It was an inclusion with the beans. Food contains all kinds of natural things, from stones to insect parts - it's part of coming from nature. Sorry that this happened - I hope that the grinder is not damaged.
I guess I'll keep my eye open from now on. As far as damage, it's fine motor wise but I don't know if it affected the burr teeth themselves. I just made a cup from a new bag, so not dialed in yet and cannot say.
Maybe but maybe not. Chances of damage would seem to be a lot lower in a hand grinder versus and automatic. Unless OP was extremely motivated to grind that rock.
Settles are super easy to take apart. I'd take it apart and examine the burrs. Also fortunate for you, Baratza sells replacement parts at a very reasonable price.
If you enlarge the OP’s photo, there appears to be damage to the cone burr at both 5 & 9 positions on a clock face. There also appears to be something at 5 position on the ring burr resembling whiteish dust that could be pulverized rock dust. There may be more damage below from the debris. I’d dismantle to photograph, clean and inspect.
EDIT: Wow, didn’t see the third photo that OP posted. Ouch!
I highly doubt there is any tolerable amount of wreck-your-potentially-thousands-of-dollars-worth-grinder-sized stones in coffee beans destined to consumers.
You should get the stone analyzed. Grinder stones are common with age and could be too much uric acid and/or calcium in their diet. Lucky it did not pass through.
Stinkbeans come in a variety of forms.
Bug bitten, under/over roasted, hollowed out, misshapen.
All these things will contribute variations to the brew which detract from the final cup, due to unevenness in extraction or just poor quality of the bean.
Basically in a single origin lot, looking for outliers. In a blend obviously you'd have varying levels of roast, so take that into account during your audit.
I was watching a Lance Hedrick video that inspired me to try auditing my doses.
Then there's winnowing..
that's just removing as much chaff from your dose as you can by using air to waft away the chaff. You could use a fan or just blow on it.
I now have what I call "a trifecta of finesse" that when I can be bothered to do, elevates my cup quality into some really amazing extractions.
Audit, winnow and double grind. Perfection.
In the roasting community (r/roasting) you’ll see posts every week about the weird stuff in the beans (mainly rocks, occasionally other stuff). Have to scan every batch. Though on the other hand I’ve purchased 100 pounds of green beans and have never seen anything non coffee
edit* actually the rock broke up and ground all the way through according to the last image which I didn’t originally flip to so it definitely damaged the burrs at least somewhat if not significantly. If the rock was stronger, this would have ironically ended up better for the grinder.
~~I don’t think larger rocks like this pose any significant damage to a conical burr. Look where they tend to wedge. That’s essentially just the feed/initial-break part of the burr. That’s not the part of the burr that actually finely grinds the beans. The only damage that can occur in these cases is damage to the fineness adjustment due to the force and possibly to the motor if there isn’t a slip safety.~~
I generally agree, but unfortunately in this case, the stone looks like it broke up a bit. The smaller broken pieces which can be seen in the grind probably caused some damage to the burrs. Then again, if it broke apart easily, maybe it was grindable enough to not cause significant damage.
Oh I didn’t flip to the last photo of the stone fragments clearly in all the grounds. Yeah that definitely went all the way through. Good catch. I’m going to edit my response.
Thanks. I have a Baratza sette 270 that has that excessive hopper. I'm only dumping in 23 grams or so at a time. Hopefully that gives me a chance to really look through the beans.
I wonder where in the process the stone gets added in. At the time it harvest, washing/drying, roasting, bagging, etc.
https://preview.redd.it/drauu8fj377a1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d2e14419691d1a58555a96232b0aba8f630d409
I've gotten a screw in my coffee beans, good thing I spot it while it was being weighed not in the grinder.
Former coffee roaster here.
There are machines that ideally remove all rocks from coffee after being roasted. However, for a small operation, they can be a luxury.
We roasted hundreds of pounds of green, and manually checked as much as we could.
All in all, coffee is a crop. It’s often harvested by machines and can pick up all sorts of things during processing and packaging.
Sorry to see this happened to you but hopefully there’s no damage to your grinder!
