I spent 3 hours trying to dial in a new grinder and almost gave up on it, now I can't decide if it was worth it

Lucas Webb · 2026-10-03T03:10:03.732677+00:00

So last Saturday I picked up a new hand grinder from a shop in Portland and figured I would be pulling great shots by lunch. Three hours later I was still choking my machine, getting sour gushers, then bitter mud, back and forth like a fool. The problem was I kept changing two things at once, grind size and dose, and I had no clue what the burrs needed for break in. I probably ran 18 shots of the same Ethiopian bean through it and dumped most of them down the sink. My roommate walked by and said it smelled like a burnt tire in there. Eventually I went back to my old grinder setting as a baseline and moved one click at a time, and boom, a decent shot at around 1 minute 40 seconds total brew time. Now here is the debate: some folks say a hand grinder needs 2 pounds of beans to season the burrs, others say that is total nonsense and you just need to learn the dial. Was it worth 3 hours of my Saturday? I honestly don't know yet. Anyone else been through a break in period that felt way longer than it should have?

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I spent 3 hours trying to dial in a new grinder and almost gave up on it, now I can't decide if it was worth it | Coffee Enthusiasts - Chatter Central