Baratza - Encore

I'm just getting started as well - only been using my Encore for about 13 years now. 

I had an encore with M2. It was ok for filter. Great entry level for me, but once you commit to making better coffee you will quickly move beyond it.

I have the Oxo grinder and it works great, but I wish I dropped more $ for the Encore because it’s repairable so it will probably last longer (part of the reason why I bought a moccamaster in the first place). As far as I understand, the grinder bits will wear out down the road. Trying to move away from disposable cheap appliances to ones that are repairable where I can.

I bought a Baratza Encore about 3 years ago and have been happy with the range and consisting of grind size for French press to Aeropress.

So I’m gonna go sideways here for a second. Honestly just get a grinder that can do large quantities. Manual burr grinders are a pain and overkill. If you’re going to be brewing larger batches, then definitely get an electric grinder. That being said I don’t believe you need grinder more than $50 at all. The Oxo may serve you best and they are dozens on FB marketplace (at least in my location.) You just need something that will grind coarse. My recommendation for a quality brew is consistency. Get the same bean every time while learning. Local coffee shops that roast their own beans would be a good bet. I personally get dark roast with chocolate and hazelnut notes. Measure. Measure. Measure. You will be working with ratios and be consistent. I like 200 grams of coffee to 64 oz of water. When serving it’s 50/50 coffee to water with a bit of milk. So I would literally write what you do down so you can replicate it. Lastly it’s important to note that cold brew tastes better after being in the fridge 24 hours after brewing. Even better after 48 hours. Getting good at ratios and replicating your craft is what will make a great brew. Once you get that down and are able to splurge a bit more with a grinder.. you will then be able to mess around with different coarseness. For now, cheaper grinder and the coarsest setting. Anyone pushing an encore for only cold brew is nuts. I got an encore esp recently because I still want to brew cold brew in large batches AND grind for espresso. That being said if FB marketplace Gods bless you then get one lol

The problem isn’t with calibration, it’s with how much the top burr moves with each click of adjustment. The amount of adjustment is determined by the pitch of the threading. There might be one setting that can get you close to espresso size, but go one click in either direction and it’s either way too fine or way too coarse. If you need to grind a few microns coarser or finer, you can’t, so you can’t dial in the perfect shot. When I had an Encore, I also found that it really struggled to grind beans on the finest settings. It would take so long to get through 15g of beans, and if I was grinding denser light roasted beans, sometimes they wouldn’t go through at all. They’d just popcorn in the hopper.

This is the best grinder for 99.999% of people

It’s also super easy to fix. I’m not a savant of diy electronics repair, but I was able to fix my encore (6ish years into owning it) when it stopped working. I was grinding super fine for espresso and left it running too long. It got compacted in the chute and clogged it. It took about 20 minutes to find a video and execute the cleaning. It was interesting to see the inside of the machine, and you can tell they use quality components. It was also nice to realize that I could very easily fix any part that were to break, but there aren’t all that many parts that could go wrong to begin with.

Baratza is great.

I’m going to try to answer your post directly here based on my opinions and experiences, but feel free to ask anything else. 1. 1zpresso X series unless you don’t mind a larger size. Then the K series is better. J is supposed to be better for espresso grind - you can dial in finer grind sizes. Q series can fit inside some of the aeropress models. It is small and uses a different adjustment and grinder that I did not prefer. So the K is the splurge or Cadillac. 1zpresso have great service, are widespread if you need new parts, and they are one of the many grinders entered in the Aeromatic app. For an electric grinder, Baratza Encore is reasonable (conical burr). I believe the splurge is the Fellow Ode gen 2. Cadillac is Fellow Ode g2 with upgraded SSP burr set. (Flat burr). Whatever you use to grind. The RDT method (a couple ml spray of water on the beans before you grind) does make your grind produce less static and helps with consistency- in my own experience. 2. For more available coffee recommendations, I like Stumptown Hairbender, or Blue Bottle stuff, Intelligencia whatever. All good, not great. For less accessible top notch: Stovetop Tilly in Grand Rapids MI, Brooklyn Roasting Company Tokyo blend, Anthology Coffee Detroit is very Fancy, CoffeeShop in San Francisco - their Columbia coffee. Dark Matter Chicago Unicorn Blood, Dark Matter Funk 17 (aeropress shot tasted like black cherry and dark chocolate. My head exploded.) Hope this helps. Always happy to chat coffee! Happy Holidays!

