As always, I’ve been using my Hario Skerton coffee hand grinder a lot lately. It’s kind of a foolish thing for me to say because I use my Skerton all the time, it’s the single most used coffee gadget in my whole collection. It is the only thing I grind with.
Why?
Because it doesn’t just make coffee. It makes coffee coffee. Dig?
I’ve been playing with the grind adjustment a lot lately, as I try more and more to find ‘perfect settings’ for my various gadgets. I want to reach a point where I can get ‘real scientific’ with my grind settings and (hopefully) create a chart here on project vvlgar that dictates exactly how many rotations I use for each brewing method.
As project vvlgar evolves, things will become less of an art and more of a science. Well, it is my hope that it will always stay an art – at least to me. Point is: I want the resources to be as hardboiled as possible. That’s a huge part of our mission.
At about four o’clock in the morning I made a cup of pour over coffee in my Hario v60 – because there is no better way for me to relax than with a Murakami paperback in one hand and a cup of ‘v60 black diesel’ in the other. Something about that combination – it’s unstoppable.
Seasoned Grinders?
Perhaps there is something to be said for the so called ‘seasoning’ of grinders, at least hand coffee grinders. If you have your own opinion on this I would love if you would share it with me, either in the comments or just shoot me and Cicero an email, because I have yet to wash my hand mill – and I’m not so sure that I want to. I have an espresso brush that I use immediately after grinding beans to dig inside the burrs and get the loose grounds out, I even blow into it which sends the remaining grounds flying back into my face (quite funny to watch, actually).
But I haven’t put it in the dishwasher. I just feel strange about it, it’s almost entirely an emotional response on my part, which I suppose qualifies as ‘the art’ side of the art/science continuum. That’s fine, if it becomes clear that a real, dishwasher cleaning is necessary for hand grinders then I will change my ways, but to date it hasn’t seemed to create a problem.
And it makes me wonder about seasoning grinders. I feel like the grind has gotten a little more consistent after a few dozen uses. Does this actually work? Does seasoning my grinder by only cleaning it with a dry brush actually affect the beans positively? Or should I be taking it apart and throwing it in the dishwasher?
So far, I’m ambivalent. I look forward to other people’s thoughts on this.
The Subtle Differences Between Brewing Methods
If you haven’t read about it already, I accidentally overflowed my Hario v60 a second time. I know – you would think I would be over that sort of infantile stupidity by now, but really, I don’t think it was entirely my fault. I had assumed that the grind setting on my Hario was correct before grinding but was too lazy to actually check it first.
It was set for my Chemex – which grinds slightly more course than the Hario. When I first read the instructions that came with the Chemex (very detailed, and by ‘very detailed’ I mean the entire document runs under a hundred words) it very clearly stated that the grind setting should be about the same as drip – a regular to course grind.
Ok. I’ll do that.
It bombed terribly, as I described in my first rendition on the Chemex – I made the weakest coffee known to man. I should have donated it to a Presbyterian church or something.
So I adjusted down to compensate, finally finding a position that worked magnificently (about one and a half rotations from closed). This seemed surprising to me because it was just so fine – and maybe that is just my personal taste, maybe I just like my coffee stronger than other people and so I dial down my little manual grinder to accomplish that.
I am interested in all of your thoughts on that as well.
When I first got my Hario I somehow assumed the whole dial would be used for varying brew methods, but the more I use it the more I realize it always stays pretty close to the end of the line. That’s fine by me, but I’m curious if that is where you all like it.
If you haven’t bought a Hario Skerton yet, buy one, play with it and give me your feedback. Since it doesn’t have any markings or suggestions whatsoever we’re left to discover what works on our own.
Modifications and Other Closing Thoughts
My new hand grinder coffee record is grinding fifty grams in my Hario at one time without spilling a single bean. The more I use it the more coordinated I get, and thus far I’ve found no reason to even modify the device. That isn’t meant to say I’m not curious about what we could do modifying it – I certainly am, but I just haven’t found any modifications that I think are necessary.
I’ve checked out what some people have said about modifying it – and the two trends are designing a cap for the top (so that beans don’t spill out) and modifying the actual grind adjustment so that it doesn’t slip (improving consistency).
As far as I can tell, my grind settings with the Skerton are tight enough that consistency seems fine. Note that I say ‘seems’. I could be wrong.
I look forward to learning more about this and eventually trying out the various Skerton hacks to see if they are worth the time and effort. But so far I’m happy with Mr. Hario just the way he is.
You’re perfect, hand grinder, don’t ever change.
