Source
r/Coffee•
probitron

My coffee from my Clever Dripper tastes like soap no matter what I do

I've been grinding my own beans and making my own coffee for a little while now. I can make very good cups with an Aeropress using the inverted method, but I like to make bigger servings for me and my fiance or when I make some decaf in the afternoon. I originally used a Chemex with a Kone, but had trouble getting consistency with that setup. So I got a Clever Dripper, which everyone recommended as being super easy and could make 500ml. Every cup I've made with it has ranged from bad to awful. It has a strong soapy taste to it, like someone put dish soap into my coffee. I've tested the boiled water by itself, so it isn't my water and I've used different cups, so it isn't that. This happens with every type of bean.

My setup:

Clever Dripper (I haven't been using soap to wash it)

Baratza Virtuoso (I've tried grinds from 17 to 24 based on other posts from Reddit)

Filtropa #4 filters (I fold them along the seam as I saw in a video

205 degree water and I use the top

I've varied steep time from as low as 2 minutes to 4 minutes with all grinds. I've tried stirring and not stirring, doesn't seem to matter. Bloom doesn't matter either.

I've found posts online saying soapy flavor indicates under extracted coffee and some that say it is over extracted coffee, so I'm not sure what direction I should move in. What variables should I change? Coarser grind? I don't think I can do finer, the lower end of what I've done already seems to clog the filter a little.

Posted Aug 13, 2020, 8:29 PM UTC

215
bigsagebrushMoustache Coffee Club•

Shot in the dark, do you pre-rinse the filter?

Not a knock against Filtropa, they're usually very good. Just in my brews I've sometimes come across a batch of filters have a weird taste, and when clever dripping it's not as common to pre-rinse since it's immersion. If changing the coffee parameters isn't having an effect in any way, I'd look at the other constants in the brew and see what can be adjusted.

5
probitronOP•

I do pre-rinse, forgot to put that in there. I think I will try tasting some hot water that has sat in the filter without any coffee and see if it has that flavor in it.

3
probitronOP•

I tried letting boiling water sit in the filter/dripper and it definitely didn't give me that strong soap taste. A very faint taste of paper was all. It was good to eliminate the filters though.

1
romerio86•

That's a tough one. Personally I wouldn't attribute a strong soap taste to a bad extraction. Have you tried running boiling water through the filter and the dripper, and then tasting that? I don't own a Clever but I recall they have a rubber piece, which sounds like a likely culprit.

Edit: Apparently the gasket is silicone. Many people associate oil residue on silicone with soap. I'd try with a thorough wash of the gasket, I believe diluted vinegar would work well.

3
GalbzillaCoffee•

Oh that's a good idea.

1
probitronOP•

I will try this, that is easy enough to do.

1
romerio86•

Hey, any updates? Quite curious

1
probitronOP•

I soaked it for a few hours in a 50/50 mix of water and vinegar. Since then I’ve made two cups that had zero soap taste. I think this is the winner! Big thanks to you for the suggestion

1
romerio86•

Awesome! Thanks for the update

1
GalbzillaCoffee•

I can say for sure you're most likely not over extracting the coffee. I've done tons of testing with the clever and other immersion methods and over extracting is really hard to do, like nearly impossible. Doesn't necessarily sound like under extraction though either.

I'm curious, what coffee are you using? If it's a light roast, maybe try using a medium to dark roast just to confirm that soapy taste.

What ratio of coffee to water are you using? Potentially going way too light on the coffee, maybe?

Potentially the water you're using? That would be weird though.

Definitely try sipping hot, plain water that was sitting in the clever for a couple minutes. See if that indicates anything.

3
probitronOP•

I generally use 30g to 500ml, though sometimes I go 450 to mix it up. The beans are almost universally medium-dark roast, I haven't tried any super light coffees yet. I don't think it is the water because my aeropress and chemex don't have this issue.

1
Draouk•

Seems impossible - order a new one and compare rather than driving yourself mad

1
blingboyduck•

Try using boiling water and perhaps grinding coarser but stirring more.

0
probitronOP•

I will give that a shot.

2
blingboyduck•

oh as someone else said, soak the filters and the dripper itself in hot water for at least 3 minutes and taste the water to see if they are causing the bad flavours!

2