The Aeromatic app is very well designed. The encore is a decent grinder, and quite loud. I think the 1zpresso X or K series are much better, but they are hand powered.

When I worked in an office I used to use a manual coffee grinder. While fun at first I hope to never, ever have to grind by hand again. I found it became tedious to do so. I’d vote electric. As others said the Encore is a great choice for middle of the road and quality to price ratio. And speaking of ratios, pick one and stick with it (I ended up using the suggested 55g to 1 L of water), with whatever grinder you get brew a pot too bitter (fine grounds) on purpose, then do one too sour (too coarse) so you have those tastes in mind. Now keep dialing finer until you start to taste too much bitter for your liking. You now have the starting point for future bags of coffee. Maybe a bit finer for light coffee, a bit coarser for dark. Or just set it no forget it.

I used timemore C2 for a year and later moved to Baratza encore since I was brewing 6-8 cups a day Now when I’m back to brewing 2 cups - I prefer the manual grinder

Hand grinder.. $60 or baratza encore @ $100 used / refurbed. Difference in either of these vs pre ground is night and day.

I did espresso with a Gaggia Classic and original encore for a year plus and it was adequate, but the ESP is better suited..

I’ll contradict some of the other opinions here: I used the Encore (not ESP) for years and was deeply disappointed. I upgraded to the Virtuoso and was still deeply disappointed. Both grinders produced too many fines and never gave me the quality of pourovers that barista friends served me at their shops. The clarity of flavor just wasn’t there. Even an $80 hand grinder was a massive upgrade over the \~$250 Virtuoso according to my tastes. My use case is exclusively light roast pourovers, and my preference is for cups with fairly high clarity, though I value some degree of body as well. Assuming you aren’t asking for a grinder that can do espresso, at your price point I would echo the recommendations for either a pourover focused hand grinder, or the Ode Gen 2 on sale, given that Black Friday isn’t far away.

1) Baratza Encore is always the answer 2) Electric 3) Whatever you can get that freshest and local typically - I have “me” beans (local) and beans for company (Caribou medium roast)

Baratza encore seems like the next logical step for you. Then upgrade to the M2 burr.

This part! Disgusting Kuerig coffee is what led me to researching and finding out about AP in the first place. Even cheap grocery store coffee tastes 100X better. Of course, 1 Baratza Encore and much better beans later, coffee is the highlight of my day…lol!

Could you expound on why that is, because I’ve been wondering? I only discovered the AP about 6 months ago and am obsessed. I got a Baratza Encore for Christmas which I love. However, my favorite coffee so far is a Lavazza (Opera Intenso) that doesn’t come in whole beans but is still absolutely amazing.

This is the way. I can find them all day under the $100 mark on Facebook Market.

I started with a Bodum burr grinder. Worked well for my needs. Luckily i stumbled across an Encore on facebook marketplace for $60. Clean, well maintained. The guy I bought it off of chatted about coffee for almost an hour when I picked it up. Dude was meticulous. Didn’t keep beans in the hopper, weighed and ground daily. Cleaned monthly Check out marketplace. I’m certain you can find a great grinder significantly cheaper than new. Run a couple cups of rice through it to clean it, brush out as much as you can. The first grind after cleaning is sacrificial Edit-werds r hard

I 2nd that. I got the one with the scale used on eBay. It's been great. Baratzas are great too. Better reliability and fix ability. But they are also a lot noisier.

I’ve owned the Baratza Encore, Fellow Ode and now the 078. They clearly to me are bottom, mid and top in that order. The 078 is wildly good. 

