latest coffee shenanigans
i’ve upgraded my process to dial in espresso by watching a bunch of lance hedrick’s youtube videos
i’ll share some of the process i used before, and what i’ve been doing lately
the two i really like:
lance talks about puck resistance here
and the second one, he dials in a bunch of roasts and talks about a bunch of variables
just a couple weeks ago, my super simple espresso machine was on the fritz, so i took it apart and figured out what the hell was going on with it
i was losing pressure because the steam wand and group head share a water source — it’s basically a rubber head operated by a screw that either blocks the steam wand or allows it
i had to break out the part that operates that rubber head and manually tighten it, so i’m playing around with its intestines every time i make coffee
what i’ve discovered is actually playing around with the white steam knob lets me adjust the pressure differential while i’m making a shot — i can manually cause a leak into the wand to lower the flow rate into the puck
pressure might be the last thing i play around with, but it’s nice to have that option
i keep thinking about upgrading everything, but honestly, i’m enjoying the challenge of using what i have to tune my intuition and skills
making better espresso
prior to the lance hedrick videos i only played around with four variables
dose: usually around 16-18 grams
grind size: 3-7ish (arbitrary for my own grinder)
ratio: 1:2-2.5 ish so 38-42g of espresso out
time: shooting for 25-35 seconds of shot time
after watching the videos, i’ve been paying more attention to grind sizes, ratios, temperatures, and pressures — with dose and time being ones i sort of don’t worry about too much
my naked basket holds 18g max, and i’ve tested that anything around 17g is usually far from being overfilled, so 16g to 17g is usually good to go and i don’t have to really touch that
when starting, i recall thinking that i had to get inside that 25 to 35 second shot range, but honestly, it took lance’s video to let me know that that rule is only a guideline
it’s totally possible to pull 20 or 40 second shots that are delicious, and most of the time, the other variables are independent factors that cause the time of the shot to be what it is anyway
so dose, time — i’ll take note of those, but i’m not too worried about it
yesterday, i pulled two decaf shots using some new learnings from mr. hedrick:
i had previously dialed this counter culture coffee at a 6 for grind size, but a la the puck resistance video, i learned that grinding too fine can cause heterogeneity in the puck, so it’s better to start coarse
that means if things are packed really tight, it increases the chance that water finds its way non-uniformly through the puck (channeling), which causes sour shots and generally shitty results
so, i took a few beans and put those through the grinder first, looking for the coarsest “sand-like” quality that lance talks about, as a start
i didn’t want fingerprint powder, that’s too fine, i wanted some varying degree of sand
my first shot was ground at 7, it kinda felt like smallish sand
dose: 17g
ratio: 1:2.5, so 43g of espresso out
grind size: 7, fine-ish sand
time: forgot to take it, but it felt fast
temperature: 170F
pressure: 3.3 bar pre-infusion up to 6 bar max during extraction
i didn’t take the time, but it definitely felt faster, maybe around 20 seconds, with not a lot of crema
lance says no crema doesn’t necessarily mean bad, it’s dependent on the type of beans, grind size, and how old they might be
the shot tasted a bit sour to me, which was a hint that it was either under extracting a bit due to puck issues, or i wasn’t getting a long enough extraction to get some of the sweet and bitter components out
lance also talks about processed coffees being more brittle — decafs have more processing involved, which means more puck resistance due to fines
i intuitively understand that processing a coffee breaks its structure down, so it’s more prone to shattering like glass — when grinding, it breaks down more and generates fines, which add to puck resistance
whereas if a raw bean is just lightly roasted, it has more structure to it, is harder to break down, doesn’t pack as uniformly, and also doesn’t generate as many fines, meaning less puck resistance
another way to think about it is “things that aren’t burned to a crisp typically don’t shatter into powder as easily”
so, i had some options for getting rid of what i think was under extraction in my cup
increase extraction by increasing solvent, so longer ratio while going coarser on the grind size
increase extraction via finer grind size so there is more surface area for extraction, with the possible backfiring of making puck resistance too high
maybe increase temperature, but i couldn’t do that on my machine, so i was stuck with 170F (which kinda sounds low, honestly)
in one of the highly processed coffees lance did, he reached 9 bar for a lightly roasted coffee and it was still sour — he decided to go coarser while keeping the same ratio, so the pressure would come down and the extraction would ideally be a little more uniform
the high pressure was what informed him that perhaps his puck resistance was too high
because my decaf wasn’t a super light roast (i’d say medium), i opted for the second option of going for a slightly finer grind size
6 bar isn’t super high, so pushing it to standard extraction pressures at 7-8 bar seemed ideal
i adjusted half a turn down to a 6.5 grinder setting and ran pretty much the same numbers
pressure went up to 7 bar, i saw more of a crema, and the shot tasted better
the sourness was still there, but only a hint, and it dissipated shortly after drinking it and as the temperature was coming down
because amy and i have gotten way more into light roast coffees, i suspect this new way of making espresso will help me troubleshoot better
hierloom coffee roasters from oakland had a light roast on sale
this time i decided to take the time measurement as well
i use the acronym DGRTTP (dose, grind size, ratio, time, temperature, pressure) to remember my new process
started at 7 again for grind size, noticed the pressure shot all the way up to 10 bar
the shot tasted sour — sounded like under extraction due to very high puck resistance, water might’ve been channeling non-uniformly
so, i coarsened up the grind to 7.5 to reduce high pressures and also lengthened the ratio from 1:2.5 to 1:3, for more water interaction
instead of 10 bar it reached 6.6 bar, and a longer 1:3 shot even came out a bit faster (but we don’t care about time)
it tasted much better, lots of floral notes, and even some sweetness
thanks mr. hedrick
hat tip to lance’s youtube channel
way to nerd out to better coffee
use what ya got