HI y’all. I am getting increasingly frustrated with my espresso journey, now peaking with a serious attempt on getting an acceptable shot.

My SO gifted me DAK beans, so i am trying to make the best out of it. I didn’t want to tell her the roast date has been a little longer than i normally aim for, but 6 weeks beans we still do okay right.

The shots run extremely fast 10 sec prefinsue, and another 10-14 seconds and its done to 1:2 or 1:2.5 ratio. The pressure only builds up to 5 bar. My first shot at 18.1 gr in and the initial grind setting was smooth to some extent, watery, and sweetness didn’t stick for long. Bitter at the end lingered. Hence i figured for the second attempt to extract more ‘mid’-shot by grinder finer and cut output shorter to prevent bitterness.

To my surprise, the second shot ran faster. Immediately hit with acidity, followed by harshness. Is this an underextraction? I couldn’t recognise defects from the bottomless pf as it run so fast. Didn’t see channelling perse.   All the variables I changed for the second shot should have promoted an increase in extraction but it didn’t. I don’t think going coarser is the route, as the pressure build up is at 5 bar low already.

My setup:

  • Lelit Mara X, descaler, relativly good quality dutch tap water, temp mode I 92C-94Cish. OPV set for 8 bar boiler pressure.
  • Pullman Filtration876 precision basket 17-19 gr
  • wdt
  • level tamping, either with normal tamper or normcor
  • DF64 gen 1, SSP HU burs, aligned myself with a couple of shims.

Since I got the Pullman basket, extraction time has drastically decreased, which I understand is expected with precision baskets. Results have been… varying. Also with a simple medium roast blend coffee, i moreover don’t even dare to serve it to my family, who just expect a classic. Shots turn out overly harsh.

I am 5 years into my espresso journey, thought i learned a lot. But realise tasting coffee becomes increasingly difficult and frustrating. I start doubting myself, do I taste floral or sourness, is this over or under extracted? One thing is certain, I have flashy gear, expensive beans, but distasteful coffee.

Hope to tap in the knowledge of some of the espresso gods in this lemmy.

  • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    1 month ago

    Dial in your grind size if its running fast. Get it to the time you want and then adjust by taste and don’t worry too much about the time. Under 15 seconds is pretty quick for a standard shot. Adjust one variable at a time until you are in the ballpark then play around.

    If you think your grind size is ok then maybe it’s puck prep and you are getting channeling.

    • good_hunter@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      with these precision baskets, targeting a shot time first seems to go out the window. Like you also say, go off taste is what i try. But then changing variables don’t always result in my intended effect.

      I like to believe i have my puck prep pretty much dailed in, at the very least consistent.

      An obvious variable many like to point out are good quality fresh beans. I always buy from reputable local roasters. Buy in batch, rest for 1-2 weeks, freeze, and take out a week’s worth of beans as i go. There might be a bad batch occasionally, but i seem to screw up on the simple blend roasts too.