Fellow Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2

Most grinders that take 64 millimetre flat burrs are built like small appliances, wide enough to claim a corner of the worktop. The Ode Gen 2 puts the same burr size in a body 105 millimetres across, and it does it by refusing a whole category of coffee.

The Fellow Ode Brew Grinder Gen 2 grinds for filter only: pour over, drip, AeroPress, French press and cold brew, with no espresso setting anywhere on the dial. That is a design decision rather than an omission. Flat burrs cut coffee between two parallel discs, and the Gen 2 set adds a second stage to the cut, breaking the bean once before it reaches the final gap, which Fellow says grinds finer and more precisely than the burrs in the first Ode. The quoted range is 250 to 300 microns and coarser, which covers every filter method and stops short of espresso. Fellow is blunt about why: both the burrs and the motor are geared for drip and immersion brewing.

Dialling in happens across 11 numbered settings spread over 31 steps, so each click moves you about a third of a number, which is the resolution you want when a brew is nearly right. The load bin holds 100 grams and expects a single dose, whatever you just weighed, rather than beans standing in a hopper going stale between brews. Anti-static treatment, a magnetically aligned catch cup and a knocker built into the body handle the grounds that cling on the way out, and the motor shuts itself off once the beans are through, so nothing runs empty while you look away.