Brewing Coffee
Resources
Home Equipment
Some recommended home equipment
Grinders
Hand Grinders
A fantastic range of grinders ranging from the affordable Q Series all the way to the feature-rich J, K and Z Series grinders.
We continue to be impressed by the innovation and features offered by 1Zpresso in their grinders
Great value option for non-espresso brewing would be the Q2 Heptagonal
While it may be a little steep on the cost, it is a solid investment for a hand grinder. It is easy to use, often with less effort and time required to grind, and grind size is quite consistent.
Electric Grinders
We have limited experience with the Bentwood, but in our testing we think it’s an interesting grinder with a lot of potential (especially as a second or third grinder for cafes).
We obtained the first release of the Lagom P64 in 2019 with the SSP V1 Unimodal Red Speed Burrs. It’s a versatile grinder that can grind for both espresso and filter. It can get a little confusing when adjusting grind settings as the dial can move past the “0” marking on several rotations. We find there’s elevated brightness when brewing filter coffee when using the P64 with the V1 burrs. There are several burr options available - we recently swapped in the SSP Lab Sweet cast burrs for the P64 and have found it to offer better balance for more sweetness and body relative to the V1 burrs. Based on our experience, the cast burrs would be our preference as an all-rounder for both filter and espresso.
Option-O now has an electric mini grinder, and a larger 98mm flat burr grinder.
A very decent grinder (with the new V2 burrs) at an affordable price point for home users. It can benefit from SSP burr upgrades to offer slightly better clarity and sweetness compared to the stock burrs for Ode.
Very good value as a “one grinder to brew them all” option. It comes with both ceramic and steel burr options. The ceramic burrs offer more traditional style espressos and the steel burrs offer better clarity for brews and more contemporary bright espressos. There are various posts on community forums for mods and maintenance tips to get the most from this grinder. Baratza also offers excellent support with videos to repair/replace parts to ensure this grinder will last a lifetime!
While we would generally recommend investing a little more for one of the above options (or upgrading to the Baratza Vario), the Encore is a good budget beginner-level electric grinder for brewing methods other than espresso.
Brewers
Cone
- The classic conical brewer that is ubiquitous in every specialty coffee setting. This brewer offers fast flow rates and can produce excellent, high clarity brews with a wide and complex flavour profile.
- This brewer is the slower variant of the conical brewers. With reduced ribbing/groves the flow rate is reduced and the amount of ‘bypass’ is also reduced. Good to use for smaller dose brews and when you want to play with pushing slightly higher extractions without having to grind too fine.
- A very pretty dripper that generally brews with a flow rate comparable to the standard V60
- A strong contender for a ‘one dripper for everything’ situation
- Can brew with both conical and flat-bed filters, offering users utility and versatility in a single brewer.
Flat Bed
- Fastest flowing flat bed brewer we have tested. Excellent consistency and quite forgiving to work with.
- Base is sold separately but comes in a lot of fun colour options
- Hand-wash only for all models
- One of the original flat bed brewers.
- Flow rates can vary depending on the material and model used.
- Ceramic and glass offer the fastest flow rates
- The “Tsubame” variant has faster flow rate than the standard steel version
Kettles
Variable Temperature Kettle
- Fellow
- Timemore