Do spread it out though if it does go to the compost or garden. 20lb all in one spot could be overly powerful. Just as an aside. I know that used coffee grounds are close enough to neutral to be quite safe for most gardening purposes. However, unused coffee grounds may be rather stronger on the acid side as well as the caffeine (which might be a help against snails and slugs?) Anyway, there was a guy who posts on the Vermicomposting forum that ran into an issue with a cold brewed coffee (apparently a process that makes less acidic coffee) where he put the coffee grounds into his worm bin and caused his worms much distress. Apparently those cold brewed coffee grounds were a bit acidic and not very good for the worms. This probably isn't nearly such an issue for a full sized regular compost pile though.

Beany coulda handled this but after laughing during my innaguration as King of the Bean she wouldn't dare... Jessy rattled at the doors of my cage to get me to read your question. I started a new job and have been buried with new challenges for a month and barely have time to swing by right now. Claire, I'm not familiar with that particular machine but the theory of getting a good pour is the same. The results will definitely be inhibited by the linitations of a machine, the blend, quality, and freshness of the bean, and ultimately by your technique. I have a machine that cost more than braces for my niece and I still manage to get lousy shots way more often than I wish. Here's a copy and paste of something I wrote on the Appliance forum last year: ************************************************* A little bit of knowledge should help sort out some of the points being expressed here. Great coffee comes from understanding and by then chasing down the methods and hardware that can make it happen. Warning! This is a slippery slope, in that nothing culinary on earth is as finicky, and so subject to tiny mistakes as is coffee. Once you start up this path, perfect bean juice obsession can lead you into a kind of pergatory... an insanity that can be very expensive. Of this I can speak with much clarity and assurance. 1. Beans need to be fresh. Once roasted they can keep 10 days, maybe squeaking up to 14 days, but no longer than that. Air and moisture is coffee's natural predator so air tight storage and no freezers because of the condensation (moisture). Once ground, flavor loss begins immediately, and the difference between a great drink and so so, or down-right bad, is a matter of minutes. So you want fresh beans and a grinder. Hard core espresso afficiandos need a burr grinder, hardest core drinkers, a conical burr grinder, average non espresso coffee drinkers will do ok with a 20 dollar blade grinder. The degree of the grind (fine to course)must be matched with the style or method of preperation. 2. Ultimate espresso requires the correct water temperature to extract the desired flavor compounds (over 600 different identified compounds- more than fine wine). The temperature needs to remain stable throughout the entire extraction process- 202-205 farenheit, depending on the bean and the degree of roasting. 3.Correct water pressure is required to push the water through the grinds and at a pace slow enough to dissolve the flavors, but fast enough so as not to over extract the bitter aspirin-like flavors of caffeine. The target is 22 to 28 seconds depending on the bean, the roast, and the equipment. Department store priced units are typically unable to fufill this pressure requirement and always unable to sustain the temperature requirements stated above. 4. Points 1-3 is what drives the obsessed-for-espresso-perfection junkie to financial insanity. Java Man's advice at this point becomes paramount; if you're satisfied with what your equipment can produce, if you've never had a store bought espresso that you didn't like,then don't worry about the ramblings of a coffee lunatic. BUT, don't spend money on equipment if you haven't had a chance to taste the results first. If you like it, go for it and don't look back. Enjoy your freedom and your life. I got into this a long time ago, over 30 years, and for me it's too late; I know too much. I spent 6000 on a machine for my home and still strive for better results (remember what I said about insanity). For years, coffee had the influence of the stock market much like oil today. It is still a powerful force in the world. "What coffee brewer should I buy" is not a simple question to answer. Go forth and achieve great bean juice! ************************************************** So, with that said Claire, make the best of the machine that you have. Your desire for a burr grinder is more important than you know. If the goal is to dissolve the chemistry outof the ground bean by using water as a solvent, it's important that you offer the water the very best opportunity to do it's job. A typical grinder chops up the beans in to all different sizes, from powder to chunks. If the best of the flavor is extacted in about 25 seconds of very hot water, you can see that a chunk won't give up the stuff while powder will give up too much. Anyway, I'm drifting here... Figure out what works for your machine. Pay attention to the grind size, the water temp, the amount of pressure packing the grounds into the porta filter; try to be exactly the same in your technique; particularly how much goes into the filter, how hard you tamp, and shoot for 20 to 25 seconds to get about 3/4 of an ounce in each shot glass (1 1/2 oz total). The very best baristas try not to change anything but the grind coarseness. If the the volume of grinds, tamp pressure, and time remain constant, the only variable to change is the grind. One more scientific thought; coffee is very hydroscopic; if moisture is in the air, coffee absorbs it, if the air is dry it pulls moisture from the coffee. That's why we adjust the grinder. On a typical Seattle spring day, from cold mornings to warm afternoon to cool evening, in the shop we might have adjusted the grinder 20 or more times a day. At home we don't change it nearly as much but again, if anything changes, it should be the coarsness of the bean. Had enough? One more thing. Coffee expands when water hits the packed filter so be sure not to overfill it. Test that by looking at the spent "puck" after pouring a shot. If you have a big impression from the screen screw (unless you don't have a removable screen)pack a tiny bit less in. Pay attention to every shot, every detail, every time and you will get it. In many years of professional and personal culinary pursuits, I've not found anything as finicky as coffee. Whew, I need a coffee! michaelp Here is a link that might be useful: the goal...

Yeah, this low acid thing for me is really weird. It's like some acids bother me and some don't. I scrupulously avoided tomatoes, acidic fruits, caffeine, chocolate, etc. due to avoiding both caffeine and acid to help my bladder condition. Then after a while I realized that there was no need to avoid some of those things since the moderate amount I ate did not cause me a problem. Caffeine doesn't seem to bother me either, which is totally counterintuitive! And coffee doesn't bother my bladder which also seems counterintuitive based on how it affects some people's stomaches. But tea, which is supposedly so "healthy" with the anti-oxidants, and a beverage I love to death, that bothers me! Go figure! So now I have to drink coffee for my hot beverage, which I don't much care for. Also oddly, Coke doesn't bother me either. But diet soda of any kind, awful reaction! Of course diet soda is an awful chemical brew anyway, but I did like an occasional diet Coke or diet ginger ale, or diet 7-Up as a mixer. No more! I'm like Annie, I don't like cold coffee. I don't know why either. I like the IDEA of cold coffee in the summer, but I have tried to acquire a taste for it and I just can't. I think it is because I just don't care for sweet drinks and black cold coffee is even less appealing to me than hot coffee. I felt the same way about tea, I only liked it hot, even though I could stomach the idea of cold tea better than cold coffee, again, for reasons that baffled me. But anyway, I can totally see using cold brewed coffee as a base for cold coffee beverages in the summer. It also might be good for folks who don't like a strong coffee taste. I am an espresso fan so for me, it just didn't work.

"malt is a by product of roasting grains of all types. Coffee is roasted. " Sorry but I am not buying this ;-) Coffee is NOT a grain!! It is a seed and to the best of my knowledge you cannot get malt from a seed, only from sprouted, roasted or fermented cereal grains. Wheat, rye, barley, etc. I can find no literature that addresses anything about coffee "malt" beyond adding grain malt to coffee as you might with anything desiring a malt flavor. And I see nothing about the evaluation of roasted coffee that includes testing for malt. If you could provide some documentation that supports this contention, that would be helpful. I could find nothing.