He probably didn't want to use the hand grinder because it sucked. It probably either had a ceramic burr, or it was a blade grinder. What kind of grinder was it? Any hand grinder with a steel burr is going to be a significant upgrade. KINGrinder and Timemore have affordable options. The KINGrinder K series can handle a drill, with the proper bit, if someone has one and doesn't want to hand grind. I'm not sure about the P series. If a grinder doesn't say it can handle a drill it likely can't. For an electric grinder, you'll pay $100 extra, or more, to get an equal or worse grind. The main advantage of an electric grinder is if you regularly want to grind more than 20 grams of coffee at one time, give or take. A few decent hand grinders can handle 30, though. If I want to grind more than 20 with my KINGrinder k0, I just measure all the beans once and then add them when the grind finishes. The bottom cup can hold 30, so any more and I would need to dump that first. Another reason for an electric grinder would be physical disability, like arthritis, but you should be grinding with your arm, and not your fingers or wrist so it shouldn't be strenuous. If you're outside the US, I've heard the Wilfa Svart is a lower cost, quality, option. Otherwise there's the Baratza Encore. I've heard the Encore has a grind profile similar to a Timemore c2, KINGrinder k0, or Kingrinder p0, which can probably be found for around $50, or less for the p0. I also grind my beans while my kettle is heating up, and I grind relatively slowly for better grind uniformity and less fines, and I always finish before my kettle finishes heating. I'm in the US, so the electric system means the kettles don't necessarily heat as fast as places like the UK, however.

I had one of those and upgraded to a Baratza encore years ago. I'd get the newer encore esp now. I have the fellow ode gen 2 now and would not recommend it for your needs.

We've had an OE Lido3 for years, and it's an excellent manual burr grinder. Have a Barazta that was just too damn loud, particularly first thing in the am. It's been collecting dust since the Lido3 showed up. But the Lido is $$$.

It may be worth keeping in mind that every grinder will generate some amount of static electricity which will cause grinds to stick and therefore produce some amount of messiness. This can be mitigated to a certain extent by adding a few droplets of water to your beans before grinding, but I think having some grinds on the counter is inevitable with electric grinders. Placing the grinder on a tray to collect the grinds also helps but does not fully resolve the problem of loose grounds. It's also worth noting that with some electric grinders, disassembling and cleaning the grinder pieces is recommended periodically. I struggled to figure out my Baratza encore's assembly and dissassembly and I have fully functioning vision. You'll want to double check whether assembly and maintenance will be an issue with whatever grinder you end up choosing. I'm of the opinion that hand grinders are best overall since you have to spend a lot more money on electrics than hand grinders for any given grind quality, and I feel like the grind effort is less than maintenance and handling with electrics. Given your additional difficulties, it's possible using a hand grinder is the best possible grinding experience for you.

I can't comment--I've never had an Opus. I have had a Baratza Encore (still do), which is in the same ballpark and it had too many fines for my liking for pour-over/filter brews. Additionally, for everything I've read/watched regarding the Opus, the reviews have never left me feeling like I'm missing out on anything.

For anyone in this comment section. I’m currently rocking a Baritza. Give me a solid rec in the $300-$500 range

Just upgraded from an encore to an ode 2!!! Do it

Couple things to keep in mind: * Never underestimate the difference a good quality grinder will make, a cheaper machine with a good grinder will almost always beat an expensive machine with a bad grinder. Baratza makes excellent affordable machines, start with them. * Like with most products, the more complex it is, the more points of potential failure it will have. This is why I avoid all-in-one machines and fully automatic machines. Keep the grinder and the espresso machine separate, it will save your dad headaches down the road— and if he really gets into it, will give him the option to upgrade components independently * Espresso machine market is changing. Good home espresso is becoming increasingly within reach. You can get good value with some of the newer brands like Casabrews— but it'd still TBD how reliable these machines are, time will tell.

My bambino plus and Baratza encore were like $699 combined. I make pretty great espresso with it.

