extraction, I can leave it as is and control the back pressure using the SO RHS beans. I hope that all makes sense :) Cheers, Paul
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  • askthecoffeeguyaskthecoffeeguy
    I can bend spoons with my mind ...
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  • askthecoffeeguyaskthecoffeeguy
    Oh sorry, I misread the name of the read ... P
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  • K_Bean_CoffeeK_Bean_Coffee
    ....that was a bit of a riddle above ACG ;)
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  • Brett HBrett H
    on 1488009247:
    Good points guys. There are 2 reasons for this approach. The main reason is to get a little more variation in the daily espresso.  eg, no Yemen one day, 10% another day and 30% another, and so on. The second reason it that I don't want to waste my Yemen on latte drinkers, so when I have visitors wanting lattes they get just my SO. I find that if I get the get the grind size for the Yemen in the LHS hopper just right for full Yemen extraction, I can leave it as is and control the back pressure using the SO RHS beans. I hope that all makes sense :) Cheers, Paul
    Makes sense! Two semi-commercial grinders eh... been there, wife said no, I'm done with that.... apparently..... I'm one of those people for whom grinders must be able to be swept clean.  The idea of having grinds left in the grind path is for me anathema to optimal flavour.  What are your grinders and do they allow you to sweep out the chute?  Is there a grinder on the market that allows a single dose without leaving grinds in the chute or the chamber??  My modded K10 allows sweeping and runs very clean but my dream is a Versalab that can grind lighter roasts without jamming... oh, and is 240v!
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  • mycuppamycuppa
    I'll be a contrarian grenade thrower and say it does not always work properly because of the stratification of the disparate sized particles being unevenly distributed, leading to micro-channeling. Reason I believe this is because I've got 2 large grinders side by side on my kitchen with a Speedster and the same at work on the bench with a GS3.......for years I played this game until I stopped and realized the results were just actually quite mediocre. By all means if it works for you then good luck and keep on keeping on.
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  • K_Bean_CoffeeK_Bean_Coffee
    on 1488015882:
    I'll be a contrarian grenade thrower and say it does not always work properly because of the stratification of the disparate sized particles being unevenly distributed, leading to micro-channeling.
    No grenade there - just a great thread with different views and opinions - love it! I guess there's science and art at work here.  The stratification and micro-channeling makes sense to my scientific mind but I'm using a naked PF and I'm not seeing and evidence of channelling and the results are great.  Might be because I take care to get the middle layer thickness reasonable consistent across the PF.  I'll keep playing :) Cheers, Paul
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  • K_Bean_CoffeeK_Bean_Coffee
    Brett raised a good point re grind retention.  Personally, I don't worry too much about retention.  I have done back to back testing in the past and found that several grams of day old grind in a 24g dose isn't noticeable to my palate.
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  • dlightdlight
    How about getting a Monolith Conical and a Monolith Flat. You can single dose each with (almost) no grind retention. You can achieve whatever ratio you want by weighing the dose ratio required into each. And they'd look quite something as a pair on the bench. A different sort of bling... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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  • dlightdlight
    And, of course, you'd get the benefit of both a Conical and a Flat in the same dose. Brightness and depth at the same time. I think we're getting to utopia. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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  • Brett HBrett H
    on 1488061204:
    And, of course, you'd get the benefit of both a Conical and a Flat in the same dose. Brightness and depth at the same time. I think we're getting to utopia. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Brilliant and welcome!  There was.a Cimbali grinder that had a flat and conical burr working together in the grind chamber and belt driven too from memory.  I used one and it was disasterous for consist but that may have Ben the well-used model to which I was subjected :)
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  • vyapadavyapada
    on 1488015882:
    [...]because of the stratification of the disparate sized particles being unevenly distributed, leading to micro-channeling.
    I would be interested if there's much of a taste difference between layering as described and whisking the grinds together. I notice a difference in my single dosing routine where the unwhisked results taste more harsh that I tentatively attribute to the poor homogenisation/agglomeration of the particles (a la The Craft and Science of Coffee).
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  • K_Bean_CoffeeK_Bean_Coffee
    ....I thought about the above posts and decided to change from having the LHS grinder layer in the centre to having the LHS grinder layer on the top.  This makes mores sense as having 2 layers instead of 3 means less variation. Today I blew a customer away when he experienced shots with 0%, 15% and 30% Yemen.
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  • askthecoffeeguyaskthecoffeeguy
    When I had my cafe I'd run with up to 10 single estate beans at one time, then I'd try them both individually, and as custom blends by combining various components and ratios Some of those combinations ended up becoming custom hose blends that my roaster would then blend and.package for me, and some would only exist in the moment for a day or sometimes even a half day Considering we'd do between 200 to 300 meals per day on the weekend and twice that number of coffees - I'd have to say that his was a pretty winning combination! P
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  • K_Bean_CoffeeK_Bean_Coffee
    on 1488091919:
    When I had my cafe I'd run with up to 10 single estate beans at one time, then I'd try them both individually, and as custom blends by combining various components and ratios
    That's living the coffee dream. Wow!
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  • askthecoffeeguyaskthecoffeeguy
    Yep it was pretty funky alright the customers came to know and to expect that there would be two or more espresso blends on offer at any one time and sometimes I'd rotate single origins up to five times per day which is great for regular addicts who wanted to try something different of course you can only really do that if you're moving a bit of volume which I was: a steady 55 sometime 60kg per week which is not bad for a suburban cafe located in a renovated house ! P
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  • K_Bean_CoffeeK_Bean_Coffee
    60kg.  Wow!  Amazing
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  • askthecoffeeguyaskthecoffeeguy
    My coffee kiosk at Melbourne Uni used to do 75kg per week across 5 days trading and that was with split shots ! P
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  • Brett HBrett H
    on 1488189061:
    My coffee kiosk at Melbourne Uni used to do 75kg per week across 5 days trading and that was with split shots ! P
    Crikey... how many staff ran the kiosk??
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  • askthecoffeeguyaskthecoffeeguy
    7 and sometimes 8 over lunch so that we could all take breaks it had outdoor seating for 60 plus the there's lecture halls adjacent had a combined seating capacity in excess of 1500 students so if they all went in at once or out at once it was chaos there were often queues six deep for coffee ! Plus I had an SMS your coffee service that stipulated that your coffee would be ready in less than four minutes from.the time of ordering or your money back! We did between 1000 to 1200 coffees per day during semester and between 300 to 500 coffees per day outside of the semester timetable! It was crazy busy times I owned it for 7 years and sold it in 2009 P
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  • Brett HBrett H
    Amazing Pat!  Why do they call you Dr Pat?  It an an honoraium or did you love Uni life so much you stuck around? 
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  • askthecoffeeguyaskthecoffeeguy
    on 1488257793:
    Amazing Pat!  Why do they call you Dr Pat?  It an an honoraium or did you love Uni life so much you stuck around?
    Finished my arts degree at Melbourne Uni and got offered honors in English literature but I was just glad to finish so I passed on that still it does have a nice ring to it, no? Dr Pat?
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  • Brett HBrett H
    I'm sure you've cured a lot of sleep-deprived folks so that must count!
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  • askthecoffeeguyaskthecoffeeguy
    At last count the cafes Ive owned have made over 2000000 coffees can't say I've made all of them but I've made a.great deal and that doesn't include the places I've worked in and or managed ! P
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