1, as in EG-1
The missile launcher. The microscope. The best coffee grinder in the world. It’s been confused for many things, but it’s hard to have a lukewarm first impression of the Weber Workshops EG-1. Its reputation precedes it; it is the Ferrari, it is the Rolex of coffee grinders; I thought it was pretty okay.
It’s not a new device - the farthest back I can date it is a Craig Lyn walkthrough video from 2016. Optimistically speaking, this is very much a winner at “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”; the visual delta from v1 to the current v2 (and v3) lies solely in variable speed controller becoming integrated into the base. The R&D team prophecized a constellation of meaningful features right:
Internals designed for low-retention and single dosing (beyond just replacing a hopper with bellows)
RPM adjustment
Tool-less cleaning
Blind burrs as standard
Easy burr swapping
Nothing else would see this combination executed well out of the box for a long while, and still arguably unmatched in execution among large burr grinders. V3 would reflect modern trends and introduces an RPM purge button functionality. A theoretical V4 with an ionizer? Not impossible, though perhaps not necessary.
The dosing tray is sensibly sized, I haven’t had issues overshooting or overflowing it. If you’re regularly dumping 20g or more at once, a beans may slip-n-slide away at times. What gives me displeasure about it is that it cannot be fastened down. The design language minimizes the need for tools, leaving four tiny magnets slotting in and holding a pound of metal. If you treat the EG-1 as a sacred temple as you operate it, this may be a non-issue. It concerns me for cafe use. In my home coffee station with multiple grinders and visitors interacting with a wall of coffee gear, it’s been knocked off upwards of ten times; I’ve stopped looking up when I hear the destructive sound of the tray falling off and reassure the guilt-looking guest that they haven’t broken it.
Stepless diehards be silenced, 5 microns per tick leaves nothing to be desired
The grind setting ring moves 5 microns per notch, stepless die-hards be silenced. It slots in confidently into ten pin position and is more repeatable than eyeballing a sixteenths micro-positions on a stepless dial. Another point of joy - the grind dials go from 1-10 with a sensible 5 or 10 clicks in between. A logical 5 microns per click, 10 notches per number, 10 numbers per rotation is my favorite part about this grinder. But then the downer - you can’t tell what macro turn you’re on or recalibrate the zero point; the former is a criticism not unique to this grinder, but the latter is seriously disappointing. On this grinder, I don’t commit micron gap I use to memory because the number I set doesn’t start at zero. With the stock Core burrs, I’d use number 6 as a starting point for espresso, and for pourover… one rotation over again to 6. Unless I turned the dial finer to check to induce the false chirp of the wipers or opened up the cleverly designed magnetic chamber assembly to look at the burr gap, I’d have no indicators what I’m grinding for.
Max RPM vaporizes beans on contact
Setup is fairly straightforward. On the back you’ll find a standard C13-type power cable like a desktop PC, allowing you to customize how short or long it reaches from your counter to the outlet. Flip a switch on the back, and a retro-cool, white dot-matrix display indicates the set RPM. You have two circles to interact with on the left side - one turns to adjust the RPM, the other a power button lighting up with a pleasant tactile springiness to start a hushed fluttering of wipers along the inner perimeter of the grind chamber. Your right hand will be flicking the knocker at the exit chute, which moves an internal, flexible material (user re-upholster-able) inside to dishevel internal remains.
Workflow is a single word used to describe many things that distills down to a binary interpretation. On the v2, the supplied fork and ring holds the shaker at a desired height, but can double up as a portafilter sandwich (since succeeded by the platen in v3). If used solely for espresso, this may be the way to go. Installing the hooks is a mini puzzle in holding down a tension button and uncomfortably sliding up, metal-on-metal. Only then do you pleasantly discover that there’s a built-in spring to the hook to move out of the way.