Because you’re seriously underestimating the cost of goods. I understand that $100 might be a lot of money for some, but in the world of coffee grinders the Fellow Ode you see many people have is already considered the ‘cheap’, ‘budget’ option. You could also go for the Baratza Encore, which I believe is probably around $150 these days as it has been superseded by the newer Encore ESP, but that’s about as low as you can get if quality is also something you’re looking for. Then there’s longevity, are you sure that you will only do pourover coffee, because 6 months down the road you decide to want to dabble in espresso, then you’ll have to upgrade your grinder again because those two options, Fellow Ode and Baratza Encore, are not good enough for espresso. I’m sure you can find things below $100 if you just search Amazon, and you’ll see all kinds of claims in the product listing and description, but I can guarantee you all of those things are trash. If $100 is the budget you have, then go for a hand grinder. It will be the smarter choice. Hand grinding for pourover is easy and quick. Unlike espresso, where you have to grind every shot, you can crank out 30g in 30 seconds and make a big 500ml pot of coffee to share. Even the OG Timemore C2 remains an excellent and fast pourover grinder, while the newer C3 ESP lets you do espresso. Both are under $100. If you can swing about $120, the Kingrinder K6 is almost flagship level for a hand grinder both pourover and espresso. If you can wait a bit, Black Friday is a month away, you’ll probably find it below $100 then. And maybe the electric Baratza Encore for $100 too.

a hand grinder will make great coffee at a lower price if you’re interested, can’t beat the kingrinder P1/2 for like 30$ if you’ve never ground your own beans. moving up the K6 can be found for ~100$. after that you probably wanna look at 1zpresso lineup. electric grinder you could get a baratza encore for a true budget option, then the df54 for the most bang for your buck. after that you’ll see diminishing returns and prices really increase, the rabbit hole is deep, but start small.

Baratza Encore if you don't really need to grind for espresso (or simply don't want to buy some crap that will break just after warranty period instead of working for decades).

I bought the Barraza encore and I’m on my second one. They only lasted me six months and now the second one is broken so I wouldn’t suggest that one.

If you’re looking for just pour over the regular Encore will get you plenty of nice cups. But I’d agree with other suggestions that you should just go for like a K6. You won’t be disappointed with the Encore, but know that you CAN get better cups with a solid hand grinder for that price.

While I agree with the K6 for a better cup I was and am still able to get many fine cups of pourover with the Encore. I don’t think OP needs the ESP unless he’s getting into espresso though.

Really hoped that the Varia would make a better showing here.  I wonder if the dial can be modded a bit to keep it from wandering (add friction material somewhere, maybe?) The noise of the Baratza puts me off, too.  I get offended these days by design decisions that don’t seem to care about the end user’s happiness.  I shouldn’t be forced to hate grinding coffee in the morning even if it’s just for thirty seconds. I did a lazy “noise analysis” vid of the earlier £500 grinder video to help me visualize their differences: https://youtu.be/3ELGcSK1G_4?si=5QGq5dh2InxT0DlP

KINGrinder K6 can be had for $100, and is fantastic for espresso as well as drip. It can be your travel grinder if you upgrade later. My first decent burr grinder was the Baratza Encore. I used it 7 years before passing it on to my son in law. It was night and day better than preground and blade grinder. I used it with a Chemex, French press, and Aeropress. $150 for Baratza.

I had my encore for more than 10 years and still works great. Ode gen 2 competes head to head like an Accord vs Camry but watch a bunch of YouTube vids that compare the two because both has pros and cons. All depends on what matters to you. But for the price point for an electric grinder, you can’t beat either. Ode is a little new so longevity is unknown. But Encore is known to last forever and has very good support

I started with a hand burr grinder, and then stepped up to an affordable electrical burr grinder. I will never go back to a hand grinder.. although when I started taking coffee more seriously, I couldn't really justify the expense of the electric. Now a decade later I've settled on two electric burr grinders. One for light and medium roast (ode 2 w/ssp) and to me what is a more forgiving baratza encore for darker roasts.. Buy what you can afford, you'll eventually upgrade!

