I am a beginner who just has been curious on making his own coffee. My mistake is that I didn't thoroughly research on what ground of coffee beans I should have and unfortunately had a fine ground coffee. I researched what I can in the internet and it seems possible to use a fine ground coffee for a french press. My questions are:
Your biggest issue with a fine grind will be getting the plunger to press down.
The two tried & tested methods are to push/pull the plunger & see if you can force it without breaking the glass; the other is to take the top off, give it a good stir & try to press it immediately, before it has chance to float into a solid brick again.
The rest is entirely up to you & how you like your coffee. Nominal time is 4 minutes. No-one can tell you how strong you like your coffee. I've seen people make it so thin it's more golden than brown & others so strong that light won't pass through a glass espresso cup.
I‘m an espresso guy, but when I’m deprived of my espresso machine I revert to French Press. Espresso is superfine grind. French Press is supercourse. Because of the long extraction (3 minutes vs 30 seconds for espresso), French Press has more of the heavy, bitter flavor components.
If you try to use fine grind (like Melita coffee) the mesh filter lets the powdery fine grinds through… unless it doesn’t in which case you need lots of pressure on the plunger. Then the unfiltered coffee squirts around the edge of the plunger. Chewy coffee ensues. If you are forced to use fine grind, be patient with the plunger. Pushing harder doesn’t make coffee faster.
If you are buying pre-ground coffee, buy regular grind because you likely can’t find anything courser. It will still work. I plunge at 3 minutes.