You’re in for a bad time if the center stem gets knocked
The v2 also introduced a novel paradigm - the blind shaker/tumbler. As this review gets posted, it’s a focal point of discussion regarding distribution. Every few months I got the itch to give it another chance; I own another from a different brand I try to use as well. Whatever the effect, blind tumblers make me nervous to use. I feel constant fear of slippage and making a mess as I hold it. I’m worried that it’s seated wrong or when I pull it out, the center stem will get knocked and let grounds fall out; it’s something I could not live with. Between my use of the EG-1 and other grinders, I prefer a consistent receptacle to be used, and landed up with a metal cup sitting on the forks shaken vigorously to achieve that tumbler effect. Whatever the grinder or brew method, my grounds go in the same vessel to minimize cognitive load from mode shifting.
After collecting and trying a bunch of things, it always comes back to the cup
With a high price tag comes expectation and opportunity for ridicule - with a reputation for being the most expensive grinder, it must therefore be perfect. Any flaw that would get a pass on a cheaper grinder will be magnified, owners will be criticized for boutique, frivolous spend; discussions become unpleasant thereafter. The elephant in the room here: the EG-1 stalls. Fingers get pointed at the speculatively underpowered 300-some watt motor and comparisons are made to the kilowatt powerhouse EK43. Stalling is the outcome of power (influencing torque and speed), feed rate vs. bean load on the burrs, and bean hardness; it’s beyond a single spec unless one spec is so outlandish like the EK43 (which on the other hand risks tripping your circuit breaker). Combined with the current speculative science that lower RPMs generate less fines (more on this later) and therefore a better cup, the grinder is set up to fail for demands it wasn’t designed for. Other grinders can also stall on the lightest roasts, but finger are wagged harder at the EG-1 because of the price tag. When it does happen, the heart skips a beat as it goes quiet and you frantically hope cycling the power and pressing the button will bring it back to life. Perhaps I am jaded as an owner - I’m confident the motor isn’t dead, and life goes on, plus it’s not the part of owning this grinder that troubles me most.
Over time and use, I’ve learned how not to stall it; an unfortunate case of needing experience to work around a limitation. Past 800RPM, stalling happens a lot less frequently at the pace I feed it. My suggestion is to overcome the anxiety that some “unimodality” is left on the table by not using the minimum 500RPM. There is a legendary video of Jonathan Gagne feeding 1 bean of Apollon’s Gold (arguably a world top 3 light roaster) at a time into Ultra burrs to make them do espresso against how they were intended. While this notion tickles my sense of humor, we don’t all have to live this way as a default. It can be worked around, and you’d be forgiven to be frustrated that it needs to be worked around. I’ve heard (but cannot verify) that the 220v units experience stalling less often, and the v3, despite the same spec motor spec, reportedly stalls less due to a a relaxed cut-out threshold.
In the time I started writing this post to when it’s been published, Lance has brought wider attention to the idea that feed rate impacts particle distribution. While I am ambivalent specifically on the blind shaker being an end-all solution that fits into my goals, the past couple years living with the EG-1 did force me to consider the possibility that feed rate does something. I see two ways to interpret the LED RPM indicator - on one hand, it is practically useless since you can’t respond fast enough to make use of the information it tells you; on the other hand, it does give you a fleeting sense of how much RPM is impacted when bean load is applied and how it ramps up from a hot vs. cold start. Even when I picked up the Option-O P100 with no fear of stalling, I found myself hot starting and slow feeding the grinder because it felt right.
Bigger is certainly not automatically better between 80 to 98mm
In the gearhead game of “bigger number is better”, EG-1’s are also ridiculed for only having 80mm burrs rather than the nearly-default 98’s in higher-end offerings. Having owned/tried all but 4 (SSP ULF, Helfezi, Gorilla Gear, Kafatek Shuriken MD) 98mm’s, I confidently conclude that 80mm’s are equally competent options. The default Core burrs are a high-performing generalist, but are special nowhere. They are transparent, leaving little to complain about except the lack of a standout signature. Glass half-full, I’d say it’s one burrset to do everything. Glass half-empty, they have no characteristic signature and a pair of specialized, contrasting burrs would perhaps give better results. I’d run them for espresso of all roast levels, but pass on them for filter use entirely if I could put something else next to it. The Base burrs were the original default burr, and the claimed bimodal distribution leans farther into traditional espresso territory. For this, I think the price tag of an EG-1 is even more silly and there are more responsible ways to achieve this result; you’re truly going for the looks first and the espresso results would be to the standard of ~$500 grinders, not that they can be purchased anyway.
