Fellow Opus Conical Burr Grinder Review: Quiet, Versatile, Affordable Leave a comment

For a beverage most individuals take pleasure in within the early morning, espresso generally is a noisy endeavor. Even in the event you handle to keep away from the espresso machine pumping out photographs of espresso and the steam wand screaming right into a whirlpool of milk, there’s nonetheless the earsplitting shriek-crunch of the grinder. On most mornings, I’ve to attend till my accomplice wakes as much as brew my first cup.

Till I attempted Fellow’s new grinder, the Opus. I believed having a quiet burr grinder was mainly unattainable: Pulverizing espresso beans between toothy metallic disks requires a robust (noisy) motor, after which there’s the din of high-velocity espresso bean shrapnel. However this one is so quiet, I can grind espresso with the bed room doorways open and nonetheless not wake anybody up.

The Opus can also be the jack of all trades of grinders. It’s highly effective sufficient to grind beans super-fine for espresso, however it may nonetheless make a rough grind for a French press. It has a comparatively small footprint, seems cute on the countertop, and is pretty cheap for its high quality. All of this, mixed with its astounding quietness, has made it a morning routine game-changer.

Perfecting Your Day by day Grind

For a grinder that appears easy on the skin, the Opus is an infinitely fine-tunable machine. It has 41 grind settings and an inside ring for even additional adjustment. For instance, in the event you’re utilizing it solely for espresso however discover that one click on towards coarse feels prefer it makes issues too coarse, and one click on towards nice makes issues too nice, you should use the inside ring to make a fair tinier adjustment. (Fellow has a video that shows how this works.) It is not too dissimilar to what you will discover on grinders just like the Baratza Encore ESP.

The inner ring characteristic can even come in useful because the grinder ages. I’ve been utilizing the Opus as my each day driver for about six months and it nonetheless produces grounds as nice because the day I unboxed it. However as you employ any grinder over time, the burrs will put on down a bit, which may make your super-fine settings really feel solely kinda nice. The inner ring helps you to modify the grinder to convey issues again to true, like honing a knife after it’s began to really feel somewhat boring. Mainly what you’re doing is bringing the burrs nearer collectively to compensate for his or her put on and tear.

The Opus additionally desires to make your espresso expertise as tasty and hassle-free as doable. It options anti-static expertise so that you gained’t have grounds flying round and sticking to issues. The grinder is timed to auto-stop at 30-second intervals so that you gained’t unintentionally over-grind your beans if you’re sleepy or distracted. Plus its low-hopper dimension means you’re solely grinding what you’re going to make use of, which is an effective behavior to get into for the freshest, tastiest espresso.

Stacking As much as the Competitors

Value is without doubt one of the Opus’ biggest promoting factors, however, at simply $195, I used to be initially doubtful that it could possibly be something however mid. A very good burr grinder will probably be not less than $100. Yow will discover just a few uncommon standouts under that worth, however if you need one thing you gained’t have to exchange each few years, $100 is the minimal. That’s why the Opus is so spectacular: It’s a $195 grinder that grinds like a $500 grinder.