Another good tip, thanks. It’s been a while since I was trying, but I seem to remember it was the last ounce or two, yeah. I just didn’t want to skew my results by not getting it all, but I suppose it really wouldn’t have, in retrospect. The next thing I was going to try was cloth filter over top of the paper filter (so cloth first, then paper, hopefully not losing too much heat in the process).

To be honest, I haven’t done the filtered french press in a little while. Now that I think of it, what you can do is collect together the top of the filter, and twist it together, so you apply a little pressure to any remaining liquid, pushing it through.

There shouldn’t be too much liquid though, maybe 30ml or so?

Yes, plunging first, so that only fines are left to be filtered – and of course because it’s ONLY fines that are collecting in the filter, they seem to plug it up completely much more so (and more quickly) than when making a regular pour-over. I am using a Rocky though, not one of the more high-end grinders, so I may just have excessive fines in my grind. Or perhaps it’s because I grind a little finer than some for French press, to get a faster extraction time, and thus generate more fines that way. I’ll try your tips and see if it helps. Am I to understand that you can filter FP coffee through a Melitta filter without it clogging, even when grinding yourself (not just when using pre-ground from an industrial grinder)? And if so, may I ask what grinder you’re using?

Thanks again for the great blog, I’ve been reading and watching videos all day. :-)

David, would you mind sharing your methodology for filtering through the Melitta filter after brewing in the French press? I’ve tried this myself (using coffee I’d freshly ground) and the fines have always clogged the paper filter so badly that a good portion of the cup remained in the filter for several minutes+. I figured that this coffee, still in contact with fines, was thus overextracting and ruining the experiment I was conducting…. Although considering the discussion above about the superior grinding consistency of industrial grinders, perhaps you didn’t do anything special, you just didn’t have significant fines in the grind!

Try a finer mesh maybe?

I have to say that I’m shocked by the particle distribution of the Virtuoso. I have resorted to sifting the grinds through a mesh strainer. I’m left with a nice even French Press grind in the strainer and a heavy layer of powder in the waste bin. My digital scale tells me I’m losing 40% of the coffee in the sifting process. Wow.

My point is, you might be on to something that a burr grinder is not in any way a panacea for the home coffee brewer. The preground coffee, typically ground on huge industrial roller grinders, has a more even particle size and less fines than the average home burr grinder produces.