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Permalink Reply by Jonathan Aldrich on October 8, 2009 at 1:59pm

http://coffeegeek.com/guides/siphoncoffee

good section at the bottom on grinding based on filter used.

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Permalink Reply by Joona Suominen on October 8, 2009 at 2:07pm

I'm grinding little bit finer than for the French press. I'm using Hario's tca-5 which is having a cloth filter like yours.

This might be a little bit off topic but the siphon is quickly becoming my favorite brewing method.

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Permalink Reply by Bryan Arndt on October 8, 2009 at 2:25pm

oh absolutely. I was big into french press (which is still tasty) but the siphon brewing method has kicked it out of the water. it had a little water left in the pot after siphoning. The instructions say this is ok but should I let it all go up because it just watered the coffee down a bit when I tried my first brew. Not really sure

Joona Suominen said:

I'm grinding little bit finer than for the French press. I'm using Hario's tca-5 which is having a cloth filter like yours.

This might be a little bit off topic but the siphon is quickly becoming my favorite brewing method.

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Permalink Reply by RoasterDave on October 8, 2009 at 2:54pm

IDK Bryan, I had a lot of sucess with using more of a paper filter grind with mine. Because the extraction process is derertmined by how long you keep the heat/flame going I find that the biggest impact on extraction and profile is what you decide your standard dwel time is going to be. I do like 2 minutes. After that grind and stiring are your biggest variables

Bryan Arndt said:

oh absolutely. I was big into french press (which is still tasty) but the siphon brewing method has kicked it out of the water. it had a little water left in the pot after siphoning. The instructions say this is ok but should I let it all go up because it just watered the coffee down a bit when I tried my first brew. Not really sure

Joona Suominen said:

I'm grinding little bit finer than for the French press. I'm using Hario's tca-5 which is having a cloth filter like yours.

This might be a little bit off topic but the siphon is quickly becoming my favorite brewing method.

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Permalink Reply by Joona Suominen on October 8, 2009 at 3:21pm

The lower bottle (don't know what it's called) should always have a little water in it. Did it ever run dry, the bottle would probably crack under the heat. Introducing more water to the ground coffee won't dissolve anything new from the ground coffee anyway. If the coffee tastes watered you could try grinding finer, increasing the sleeping time (I'm using exactly 1 minute) and stirring more.

Compared to FP, siphon makes a cleaner cup and the taste is somewhat more delicate and pronounced. It does lack in body compared to FP. (imoimoimo off course).

Bryan Arndt said:

oh absolutely. I was big into french press (which is still tasty) but the siphon brewing method has kicked it out of the water. it had a little water left in the pot after siphoning. The instructions say this is ok but should I let it all go up because it just watered the coffee down a bit when I tried my first brew. Not really sure

Joona Suominen said:

I'm grinding little bit finer than for the French press. I'm using Hario's tca-5 which is having a cloth filter like yours.

This might be a little bit off topic but the siphon is quickly becoming my favorite brewing method.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Jones on October 8, 2009 at 6:23pm

We use a grind slightly coarser than pour-over for vac pots at our shop, and we're pretty pleased with the results. Keep in mind that a finer grind requires a shorter brew time, of course. Good luck playing with that thing; and look forward to many many frustrating enjoyable experiences.

Edit: realize that pour-over grind is a completely arbitrary setting. Our pour-over is very fine; about 1/5 of the way from finest on our grinder. So, slightly coarser than that. Or something.

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Permalink Reply by Dan Streetman on October 8, 2009 at 10:39pm

Your desired grind size will directly correlate to how long you want your dwell time to be and how much turbulence (stirring) you do during the extraction.

I have seen people using grinds as fine as paper filter or a little finer for ~1 min dwell times, and people who use grind sizes as coarse as french press grind, and ~ 3-4 minute dwell times. From my experience less dwell time brews are easier to over-extract and require more precise stirring techniques whereas coarser grind - longer dwell time brews have a little more tolerance for variations in technique.

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