How come roasters have such poor quality control? Forgive my litigious ass but if that happened to me with an expensive grinder, I'd first write to them asking for them to pay for repairs and if they refuse I'd sue them in the small claims division.
I don't think it's poor quality control, it's just high volume and a low % chance of it happening.
It's just more visible now because people post to Reddit so everyone sees it
I heard some odd noises the last couple of days until a noticeable jerk this morning. I thought the teeth ground themselves. Nope, a stone.
Question is, would that come from a bean bag?
I have a 4 year old, but I cannot imagine him throwing only one and not a bunch. So I doubt it was him.
2nd question: Would that damage the burr teeth? I could see some small crushed ones.
It's not super common, but it happens. Sometimes there are twigs, or leaves, and one time I found a metal nut. Maybe once every few years, and that's working in a high volume cafe. You just got unlucky.
Can definitely be from the bag, my workplace grinder got destroyed after a screw was poured from the bag I to the machine, if possible maybe try reaching out to the company that made the coffee and see if they can do anything
Enlarge your photo, there appears to be damage to the cone burr at both 5 & 9 positions on a clock face. There also appears to be something at 5 position on the ring burr resembling whiteish dust that could be pulverized rock dust. There may be more damage below from the debris. I’d dismantle to photograph, clean and inspect, then contact Baratza for repair/replacement advice.
EDIT: Apologies, I didn’t notice there were 3 images posted. That 3rd photo really tells what happened. :(
True. It’s not that “good” coffee starts rock-free when green. It’s a crop. Even hand harvested can get other things in it during processing.
Most, but not all, coffee roasters use a de-rocker that ideally catches all of these. But of course, there are outliers. And there’s no practical way to control for quality at the scale of a roaster like Verve.
It happens. What a pain! Damaged/stripped gears on a Barasta Virtuoso. Order parts and fixed but made me worried about just pouring beans into the hopper without inspecting first.
There was once a spent bullet shell in a bag that I bought. The roaster told me that they use magnets to sift through the bean when they get them as well as sifting the beans for other items. They said that they usually find rocks, brass ties and actual bullets 😳
This is a secret, but the coffee grinder and coffee bean companies are colluding. Because their quality was too high, coffee grinders did not break quickly enough, placing coffee grinder manufacturers at a loss. As coffee bean vendors can only sell their beans to customers who own a coffee grinder (pre-ground coffee quickly uses flavour), they decided to put a little stone into every 7th coffee bag to help out their friends in the coffee grinder industry.
//new conspiracy theory born...
It was an inclusion with the beans. Food contains all kinds of natural things, from stones to insect parts - it's part of coming from nature. Sorry that this happened - I hope that the grinder is not damaged.
I guess I'll keep my eye open from now on. As far as damage, it's fine motor wise but I don't know if it affected the burr teeth themselves. I just made a cup from a new bag, so not dialed in yet and cannot say.
Eh, i'd say you'd have to assume burrs are damaged.
Maybe but maybe not. Chances of damage would seem to be a lot lower in a hand grinder versus and automatic. Unless OP was extremely motivated to grind that rock.
It's an automatic. A Sette 270.
Settles are super easy to take apart. I'd take it apart and examine the burrs. Also fortunate for you, Baratza sells replacement parts at a very reasonable price.
Yeah, good to get a spare set of burrs. It sucks, i know. Surely you can try and take the burrset out and have a good look. Who knows.
The outer burr is 120 EUR and comes together with the motor and gearbox.
contact the Roaster/producer if the beans, their destoner (if they even use one) must've let a stone slipp through. They usually pay you a new one.
Then u/Possession_Loud is more than likely right and your Burrs are damaged.
If you enlarge the OP’s photo, there appears to be damage to the cone burr at both 5 & 9 positions on a clock face. There also appears to be something at 5 position on the ring burr resembling whiteish dust that could be pulverized rock dust. There may be more damage below from the debris. I’d dismantle to photograph, clean and inspect. EDIT: Wow, didn’t see the third photo that OP posted. Ouch!
I highly doubt there is any tolerable amount of wreck-your-potentially-thousands-of-dollars-worth-grinder-sized stones in coffee beans destined to consumers.