A word we can’t resist curiousness towards
Then there’s the Ultras. Produced by SSP and badged for Weber. If the name didn’t already sell you, it’s the “you’re not worthy, it’s probably too much for you, don’t spro it” stance that provokes you to rise to its capabilities. It’s without doubt a great burrset, but if you thought Ultra Low Fines meant you’d never see mud on the sidewall of your pourover ever again, you’d be disappointed; it doesn’t work that way and reading filter grounds beds is a fallacious artform. Still, you have a high clarity burrset that has a wonderful presentation; not so overbearing in any one dimension that it distracts from other aspects of the cup. They’re an obvious candidate as a reference burrset for bean evaluation. Jonathan Gagne uses the Ultras for many of his findings, and within his Patreon member-exclusive content, he goes deeper about the effects of RPM with this burrset that are more nuanced beyond “faster = more fines”. While I’m thankful he’s using the same burrs across his experimentation, we must also be careful in extrapolating performance characteristics of one burrset to generalize as the right tool for every bean and brew method, especially when it’s got “Ultra” in the name.
Pins secure blind burrs in lieu of screws, for better or worse
The appeal of the 1st party burrsets is that they are magnetically mounted and blind (without screw holes) to retain more cutting surface area. Among three blind-non blind pairings I have tried, I have not found blind burrs to be obviously better (to my preference) and do not consider it automatically worth pursuing. Speculatively, I’d expect the effect may be more meaningful at smaller diameter burrsets such as 64mm’s in a Zerno. There may be an appreciable effect from the higher cutting surface area, but that effect may or may not be to your preference. On the other hand, blinds introduce their own considerations - if the studs are not precisely fit to both the burr hole and the carrier, I have found that it’s possible to wiggle them, and after tightening everything else down, the radial play I get depending on the burrset plants a seed of doubt in my head that it has an effect in cup. The Weber SSP Lab Sweets I purchased came with an extra set of pins, and those annoyingly fit more snug than the pins the EG-1 came with.
I wish I’d known sooner that holed burrs fit natively
You’re not limited to the Weber range of burrs. SSP and Hemro produce other spectacular 80mm sets. The Ditting Lab Sweets come to mind, though YMMV if the cast steel will be perfectly flat. SSP offers a blind, cast Lab Sweet clone for the EG-1, curiously stamped as a Weber DB-2 (Ultra) on the back. Curiously, even after seasoning, I could never get that set to be as preferable to a true Ditting 807LS I had side by side, even accounting for RPM and micron gap.
When you’re told they’re the same but…
The burrs I enjoyed the most are the SSP 80mm High Uniformity in Red Speed coating. Reportedly they were also sold at some point as Low Uniformity. Or Multi-purpose, even though it’s not really an espresso burrset. SSP nomenclature is a whole separate blog post, and people who have sent pictures of my burrsets requesting an identical set have ended up receiving minutely (to very obviously) different product claimed to be the same; we can only self-pityingly enjoy how ridiculous this all is. Hansung of SSP claims they are the same as the Ultras despite the obvious difference in outfall gap and coating, and I’ve had others test the two cup profiles and loaned out the burrsets to others to corroborate that they are different.
BIG CAVEAT - burr comparisons are nuanced and don’t generalize well, my preferences and surrounding brew parameters likely don’t match yours. The burr itself does not make the cup result.
Among the supposed twins, I preferred the HU’s because they had a higher primary flavor intensity for the bean types I prefer, while I felt that the Ultras had better flavor separation suited to cleaner cup profiles and preferred by friends whose tastes are knowingly different. Were I to score them numerically, I’d give the same score. Qualitiatively, intentionally trying to find differences, I have a favorite. Clarity is not one-dimensional, and I find myself reaching my limitations of language. They are both impeccable sets not outshone by anything else in that style, regardless of diameter.