It was a hario hand grinder.. Yea,a few people who have asked me about my setup have seemed aghast at idea of spending that much on a grinder. The encore was my daily for years until I decided I wanted something nicer for light and medium roasted coffee. The encore now is primarily used for dark roasts only.

Capresso burr grinder for the best buy, baratza encore for best overall. Picked up my capresso for around 80 or 90.

I'm going to have to try that. I do have the encore and my beans stick like no other

I have a baratza encore. I get my whole beans from HomeGoods. They carry various varieties of 12oz whole bean bags for around $7.99. I usually get BKG bags from them and try other unique roasters when they have em (https://bkgcoffee.com). Normally the roast date is not on the package but I never had an issue with freshness they taste great. I feel it’s a good compromise for non grocery store coffee and not paying $12-$16 for same size bags at small local coffee shops.

Baratza makes repairable grinders that will improve the taste of the coffee as well by having a more uniform grind.

I can't speak for either, but they are major brands, and I assume work as well as you can expect for the price. Cuisinart *($50)*. OXO *($75)*. Cold brew grind size is far more forgiving than other methods, but you will want a burr grinder. I recently upgraded and no longer use my Encore. The burrs may need to be aligned. It's old but has plenty of life. I would have to look it over, and you would have to figure out how to get it to you. If you want it *(free)* send me a chat.

I started with the Hario Skerton hand grinder or whatever it’s called…. Upgraded to the Encore. The biggest downside of that for me was the noise. Eventually an ill family member was getting into coffee and me and my wife decided to donate the Encore to him to make the rest of his time more enjoyable by having tools to really enjoy a cup. That’s when I upgraded to the Ode 2 and so far have zero complaints. I’m just using the standard burrs but that’s fine with me.

For your needs you could look into the Fellow Opus or a Baratza. ETA: top end of your budget but the Niche

If it's volume you want go for the Baratza or Baratza ESP (this will future proof it if you decide to drive into espresso) That has a hopper that you can load with a bag of coffee. You just press go and stop it when you've ground the amount you want. It can act as a single dose grinder too, you just weigh out the amount and grind that.

At your price point, probably the Encore. There are some other interesting grinders if you don't mind spending a bit more. Grind quality wise, hand grinders will be the best value..especially at your price point...but your partner coming from a blade grinder, basically anything will be a step up.

The Encore is a good grinder at its price point, but the K6 may even be better. I enjoyed grinding by hand for a long time and still do when traveling, but the grind quality of my Philos is just too good ;) My advice is to spend once as much as you can, not to go easy now and upgrade soonish. E.g. when going electric maybe go for the DF54 or (second hand) DF64g2, if you can afford it. When going for hand operated and you enjoy light roast, the 1zpresso ZP6 can’t be beaten (for med-dark K6 is great, especially for its price).

The Baratza Encore comes with a cover over the grind catchment chamber, that way the only thing that has to be cleaned is the chamber and the catch cup. Also, if you're not already using RDT, use it no matter what grinder you get

Yeah, the encore is definitely prone to static so RDT is effective. Just one small spray should be enough; don't go crazy

At one point the Encore was one of the few entry level grinders out there (I think it was closer to $100 back then). Now there are more choices. I personally think the Encore and the ESP espresso version produce too many fines for pourovers esp with light roasts. If your focus will be light to med roast pourovers and $200 is your budget, I would get a handgrinder. Either the Kingrinder K6 or the 1ZPresso ZP6. If $300 is your budget and you want an electric grinder, then I would get the Fellow Ode Gen 2 during Black Friday. It will be 15 to 20% off.

I've used the Encore at a friend's house last weekend since we were a few people over there and he was busy and since I'm the "coffee geek" , he asked me to do the lattes for everyone. It was working fine. I don't have much to say about it. I feel that for the money, it's pretty good. I had the Sette270 before changing to my new grinder. It was also working fine. It's a bit noisy and has a bit of retention. Some people had some issues with the Sette but for the 2-2.5 years that I had it, I never really had one. So for my part, I would say that the Baratza is a safe bet. I've never used the DF54.