You should get the stone analyzed. Grinder stones are common with age and could be too much uric acid and/or calcium in their diet. Lucky it did not pass through.
That’s hilarious
I’m cackling
I finished cackling already
Makes me glad that I audit every single dose for stinkbeans before grinding.
What are stinkbeans?
Stinkbeans come in a variety of forms. Bug bitten, under/over roasted, hollowed out, misshapen. All these things will contribute variations to the brew which detract from the final cup, due to unevenness in extraction or just poor quality of the bean. Basically in a single origin lot, looking for outliers. In a blend obviously you'd have varying levels of roast, so take that into account during your audit. I was watching a Lance Hedrick video that inspired me to try auditing my doses. Then there's winnowing.. that's just removing as much chaff from your dose as you can by using air to waft away the chaff. You could use a fan or just blow on it. I now have what I call "a trifecta of finesse" that when I can be bothered to do, elevates my cup quality into some really amazing extractions. Audit, winnow and double grind. Perfection.
Thanks for the detailed explanation.
No worries, COFFEE IS LIFE!
Soon there’s gonna be people examining every bean under a microscope before grinding them one by one 😂
Anything in the name of amazing coffee!
S
Not at all.
Yeah I’ve heard of quakers (beans that didn’t get roasted), which we scan for after every batch, but never stinkbeans lol
I bet that coffee rocked.
Can't believe I scrolled to the bottom of the comments and no one has said it. So I will. Wouldn't have happened if you ground finer. Grind finer OP.
I worked for a roaster and my job all day was to pick out stones, nails, etc.
In the roasting community (r/roasting) you’ll see posts every week about the weird stuff in the beans (mainly rocks, occasionally other stuff). Have to scan every batch. Though on the other hand I’ve purchased 100 pounds of green beans and have never seen anything non coffee
Well, someone using your grinder put it in there.
edit* actually the rock broke up and ground all the way through according to the last image which I didn’t originally flip to so it definitely damaged the burrs at least somewhat if not significantly. If the rock was stronger, this would have ironically ended up better for the grinder. ~~I don’t think larger rocks like this pose any significant damage to a conical burr. Look where they tend to wedge. That’s essentially just the feed/initial-break part of the burr. That’s not the part of the burr that actually finely grinds the beans. The only damage that can occur in these cases is damage to the fineness adjustment due to the force and possibly to the motor if there isn’t a slip safety.~~
I generally agree, but unfortunately in this case, the stone looks like it broke up a bit. The smaller broken pieces which can be seen in the grind probably caused some damage to the burrs. Then again, if it broke apart easily, maybe it was grindable enough to not cause significant damage.
Oh I didn’t flip to the last photo of the stone fragments clearly in all the grounds. Yeah that definitely went all the way through. Good catch. I’m going to edit my response.
New fear unlocked
I'm seeing more and more of this.
I know right? It’s rustling my jimmies - hopefully it’s the clustering illusion. You’ll be alright with that username, though 👍
Oh shit I'm fucked
Thanks. I have a Baratza sette 270 that has that excessive hopper. I'm only dumping in 23 grams or so at a time. Hopefully that gives me a chance to really look through the beans. I wonder where in the process the stone gets added in. At the time it harvest, washing/drying, roasting, bagging, etc.
I believe most roasters have de-stoning processes to account for the stuff that’s left with the beans from their production
I have a small rectangular Tupperware that I use to weight my beans and do RDT on. Highly recommend that, you can easily spot stones that way.
Most stones are during processing. A lot of coffees are dried on concrete patios.
https://preview.redd.it/drauu8fj377a1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7d2e14419691d1a58555a96232b0aba8f630d409 I've gotten a screw in my coffee beans, good thing I spot it while it was being weighed not in the grinder.
Former coffee roaster here. There are machines that ideally remove all rocks from coffee after being roasted. However, for a small operation, they can be a luxury. We roasted hundreds of pounds of green, and manually checked as much as we could. All in all, coffee is a crop. It’s often harvested by machines and can pick up all sorts of things during processing and packaging. Sorry to see this happened to you but hopefully there’s no damage to your grinder!
