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Set a Fellow Opus between 1 and 2.5 for espresso, per Honest Coffee Guide's compiled Fellow Opus chart. Start in the middle of the window and adjust on taste: finer if the shot gushes and tastes sour, thin or salty, coarser if the shot chokes, drips past your target time, or tastes harsh and drying.
Fellow Opus espresso settings, and the bands either side
| What | Setting on the Fellow Opus |
|---|---|
| Espresso window | 1 to 2.5 [1] |
| The moka pot band on the same chart | 2.5 to 5.5 [1] |
| Full grind range of the grinder | 230 to 1160 microns [1] |
The neighbouring bands are there for context. If your espresso sits at one end of its window and still tastes wrong, the answer is usually a different variable, not another step in the same direction, because past that edge you are grinding for a different brew method. The numbers here are the Opus outer ring. The inner ring under the hopper adds the finer sub-steps, and that is where the actual shot dialing happens.
Why espresso wants this part of the dial
Espresso forces hot water through a compacted puck at high pressure in well under a minute, so the grind is the main lever on how fast the water gets out the other side. There is no second chance inside the shot: the setting decides the flow, and the flow decides the taste.
Dial it in from the chart in 3 steps
1. Set the middle of the espresso window above and brew once, changing nothing else. 2. Taste against the two failure directions: finer if the shot gushes and tastes sour, thin or salty, coarser if the shot chokes, drips past your target time, or tastes harsh and drying. The full logic is in how to dial in espresso grind size and why espresso runs sour. For the rest of the recipe, see why espresso runs bitter. 3. Move in small steps and write each attempt down; the free dial-in logbook exists for exactly this. Weigh the dose and the yield while you do this. Changing grind and dose in the same attempt is how people spend a week convinced the chart is wrong.
How the Fellow Opus adjustment reads
The Fellow Opus uses an outer ring numbered 1 at the fine end to 11 at the coarse end, plus an inner ring for finer steps. Find your zero before trusting any chart: with the hopper empty, close the burrs until they just touch, call that zero, and count from there. A zero point calibrated differently from the chart's shifts every range by the difference, which is behind most complaints that a chart is wrong. The full Fellow Opus grind settings chart has every other brew method on one page.
Espresso on other popular grinders
| Grinder | Espresso setting |
|---|---|
| 1Zpresso Q Air | 0.5.1 to 1.1.0 [2] |
| 1Zpresso ZP6 | 0.0 to 1.2 [3] |
| KINGrinder K2 | 25 to 51 [4] |
| KINGrinder K4 | 0.22 to 0.45 [5] |
| Turin DF54 | 8 to 30 [6] |
Get the grinder
The Fellow Opus is on Amazon: check the current Fellow Opus price. We link the search rather than quote a price that will be stale by Friday.
Related reading
FAQ
What grind setting is espresso on the Fellow Opus? 1 to 2.5 on the compiled Fellow Opus chart. Start in the middle of that window, brew once with everything else held steady, then move in small steps on taste.
My espresso tastes wrong on the Fellow Opus. Which way do I move? If the shot gushes and tastes sour, thin or salty, go finer. If the shot chokes, drips past your target time, or tastes harsh and drying, go coarser. Change one thing at a time and write down what you did.
Where do these Fellow Opus numbers come from? Honest Coffee Guide's compiled Fellow Opus chart, read from the published table and cited in the sources list on this page. It is a compiled chart built from that site's research and reader feedback, not a manufacturer document, so treat every range as a window rather than a verdict.
Sources
- [1] Honest Coffee Guide's Fellow Opus chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/fellow-opus-grind-settings/
- [2] Honest Coffee Guide's 1Zpresso Q Air chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/1zpresso-q-air-grind-settings/
- [3] Honest Coffee Guide's 1Zpresso ZP6 chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/1zpresso-zp6-grind-settings/
- [4] Honest Coffee Guide's KINGrinder K2 chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/kingrinder-k2-grind-settings/
- [5] Honest Coffee Guide's KINGrinder K4 chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/kingrinder-k4-grind-settings/
- [6] Honest Coffee Guide's Turin DF54 chart: https://honestcoffeeguide.com/turin-df54-grind-settings/
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