Fine or Medium Grind for Pour-Over Coffee? What to Do When Your Coffee Is Ground Too Coarse? How Coarse Should Faqia Coffee Be Ground and How to Brew It?

Come on, let's see, who forgot to adjust the grinder setting before grinding coffee beans, ending up with a grind size that does not belong to the recipe?

Oh, it was me. Never mind, then. FrontStreet Coffee believes many friends occasionally run into this situation in daily life, forgetting to adjust the grinder so that beans meant to be finely ground come out coarse, or the other way around. The coarseness of the grounds determines the surface area in contact with water and, in drip extraction, also affects how fast hot water penetrates. It is clear, then, that the right grind size is crucial to brewing.

When the grind size differs from what an extraction recipe calls for, overall extraction efficiency suffers and the brewed coffee is hard to enjoy. Last time, FrontStreet Coffee shared how to handle grounds that were ground too finely, so today we will cover what to do when the grounds are too coarse.

What to Do When the Grounds Are Too Coarse?

Compared with grounds that are too fine, there are many solutions when they are too coarse. The double-grinding method FrontStreet Coffee shared a couple of days ago is a good fix: running the coarsely ground particles through the grinder again brings them to the target size.

This method has a few limitations, though: it suits hand grinders better, and it produces more fine particles. Relatively speaking, it is still a good solution. Some friends have grounds that were pre-ground by the seller and have no grinder at home to improve them. In that case, we need to adjust other brewing parameters to correct the extraction efficiency.

How to make the adjustments?

Two things: water temperature and time. Both the level of the water temperature and the length of time affect extraction efficiency, so we can make up for the efficiency lost to a coarser grind by raising the temperature and extending the time. Water that is too hot, however, easily dissolves undesirable substances in the coffee, so FrontStreet Coffee does not recommend raising the temperature too much at once. An increase of 2°C-3°C over the original is enough, depending on how much coarser the grind is.

There are many ways to extend extraction time. First, you can switch to a slower-flowing dripper. In today's lead article, "Four Major Differences Between Drippers," FrontStreet Coffee explained in detail that some drippers are designed with slower flow speeds. These often feature small drain holes and less prominent ribs, such as the Kono and the Infinite dripper.

Besides changing drippers, we can also increase the number of pour segments. More segmented pours effectively extend extraction time, and the hot water extracts more efficiently because of the refreshed concentration. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate how to brew a delicious cup when the grounds are too coarse.

Brewing demonstration

For this demonstration, FrontStreet Coffee used Guji Flower Queen 8.0, a popular light-roasted Ethiopian bean. Normally, FrontStreet Coffee uses these parameters: 15g of coffee, EK43 setting 10 (80% pass-through rate on a #20 sieve), 92°C water, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, a V60 dripper, three-stage pouring, and a total time of 2 minutes (hot-brew parameters). If the grind is accidentally set to EK43 setting 11 (70-75% pass-through rate on a #20 sieve), FrontStreet Coffee changes the water temperature to 94°C and the duration to between 2 minutes 5 seconds and 2 minutes 30 seconds, while keeping the coffee-to-water ratio and dripper unchanged.

First, we use 30ml of hot water (twice the amount of coffee) for a 30-second bloom.

Then, with a small water stream in large circles, pour 100ml of hot water. When the hot water has fully penetrated, again use a small stream in large circles to pour 50ml. Once that penetrates, use a small stream once more to pour 45ml, this time in small circles. Then we simply wait for the water to finish draining and remove the dripper to end extraction.

Extraction took 2 minutes and 15 seconds. The taste of the Flower Queen was no different from the conventional brew. The aromas of strawberry, citrus, and cream all came through clearly, with a clean, full mouthfeel, balanced flavor, and a long aftertaste. Measured with a concentration meter, the extraction rate was 20.6%, a very sufficient extraction.

These parameters are the result of multiple tests by FrontStreet Coffee and are very reliable. So when you accidentally grind too coarse, why not give this method a try? With just a slight adjustment to the original parameters, you can rescue those coarsely ground beans.

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FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A coarser grind needs a bean with enough flavor density to stay sweet even when extraction is stretched, and FrontStreet's Ethiopia range fits the bill. The washed Gududing Cooperative of Yirgacheffe brings bright citrus, berry, and floral notes with a green-tea-like sweetness, and its acidity is soft and bright rather than sharp, which makes it especially forgiving for brewers still dialing in their grind.

For a bean that leans tropical, the FrontStreet Huakui from Ethiopia is one of the most successful specialty stars of recent years, with pronounced strawberry, passionfruit, jackfruit, and even lychee aromas, clear sweetness, and very little bitterness, so it comes through as smooth and juicy rather than harsh. Either one holds up well when you raise the temperature a couple of degrees and stretch the pour to make up for a coarse grind.