6 week V60 Coffee bed
6 week V60 Coffee bed history and My Self doubt + My question??
I've been into specialty coffee for around 8 years, and lately I've started questioning my own brewing more than I used to.
For the past few months, my main brewing method has been the V60, although over the years I've also spent a long time brewing with both the Moka Pot and the AeroPress. None of these methods are new to me—I used each of them consistently for years. Before returning to the V60, I went back and rewatched James Hoffmann's V60 guides and reviewed the notes I had taken from when I first learned the method, just to make sure I wasn't overlooking something fundamental.
Here are a couple of example brews:
https://i.imgur.com/A7qLBRR.jpeg https://i.imgur.com/tZ996Cs.jpeg
And here's an album of 11 brews I've made over the last six weeks:
For equipment, I use a Fellow Opus as my daily grinder. Most of the time I grind between 5.0 and 5.5 for V60, which is on the finer end of Fellow's recommended V60 range.
The reason I'm posting is that I haven't been particularly happy with the cups I've been getting lately. The brews are drinkable, but they often feel a bit flat or don't have the clarity and sweetness I'm expecting. Part of me wonders if I've just happened to buy a few coffees that weren't great, but after several different bags I'm starting to question whether the issue is my technique instead.
So I wanted to ask for some feedback from people with more experience evaluating them. Looking through these photos, do you notice anything that stands out? Is there anything about the beds that suggests channeling, poor agitation, grind size issues, uneven extraction, or anything else I should investigate? I also added my V60 recipe. I was happy with it in the past, right now, everything is open for debate.
I'd really appreciate any observations or constructive criticism. Even if the coffee beds or recipe might look perfectly normal, that would be useful to know too, since it would help me narrow down whether I should be focusing more on the beans, water, grinder, or some other variable.
My V60 Method for 16 gram of coffee beans
0:00 – Bloom Pour 32– or 48 gram water evenly over the grounds. Swirl gently to ensure all coffee is saturated.
0:45 – First main pour Pour up to ~140-150 g total. Pause briefly (10 seconds or so).
1:45ish – Final pour Pour up to 240–256 g total.
Finish Optional gentle swirl to level the bed.
Let drawdown complete (target total brew time roughly in the same range as Hoffmann’s original: ~2:50–3:20 depending on grind and coffee).
Thanks in advance!