How to Find the Right Grind Setting for Pour-Over Coffee? How to Use a #20 Sieve? How to Calculate Pass-Through Rate?

The grind setting of coffee beans is a difficult brewing parameter to master! Different grinders have different settings, and different people have different opinions on particle size. Therefore, without a unified description, people can only use analogies to describe their particle size when sharing grind parameters, such as coarse sugar, fine sugar, flour-like consistency, and so on. Then, some observant friends noticed something about FrontStreet Coffee and asked: "FrontStreet Coffee, FrontStreet Coffee, why do you always use sieve pass rates?"

As mentioned earlier, everyone has their own understanding of particle size. This means that what one person considers coarse sugar might appear as fine sugar to another. This makes it very difficult to accurately communicate grind settings to others! When there are communication discrepancies, even using the same beans will result in different flavors due to different grind parameters. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee adopted this "sieve calibration method"! Although it has certain limitations, it ensures that friends can use approximately the same grind level when brewing, minimizing differences between each other's brews! So today, FrontStreet Coffee will share how to use this sieve!

Sieve Calibration Method

First, we need to understand that any grinder, regardless of its price or precision, produces coffee particles that are not absolutely uniform! What does this mean? In a single batch of ground coffee, particles ranging from 0.1mm to 1mm might be produced simultaneously. We cannot control it to grind all particles to a uniform size accurately, so what we can do is try to control most particles within the ideal range.

And this ideal range is preferably within 0.6-0.85mm. Even if other small particles fall outside this particle size range, they won't have too much impact. After understanding this premise, we can start learning the sieve calibration method! First, we need to prepare a #20 sieve, which can be purchased on major shopping platforms at very reasonable prices. However, it should be noted that sellers often sell sieves separately, so when purchasing, try to choose an integrated unit rather than just the sieve itself, otherwise it will be more troublesome to use~

The sieve has a mesh size of 0.85mm, and its main function is to separate coffee particles larger than 0.85mm from those smaller than 0.85mm. The value we want to take is the amount of powder that can pass through the sieve. FrontStreet Coffee suggests a pour-over grind fineness of 80% sieve pass rate, which means that in a batch of coffee powder, 80% of the powder can pass through this sieve. The sieve calculation rate is very simple - the specific operation is to take 10g of coffee beans, then choose a grind setting you think is appropriate and grind them! After grinding, place them in the sieve and shake horizontally until no more particles fall - this takes about 5 minutes and can be quite tiring for your hands!

Then we weigh the amount of powder that has fallen through and divide it by the total powder amount to get the pass rate! For example, if the fallen powder amount is 7g, then its pass rate is 70%. If you want to achieve an 80% pass rate, you need to adjust the grind finer and re-measure the pass rate until you reach the target pass rate.

The reason for controlling the pass rate at 80% is because this rate can be applied to most coffee bean brewing with a high margin of error. Even if their roast levels differ, it can avoid most brewing disasters (such as clogging or draining too quickly). However, as FrontStreet Coffee mentioned earlier, it has certain limitations! The limitation lies in the fact that this sieve pass rate is set based on grinders of decent quality! If you're using grinders with poor quality and precision, the ground particles will be very uneven. Not only will there be excessive fine powder, but also overly coarse particles! In this case, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using brewing time as a reference for grind fineness! Taking FrontStreet Coffee's three-stage pour-over as an example, with normal brewing parameters (15g coffee, 1:15 ratio, appropriate grind), the brewing time should be approximately 1 minute 50 seconds to 2 minutes 10 seconds. If the time is not within this range, it indicates the grind is too coarse or too fine, and then we adjust the grind based on this judgment.

Of course, not just time, but the state of the coffee bed can also be observed. Under normal brewing, the coffee bed settles at a uniform rate. If the water level drops too quickly, the grind is too coarse; if it drops too slowly or gets clogged, and the coffee bed appears muddy, this is caused by grinding too fine! At that point, we need to make corresponding adjustments to bring the grind back to normal and brew delicious coffee~

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FrontStreet Coffee

No. 10 Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473