James says that the regular Baratza Encore can't be made to grind finer for espresso, which is sort of false? The base settings don't let you, and you have to re-calibrate it. Here's a guide on it- [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvPmA2laBzM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvPmA2laBzM)

Exact same situation as me. I just ordered the baratza as it seemed to have the best overall reviews for the $

Baratza Encore for me and my MM.

The very reliable, tried & true Baratza Encore

I have been using a Baratza Encore since January of 2019 and it has not missed a beat. It works well with the Moccamaster, Chemex and French press. The only part I have replaced is the gasket between the bean hopper and the upper burr set. Part was readily available from Baratza and easily installed.

I invested in a good grinder and haven't looked back (baratza encore ). It was well worth the money. In terms of beans - whole beans are a little more resilient. I'll buy several pounds at a time and keep them in storage, like double bagged in the freezer and then when I'm ready to use one , move it into a proper canister.

I think at this stage I wonder why I would bother with spending more - it all sounds rather excellent from the ESP - I have the normal Encore already - but also Fellow and of course the df54. Also by the way the lid on the Baratza also works as a sort of bellows :D

That's amazing really. We'll have to see whether the same can be said for machines. People always used to say "spend as much on the grinder as on the espresso machine" but I feel that Baratza could perform well in espresso machines worth well more than 250 quid

Burr grinders will give you the most uniform and customizable grind, but they are more expensive. If you’re going to be taking full advantage of the KBGT then I would go for something electric; manually grinding that amount of beans might get annoying. As others have said, the baratza encore is a good choice. The NYT (I think?) and Americas Test Kitchen name it their best-rated burr grinder, which is why I went with it. I’m happy with it.

No complaints from my Baratza.

I caught the KM5 on sale around $240. It’s a good grinder but not a great grinder. I would be disappointed paying full price. The Good: I love the design and build quality. Looks hella good next to my Moccamaster brewer. Plus it’s hard to beat a 5 year warranty. It has great power and a nice consistent grind. The hopper lid can be flipped and used as a bellows of sorts to clear out stray/sticky grounds. It’s beautifully simple with a single switch and stepless adjustment knob. Some people complain about the switch being push and hold but I don’t mind that a bit. It’s quieter than my old KitchenAid blade grinder and that makes everyone in my house happy. I will still use a hand grinder when my partner and child are sleeping. The Bad: Static is a real problem with the KM5 but can be mitigated with RDT spray bottle. That’s easy enough for me. The hopper bottom is rather shallow leading to stray beans and kick back needing to be pushed back through 100% of the timing using it as a single dose grinder. Perhaps it wouldn’t be such an issue for someone who fills the hopper full of beans. I am also an avid AeroPress brewer so it’s common for me to grind ~15g doses. The KM5 is terrible for this. At times I’ll lose 0.7g and no matter what I do, I can’t seem to shake it loose. Generally the next time I grind beans will be a larger dose (26-40g) where I will push through the left over grinds and end up with more than what I put into the hopper. This only happens when grinding smaller doses so I don’t use it for that. That’s a big disappointment for me. All in all it’s a good grinder and it works for me. I’m happy to own it but after a month of use I’m not sure I would recommend it at full price. I don’t have experience with the Encore, Opus, or Bistro so I can’t say how they compare. The Encore seems to be a solid choice for a good and reliable grinder at a decent price. Just my two cents. Hope this helps in your decision!

I started out with a modded Baratza (stepless plus the burr from the Virtuoso) and a Flair Neo, and I got… 'okay' espresso for a while, but really I didn't get anything decent and truly tasty until I upgraded (+ took off the flow control on the Neo basket)

Get a used encore. I just sold mine for $75. You should be able to find similar deals.

Just looking at it, I can see it's got the same internal design as the burr grinder Cuisinart has been making for decades now. It's better than a blade grinder, but it's on the lowest quality rung of electric burr grinders. The cheapest baratza is significantly better.