The wipers conform to the shape of the chamber
The downside to the HU and Ultras for espresso is the initial discomfort how fine you must turn the dial. The wiper design gives you a false sense of where chirp starts. Once you reach metal-on-metal chirp, you must close down uncomfortably deeper into actual burr chirp to go fine enough to hold espresso pressure. If the thought of the grinder hissing at you to go to further makes you uncomfortable, this is a non-starter for you.
A side track on acoustics. Without load, it’s a silent grinder up to around 800RPM - if you take a step away, you may forget it’s running, and any sound comes from how your adhesive wipers are positioned and contacting the chamber. Under load, it is whiny and for many, disappointing. To note, the sound profile varies with the burrset. For example, with the fewer, bigger prebreaker design on the Lab Sweets, there’s a startling punchiness as the beans first make contact. I don’t believe decibel ratings are meaningful in this context or indicates what it’s like to live with. It won’t transmit rumbles through the household, but it’ll be a nuisance to anyone on a video call in the same room. At the maximum 2000RPM, it’s audibly aggressive while running without load, and beans falling in sound as if they are being vaporized.
It’s a mechanical pleasure to open it up
If you speedrun it, it’s possible to swap a burr set in around three minutes EDIT: under 1.5min (thoroughly, 5-10min), short enough that you could grind with one set, swap, and grind with another set for brewing multiple in a session without too much headache. Open up the magnetic lower chamber, unscrew four hex socket cap bolts, and you’ve got the rotating assembly slides out. Note that the studs/pins for the blind burrs can fall out upon burr removal. The Weber burrs indicate on the back where to shim paper for radial alignment, and the lower carrier has replaceable adhesive wipers that are intelligently designed to be held in place; kudos for the thoughtfulness.
Burr alignment is generally a pain in most grinders and the EG-1 is relatively painless, though flawed. The official guidance for alignment is vague - loosely tighten the lower carrier, adjust dial to chirp, radially finger-align the burrs (needing a third hand), and tighten down the screws again. I’m suspicious how the stationary burr remains stationary under load if my fingers could shift position, and it doesn’t account for the angular alignment we usually think about. The grinder does not meaningfully align by usual marker test or foil shimming since you cannot guarantee replicating the same installation as you check your wipe. Sileighty on the EAF group shared the approach to take calipers to the rotating burr and its carrier and ensure at least that stack is aligned, though the calipers needed to reach the burrs would have to be quite large. It’s alignable - kind of - but given the price and implied precision, there remains an expectation gap; a good moment to remind ourselves that it was designed ahead of its time before such demanding considerations were standard.
But ignore all the above - that’s not what folks lust over this grinder for. We want a pièce de résistance, a centerpiece to our coffee cart. The EG-1 tells you that you can indeed put a price on pleasant touchpoints and style. However you feel about the aesthetics and design, nobody has a weak opinion on its existence. 80mm burr options are compelling, but the details, good or bad, fall to the wayside because endgame cup quality is already assumed. I do worry this puts a false sense of problem-solving in owners, that buying the fancy thing absolves the owner of skill issues. Of five cafes I’ve gone to because they used EG-1’s, I’ve been disappointed by four; I can’t help but feel that they’re letting the gear do the talking rather than it being self-evident in the cup results.
The EG-1 is full of contradictions - it’s a whale of a grinder in some aspects (certainly in its footprint). On the other hand, it casts doubt that '“small” 80mm lacks against 98mm. Touted as the most expensive grinder in the world, it is certainly not bulletproof in criticism. It’s supposed to be the (EG-)one, but I can’t help but think about the WUG-2. Reading all this you may think me not very keen on it, but I have no regrets with it. The proof is that I’ve kept it a year longer than anticipated; but ultimately it is just another tool on the counter.
5/13/2024 addendum: Here’s a silly game that I don’t recommend pursuing