Aaron, so.... bump up the grams to 50... what temperature should I try first? As I said, for this coffee roasting level (Medium/Dark), James recommends 176 to 194F in his book: How to Make the Best Coffee at Home and I've been at 185F for awhile now.Please, before abandoning this, try a more standard dose of coffee. You know that you are way under the recommended as is plus you are under extracting with your temperature choice, what you were tasting previously is probably not improving your coffee, only increasing the TDS. Please try 50g once, with the same method above.
I'm still fussing with my hand grinder a bit. I might have had it a bit too coarse this past time as well. I noticed I had some "flakes" in it this time... instead of all round grinds. I moved the dial a few clicks in the "finer" direction. With this grinder, I get what looks like chaff to me... not fines, as in finely ground coffee but very light in color particles. I didn't get those with my Cuisinart electric grinder but I got quite a lot of what I'm calling "fines"... very small, but dark in color particles. The overall grind with this KINGrinder K-1 is pretty consistent other than that. I might be expecting too much from a $69 hand grinder.