Now then I have a krups burr grinder for coffee beans, good price and effective….no complaints…..
however when the beans are ground and you take out the plastic coffee hopper to fill your brewing machine of choice it is always massively statically charged so floats about and creates a total mess.

question 1. why does it do this?
question 2. Is there a simple way of discharging the static before opening the lid?

very much a first world question of course but i need answers! answers people!
The coffee is no better or worse for being statically charged as far as i can tell! I use a steel stove top on an induction hod if that helps?!

Spritz beans with water before grinding. They get charged going through the burrs I believe.

It’s very bean-dependent IME. I never buy Starbucks beans because they seemed to be the worst offenders.

I read that spraying them with water might help, though I never bothered to try it.

Yup, using water is a good way of noticeably reducing the static. My new grinder (Rok Manual) has steel burrs (not sure if this is a contributing factor) and produces loads of static, so I keep one of those little droppers from a lateral flow test (yes, thoroughly cleaned out) with it and put 2-3 drops of water in the hopper before grinding.

I also tried earthing the grinder by connecting the body (all steel, good conduction paths) to the mains earth, but it didn’t really do much. Anyone explain why?

It’s to do with the moisture content of the beans. I’m not exactly sure why from a physics point of view, but the more moisture in the beans which usually means a lighter roast, the less static clings to them. I’m unsure of the role of humidity here, I mean it’s not liquid water that would be conducting electrons and equalising charge.

Can you prevent it? Not really, just grind them and wait a few minutes, the charge should dissipate a bit enough for you to scoop it out.