What should I do if I have too much coffee powder? How to brew hand-brewed fine powder? What is the difference between fine flour and coarse flour?

In order to better extract the flavor substances from the coffee, we will grind the coffee beans to increase the surface area of the coffee in contact with water, so as to improve the efficiency of extraction. But whether it is a bean grinder for a few hundred yuan or a bean grinder for tens of thousands of yuan, without exception, the coffee powder they grind will contain a certain amount of fine powder! The so-called coffee powder refers to those coffee particles with a particle size smaller than 0.1mm, which will feel a bit like flour when kneaded. The target particle size we grind out is generally in the 0.6~0.8mm range, which is enough to see that the gap between the two is not the slightest.

The reason why the fine powder is produced is mainly because the grinding principle of the bean grinder is to extrude the whole coffee bean to break it into pieces, and then cut and grind it into fine particles. In the process of extrusion, the fine powder will be produced because of the brittleness of coffee beans (in the same way as crumbs when breaking cookies). In other words, the more crisp the coffee beans, the more fine powder there is. In addition, the quantity of fine powder will also be affected by the quality of the bean mill. When the quality of the bean grinder is better and the cutter head is sharper, the quantity of fine powder is less, and vice versa. Qianjie often says, "the existence of fine powder is a double-edged sword", because its existence has both advantages and disadvantages. The good thing is that because the fine powder particles are extremely small, its flavor substances will dissolve more comprehensively during extraction. Because of its higher extraction efficiency, when extracted properly, this can give the coffee a richer sense of hierarchy. Of course, the premise is that the extract is appropriate and the right amount.

High extraction efficiency is both an advantage and a disadvantage of fine powder, because it is more efficient, so it is easier to overextract than other normal-sized particles. When the extraction is inappropriate, even if there is only a small amount of fine powder, coffee will produce obvious bitter, miscellaneous, astringent performance. Because we are extremely sensitive to bitterness, a small amount of bitterness can be easily captured by us. Not only that, because the fine powder particles are so small, they can cause blockage in the process of extraction. When the filter paper blocks the filter hole of the filter paper, the flow channel of the coffee liquid is reduced, and the extraction time is thus prolonged. If the extraction time is too long, the regular size particles will be more extracted, and the coffee will be more likely to be over-extracted.

Therefore, we can decide the retention of fine powder according to the amount of fine powder ground. Generally speaking, as long as there is no blockage in the filter cup and muddy powder bed in the process of cooking, which means that the amount of fine powder will not affect the cooking process, you can rest assured to enjoy the positive blessing brought by fine powder. If clogging occurs frequently in the process of brewing, the powder bed is as muddy as a quagmire, and the coffee is bitter, miscellaneous, astringent and so on, then the mother doubts that it is likely to be caused by too much fine powder. In this case, in addition to replacing a better quality bean grinder, we can also solve the problem of too much fine powder through a sieve (coffee sieve).

If you use a powder sieve to screen the powder, Qianjie does not recommend removing all the fine powder from the sieve. Because there is no fine powder, coffee is a less outstanding level of performance. Therefore, Qianjie suggests that you should not rush to throw away the fine powder after sieving it out. You can use the following two ways to make the fine powder give full play to its real value.

First, pour some of the fine powder back when we sift out the fine powder, we can add some of the fine powder back to the coffee powder. As long as the quantity is not so large, it will not affect the brewing and taste of the coffee.

Generally speaking, the coffee powder content of hand-brewed coffee is about 10% to 15%. More than this ratio, it is easy to cause blockage, over-extraction and other negative situations.

Second, in the middle of brewing, and then pour the fine powder into the second way is what many friends often do, sift out the fine powder from the coffee powder before brewing, and then pour the sifted powder into it when the coffee brewing process is halfway to 2/3, and add the extract.

This has two advantages: on the one hand, it can maximize the value of fine powder, and on the other hand, it can reduce waste. Because some poor quality bean grinders grind out too much fine powder, 15g coffee beans can grind 3g to 4g coffee powder. If we choose to pour out all the fine powder, then we need to re-grind the corresponding amount to make up for a portion of cooking, which is particularly unfriendly for some of the more expensive beans. So, in this case, we might as well try to add half of the fine powder back to the coffee powder, and then the remaining half of the fine powder will be added again when the cooking process reaches 2/3, so that it will not be affected by too much fine powder. at the same time, we can enjoy the positive blessing of fine powder!

All multi-stage cooking can be done in such a way that fine powder can be poured at about 2/3 of the cooking process. Take the three-stage style as an example, Qianjie will pour fine powder after the second stage of three-stage water injection, and then the cooking parameters will be the same as before. However, it should be noted that during the third stage of water injection (after pouring the fine powder), we try not to use too much water to stir the powder bed, otherwise it will easily cause the fine powder to be washed to the bottom and block the filter paper. It's fine for those coffee beans that are resistant to extraction and light roasting, but for those deep-roasted coffee beans that are easy to excel, try to avoid clogging.

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