Check your water temp! Is it between 195-205F?
Check your water-to-coffee ratio! By weight, is it between 14:1-18:1?
Coffee tastes weak? Grind finer until the coffee has the richness and body you desire.
Coffee tastes too strong, tannic, or bitter? Grind coarser to increase sweetness, roundness, and clarity.
Once you reach your desired flavor, adjust body and strength by increasing or decreasing your water-to-coffee ratio.
Example:
I'm brewing a light roast, and it tastes too rich, kinda roasty, almost like a medium roast. I back way off on the grind, making it quite coarse. This increases acidity, sweetness, and clarity. The flavor is now nice, but the body is still too thick, I want my light roast to brew up more "tea-like." Now that I've found the correct grind size, I increase my water-to-coffee ratio to adjust body.
Conversely, with a darker roast, I'd generally want more richness, tannins, and body. So I'll start by grinding finer until the flavor is good, and then most likely decrease the water-to-coffee ration until the body/thickness is where I'd like it to be.
Footnotes: I brew light roasts at 203F, and I brew medium and dark roasts at 200F. Medium and dark roasts are ground fine to medium-fine, and I grind light roasts about 20% coarser than the mediums and darks.
Happy brewing! Never hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions :)
-Will
will@subterracoffee.com
or text me at 805-450-2947