Sage - Dose Control Pro

I don't know of any grinders that grind directly into a 51mm portafilter. But I'd say second hand dose control pro would be a good fit. It's a timed grinder, so you can just push a button, let it grind and then dump the grounds into the portafilter using a funnel. Very hassel free and often go for sub 100 on ebay

ive got the sage dose control pro, its done well for me and only (£160) unless you want to spend more, ive heard the niche are quite good. check out **James Hoffmann's** youtube channel, he reviews everything coffee and on different price points. talks about the science behind espresso machines, its quite interesting even if you dont take his recommendations

Upgraded from a Sage Dose Control Pro to a DF54 semi-recently and couldn’t be happier

I got mine for £110 directly from Sage - discount + voucher from a coffee influencer’s affiliate link. Honestly, it does the job. Kind of meh for light roast extended fermentation type of beans, but otherwise incredible. Dose is also sometimes inconsistent because of retention or shot times vary inexplicably, but it definitely works reliably for espresso grind for medium and darker roast beans and that’s all I need it for.

Dose control pro Similar to smart grinder pro. Same burrs I believe, more size increments (half steps), and fewer time increments (1s vs 0.2s)

Mine is £110 - Dose Control Pro Not perfect but does the job

Yeah honestly this is not a bad idea. Got mine new for £110 It’s not perfect, but it can go fine enough to choke my machine and in small enough increments to dial in

Agree, the sage grinder will make you want to go to the next one quickly.

Get the best grinder you can afford. There's no substitute for freshness in coffee grounds, no matter what the bag says! I have an Etzinger etz-i, but if you're unwilling to spend £200 on a hand grinder, there are plenty of other choices! James Hoffmann did a review on the [KinGrinder P1](https://youtu.be/EPbVUR6Y83k?si=LdQ82LSeqs3EpFdm), which only costs £30ish. It's reviewed well, it might be a good starting point if you're on a budget. Stepping up, you could look at other offerings from KinGrinder, Timemore or 1Zpresso, they're the big names for budget grinders. Check the reviews, but it's my understanding that you can't go too badly wrong with their offerings. If you want to go electric, look at a Sage, Baratza Encore or Sette, Fellow Ode or Opus, or Wilfa Svart for good starting points, they can all be had second hand for not a lot, but I do see the odd Fellows going for £150 or so new. There are bargains to be had here and there! I kind of gloss over electric grinders not because they're no good, but because the money you spend is put to better use if the manufacturer doesn't need to pay for electric motors. Grinding as coarsely as a moka pot needs isn't too onerous, and the money just goes into making a decent grinder. Electric grinders start at well over £100 for anything worth looking at, so unless you're grinding for 4 espressos every morning, you'll get much more bang for your buck grinding by hand. I do make 4 espressos every morning though, for which I have a DF54. Worth a look for an espresso-capable grinder you can grow into, and you want a nice kitchen gadget. (Who doesn't?) Another wise investment is a jeweller's scale, or drug scale, depending on your upbringing. It doesn't need to be anything expensive or fancy, as long as it measures to 0.1g. Use it to measure out your beans before grinding them, and weigh the water into the base, so if you find a recipe you like, you can repeat it. A standard kitchen scale is no good for the coffee world if it only measures to the nearest gram. If you're weighing out 500g of flour, you'll end up between 499.5g and 500.5g. Pretty negligible in a loaf of bread. When you're working with 20g of coffee, you'll taste the difference between a 19.5g and 20.5g cup. Amazon is the place to look, they're a tenner well spent. Finally, when you make the leap, hand or electric, get yourself a burr grinder. If it costs three eighths of bugger all and has a little spinning blade at the bottom, don't waste your money on it. Blade grinders are near-universally regarded as crap by the coffee world because the "grounds" they produce are so horrendously inconsistent. You want a nice uniform(-ish) particle size, which blade grinders just aren't capable of by their design. You'll have coffee particles ranging in size from half a bean to icing sugar in the same batch. Unusable for making anything you'd want to drink. Also, avoid grinders with ceramic burrs like the Hario Skerton. They aren't as awful as blade grinders, but they don't produce good grounds either. Ceramic burrs are the very cheapest you can get, which shows how much thought and effort went into the rest of the grinder, and the quality of coffee it'll produce. You get what you pay for.