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Permalink Reply by zack burnett on February 17, 2012 at 6:39pm

Tell them to set the brewer for a longer bloom time or to use the bypass feature on the brewer.  Either should fix the problem.

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Permalink Reply by Eric Schaefer on February 18, 2012 at 2:49pm

I agree with Zack if it's a new-ish brewer: pre-infusion is what they'd be calling the bloom time on all the digital Bunns I'm familiar with, and by-pass (up to maybe 30% max) is a good idea on 1 or 1.5 gallon batches.  You could also use pulse-brew to spread out the brew time, depending on what kind of contact time you've got going now.  You can get away with slightly longer contact times on super-fresh coffee because the de-gassing is slowing down the extraction process, but you still don't want to go too crazy with long pulse-brew cycles.

If it's not a new-ish brewer with digital programming, there's not nearly as much you can do - mostly play with mechanical bypass settings and/or try a coarser grind (in my previous job I got to play with digital recipes all the time, but in my new job it's nothing but old mechanical machines so I've had to learn to do the best I can with limited resources.)  As for the grind, consider your contact time - if the water gets through the grounds in 3-5 minutes, you definitely want to stick with the drip grind, but if it's taking 6-10 minutes like a lot of the old Bunn Duals do for 1.5 gallon batches, then a coarser (approaching french-press or percolator) grind is more appropriate in order to avoid over-extraction and will also allow the water to pass through more quickly. 

It's a delicate balancing act no matter which you go and ultimately you have to trust your taste-buds to judge any adjustments you make to the brewing method.

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Permalink Reply by Joseph on February 19, 2012 at 6:01am

Great Post Eric

Eric Schaefer said:

I agree with Zack if it's a new-ish brewer: pre-infusion is what they'd be calling the bloom time on all the digital Bunns I'm familiar with, and by-pass (up to maybe 30% max) is a good idea on 1 or 1.5 gallon batches.  You could also use pulse-brew to spread out the brew time, depending on what kind of contact time you've got going now.  You can get away with slightly longer contact times on super-fresh coffee because the de-gassing is slowing down the extraction process, but you still don't want to go too crazy with long pulse-brew cycles.

If it's not a new-ish brewer with digital programming, there's not nearly as much you can do - mostly play with mechanical bypass settings and/or try a coarser grind (in my previous job I got to play with digital recipes all the time, but in my new job it's nothing but old mechanical machines so I've had to learn to do the best I can with limited resources.)  As for the grind, consider your contact time - if the water gets through the grounds in 3-5 minutes, you definitely want to stick with the drip grind, but if it's taking 6-10 minutes like a lot of the old Bunn Duals do for 1.5 gallon batches, then a coarser (approaching french-press or percolator) grind is more appropriate in order to avoid over-extraction and will also allow the water to pass through more quickly. 

It's a delicate balancing act no matter which you go and ultimately you have to trust your taste-buds to judge any adjustments you make to the brewing method.

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