Feel free to shoot me down if this has been discussed before, but having benefited from the 'break and clean' method for FP, I'm wondering if something similar might improve my vac pot brews. You might have to bear with me if this gets a little convoluted.
I get a lot of fines when I use my hand grinder (I prefer not to disturb the grind setting on my mazzer for the occasional brew). Looking at the used grounds after the brew is done, I invariably find a layer of dust on top of the fairly uniform coarser grounds. I'm assuming that the fines float to the top after the bloom is disturbed when the bubbles come through from the bottom chamber and with some stirring.
So... if I were to scoop off the sludge from the top of the upper chamber (is there a constitutional reform joke in there somewhere?) would this make for a more consistent brew? Maybe everyone is doing this already and I just hadn't noticed, maybe it just wouldn't work, I don't know. Maybe I just need to work on nailing down the dose/grind/temperature/brew time matrix (is that the right word? Science makes my head hurt).
It's a bit late to try it right now, but I'll have a go tomorrow. Any thoughts?