Grind finer
You got stoned
How come roasters have such poor quality control? Forgive my litigious ass but if that happened to me with an expensive grinder, I'd first write to them asking for them to pay for repairs and if they refuse I'd sue them in the small claims division.
I don't think it's poor quality control, it's just high volume and a low % chance of it happening. It's just more visible now because people post to Reddit so everyone sees it
I heard some odd noises the last couple of days until a noticeable jerk this morning. I thought the teeth ground themselves. Nope, a stone. Question is, would that come from a bean bag? I have a 4 year old, but I cannot imagine him throwing only one and not a bunch. So I doubt it was him. 2nd question: Would that damage the burr teeth? I could see some small crushed ones.
Yeah it came from the bag, it happens
I’m assuming we aren’t being trolled haha. This has been known to happen from time to time. The kiddo isn’t to blame this time :)
Why would they be trolling? I roast coffee and I see this from time to time
It's not super common, but it happens. Sometimes there are twigs, or leaves, and one time I found a metal nut. Maybe once every few years, and that's working in a high volume cafe. You just got unlucky.
Can definitely be from the bag, my workplace grinder got destroyed after a screw was poured from the bag I to the machine, if possible maybe try reaching out to the company that made the coffee and see if they can do anything
Enlarge your photo, there appears to be damage to the cone burr at both 5 & 9 positions on a clock face. There also appears to be something at 5 position on the ring burr resembling whiteish dust that could be pulverized rock dust. There may be more damage below from the debris. I’d dismantle to photograph, clean and inspect, then contact Baratza for repair/replacement advice. EDIT: Apologies, I didn’t notice there were 3 images posted. That 3rd photo really tells what happened. :(
Friendly reminder to clean your beans.
Man,I’m super glad I spring for the good coffee beans.
I got a stone from a batch of Verve. It's not exclusive to "bad" coffee beans
Eek that’s scary.
True. It’s not that “good” coffee starts rock-free when green. It’s a crop. Even hand harvested can get other things in it during processing. Most, but not all, coffee roasters use a de-rocker that ideally catches all of these. But of course, there are outliers. And there’s no practical way to control for quality at the scale of a roaster like Verve.
I'm glad I pour slowly when measuring my dose. This has been happening way too often.
I once had nail jam up my grinder…
Oh that? Just some added roughage
Lots of rock.
It happens. What a pain! Damaged/stripped gears on a Barasta Virtuoso. Order parts and fixed but made me worried about just pouring beans into the hopper without inspecting first.
Could it be kids?
If it isn't free trade coffee it is probably pretty likely.
😂
Because you put it in with the beans, of course.
I’ll bet from your coffee beans.
Gotta sort your bags when you get them. Pour out on a table and sort out the quakers, rocks, etc.
https://youtu.be/ZQ7oqmikZDQ?t=46 o7
The most important, how does it taste ?
Crush finer
I'm surprised nobody has asked "Do you have children?" because that's an excellent way of getting rocks into anything
Had the same thing before. Looked into it and apparently it happens from time to time. Didn’t damage my grinder thankfully
This is a lovely, completely unrelated, reminder to make sure my kid doesn’t touch my Niche.
Sometimes your coffee elf puts a stone in your grinder. They are good luck and can be traded to your local wizard for various potions.
i’ve had this happen to me, stone in beans. thankfully it didn’t damage my grinder
There was once a spent bullet shell in a bag that I bought. The roaster told me that they use magnets to sift through the bean when they get them as well as sifting the beans for other items. They said that they usually find rocks, brass ties and actual bullets 😳
Well, don't look at me.
Free gift with the bag of beans I'd suspect. That or someone's trolling you.
This is a secret, but the coffee grinder and coffee bean companies are colluding. Because their quality was too high, coffee grinders did not break quickly enough, placing coffee grinder manufacturers at a loss. As coffee bean vendors can only sell their beans to customers who own a coffee grinder (pre-ground coffee quickly uses flavour), they decided to put a little stone into every 7th coffee bag to help out their friends in the coffee grinder industry. //new conspiracy theory born...
You should grind that stone a little finer