Burr-Grinders get the best out of your coffee
BURR-grinders
A good burr-grinder is essential if you want to get the very best out of your freshly roasted coffee beans! |
Burr-grinders can come in all sorts of shapes and sizes; they have been around for centuries, literally!
There were big grocery-shop bench-mounted grinders, small wooden knee-held burr-grinders, ceramic and glass wall-mounted ones and cylindrical hand-held burr-grinders.
All of them had a set of burrs to grind with (mostly vertically mounted), a crank to turn the burrs, a hopper to hold the beans and a dish or jar to collect the grinds.
The modern grinders are merely a more convenient version and grinding your coffee with one of these grinders just before you brew your coffee will make all the difference between an average cup of brew and a really Good Coffee at Home!
New electric burr grinders vary in price from abour $40 to well over $2000, even for "home use".
There were big grocery-shop bench-mounted grinders, small wooden knee-held burr-grinders, ceramic and glass wall-mounted ones and cylindrical hand-held burr-grinders.
All of them had a set of burrs to grind with (mostly vertically mounted), a crank to turn the burrs, a hopper to hold the beans and a dish or jar to collect the grinds.
The modern grinders are merely a more convenient version and grinding your coffee with one of these grinders just before you brew your coffee will make all the difference between an average cup of brew and a really Good Coffee at Home!
New electric burr grinders vary in price from abour $40 to well over $2000, even for "home use".
Sometimes you can pick up a second hand ex-"commercial" grinder, from a cafe or diner.
As long as the motor and peripheral electrics are in good condition you can generally restore it to perfect working order by simply cleaning it thoroughly and fitting a new set of burr plates.
Once I was lucky enough to pick up an old Carimali grinder for $50.
Admittedly it was extremely filthy, but the burr plates were in good nick and the motor ran without vibrations.
It came without its hopper and we had to fashion one for it from an insulated mug but it worked a treat and ground many kg's of coffee before it was replaced with a super-duper digital grinder. (present to myself
)As a rule of thumb, the heavier the grinder, the better the motor... and therefore the more powerful the grinding action.
That means more "even" grinding....
If the burr-plate housing is made of plastic (the collar, adjustment mechanism etc), treat the grinder as a house-guest: nice to have, but do not expect it to stay for long.
Plastic bits WILL break... the action of the grinding mechanism on hard coffee beans and the torque of the electric motor eventually will wear the strength of the plastics down.
Preferably the grinder's important bits (collars, adjustments, burr-plate spindles) should be made out of metal and be easily cleanable.
It also needs to have a good solid footing (so it does not dance all over your benchtop).
The hopper should be removable so you can empty it easily if you have put in more beans than you need for the day's coffee (so the beans do not go stale!).
A good electric grinder will last you for years and years; all it needs is some cleaning from time to time, and a new set of burr plates every 50-60 kg of beans.
A cheap electric grinder will last you probably a year or so, making it a great buy if you plan to upgrade every two years.
That means more "even" grinding....
If the burr-plate housing is made of plastic (the collar, adjustment mechanism etc), treat the grinder as a house-guest: nice to have, but do not expect it to stay for long.
Plastic bits WILL break... the action of the grinding mechanism on hard coffee beans and the torque of the electric motor eventually will wear the strength of the plastics down.
Preferably the grinder's important bits (collars, adjustments, burr-plate spindles) should be made out of metal and be easily cleanable.
It also needs to have a good solid footing (so it does not dance all over your benchtop).
The hopper should be removable so you can empty it easily if you have put in more beans than you need for the day's coffee (so the beans do not go stale!).
A good electric grinder will last you for years and years; all it needs is some cleaning from time to time, and a new set of burr plates every 50-60 kg of beans.
A cheap electric grinder will last you probably a year or so, making it a great buy if you plan to upgrade every two years.
With a grinder like that your coffee will be quite acceptable, but you will notice a big difference in flavour and aroma when you upgrade.
If you do not have the funds for a good elecric grinder, and are not interested in buying a cheaper grinder of lesser quality, you could have a look at the manual coffee grinders.
Again, it is possible to find good secondhand ones, notably from major manufacturers such as Zassenhausen, Peugot or Trespade.
But, when buying secondhand manual grinders it is important to find out if there are still spare parts available.
A worn set of burrs in a manual grinder is worse than a chopper-style grinder... it will produce a mixture of lumps and sticky goo.
However, new manual grinders also need careful checking ... the amount of "play" in their burr-sets and spindles make some of the newer "rustic" grinders not much more than a piece of intererior decoration.
New manual grinders now come in oldfashioned styles as well as in newer designs.
A good manual grinder is generally cheaper than a good electric grinder, and has the advantage that it is fully portable.
And that means, that Good Coffee When Camping becomes a definite possibility! (hmm, might do a site on that topic too
).Peugot and Zassenhausen makes an excellent table grinders and "knee-grinders" and GSI and Kyocera make beautiful manual ceramic burr-grinders, not dissimilar to their spice-grinders.
Turkish coffee/spice grinders, often made in heavy brass, are another excellent choice for manual grinders.
They often have a good range of adjustments and generally are capable of producing grinds fine enough for Turkish coffee, less fine for espresso, as well as coarser grinds for French press and pour-over filtered coffees.