Macap M2M - fill hopper with only what you need?

[noonar]

Regular and constant 35+ degree C days and no air con = I do not keep beans in a hopper semi-exposed to those elements - they degrade too quickly in hot conditions for me. BTW, I acquired (thank you Mrs) a 1/4 cup Tupperware measuring cup that sits very nicely in the throat of a mazzer mini, when single dose grinding, and holds (roughly) 20g of roasted coffee beans. I weigh beans in, brush and sweep out, and I weigh extraction. Beans are stored on the pantry floor in valve bags.

[Yelta]

Yeah it's one of those things ay Yelta, I know many others on this forum that do hopper dosing and say pretty certainly that it hasn't to their palate and extraction-wise affected the freshness of the beans. Some even leave the beans in there for a couple of days (which I don't do) and they can't discern any notable difference. Of course there's been a fair bit of discussion about this around on the forum, and I guess it really just depends huh..

Hopper dosing is something I was quite resistant to doing for some time, but eventually came round to it as I tried it and saw just how much more consistent it seemed for pours (and this of course may be grinder dependent for sure in terms of single dosing grind consistency). And I haven't detected any real decline in freshness.

I don't actually fully fill the hopper either, maybe fill 1/4 to a 1/3 just so there's sufficient weight in there, and those beans are usually ground through within a few days anyway. But of course I'm always open to suggestions for sure

Certainly not my experience Simon, I can detect a marked deterioration if roasted beans are left exposed to air for 24 hours, ground coffee deteriorates even more rapidly, after just 15 hours it's undrinkable, I conducted a series of tests some time ago.
It's a mantra that's worth repeating, store beans in one way valve bags in a cool dark place until you use them.

I suspect a large percentage of problems related on this forum come down to this issue.

[simonsk8r]

Sounds like a lot of messing around Simon, filling and emptying hopper after each session is needlessly exposing the beans to air, would certainly not help with retaining freshness.

Yeah it's one of those things ay Yelta, I know many others on this forum that do hopper dosing and say pretty certainly that it hasn't to their palate and extraction-wise affected the freshness of the beans. Some even leave the beans in there for a couple of days (which I don't do) and they can't discern any notable difference. Of course there's been a fair bit of discussion about this around on the forum, and I guess it really just depends huh..

Hopper dosing is something I was quite resistant to doing for some time, but eventually came round to it as I tried it and saw just how much more consistent it seemed for pours (and this of course may be grinder dependent for sure in terms of single dosing grind consistency). And I haven't detected any real decline in freshness.

I don't actually fully fill the hopper either, maybe fill 1/4 to a 1/3 just so there's sufficient weight in there, and those beans are usually ground through within a few days anyway. But of course I'm always open to suggestions for sure

[Yelta]

I do the exact same thing - except I use a plastic take away sauce container that also doubles as a vessel to weigh beans into. Don't use the hopper at all as I am single dosing with a measured weight of beans.

Just goes to show, there's more than one way to skin a cat.

[Yelta]

I currently fill the hopper and decant it back into the bag when I'm done, and for the throat being full of beans issue, I bought a bug vacuum which works great in removing all the beans (except 3 or 4 stubborn beans) out into a canister, no wastage there

Sounds like a lot of messing around Simon, filling and emptying hopper after each session is needlessly exposing the beans to air, would certainly not help with retaining freshness.

[WhatEverBeansNecessary]

Yes, common practice.

I weigh beans pour into throat of my grinder and sit my tamper on top to prevent popcorning (it's a perfect fit) I don't use the hopper at all.

I do the exact same thing - except I use a plastic take away sauce container that also doubles as a vessel to weigh beans into. Don't use the hopper at all as I am single dosing with a measured weight of beans.

[simonsk8r]

G'day, it seems the common answer is it depends, a lot say that it's best to fill the hopper as the burrs need a good weight of beans on them (or actually moreso there needs to be weight on top of the beans being pushed through) and it helps with getting a consistent grind, but many do indeed single dose (weigh out just what you need for the shot and grind that) with great success. Some also say that certain grinders are more built for single dosing purposes (Kafetek Monolith etc)

In my experience I have found that if I switch from hopper dosing to single dosing, the single dose shot runs quite a lot faster and erratically, and definitely acts differently to when i have a full hopper. So whether that means it was inconsistently ground or not who knows, but you can adjust finer accordingly and see how you go. I would experiment and see which suits you better.

With my Rocky grinder I single dosed for years for some reason believing that was the only way to do it, and got awesome results (also the fact that I couldn't really close and remove the hopper was another reason hehe).

I currently fill the hopper and decant it back into the bag when I'm done, and for the throat being full of beans issue, I bought a bug vacuum which works great in removing all the beans (except 3 or 4 stubborn beans) out into a canister, no wastage there

[Yelta]

Yes, common practice.

I weigh beans pour into throat of my grinder and sit my tamper on top to prevent popcorning (it's a perfect fit) I don't use the hopper at all.

[dbun]

I've currently been filling my M2M hopper at least half way and then emptying the hopper back into the bag after making coffee - the reason being I felt the M2M had too much "popcorn" effect and thought it would affect the grind quality.

I'm not so keen in the residual beans that sit in the neck of the grinder.

Is anyone weighing the beans first and only dispensing say 20g at a time for each shot?