Bit off track I think...
OP asked about his kick-ass new GS3 - which would have come with VST baskets - yes Leonardo?
Others will (and have) recommended to dose by volume. However it is a fact that if you do, when you change your grind you will absolutely change the amount of ground coffee in the basket too. This is why I never dose by volume, because you will end up effecting 2 parameters - not 1.
If you are using the VSTs, it is very important to weigh, and dose in your VST to the prescribed weight + or - 1g (so get yourself some 0.1g scales. evilbay has lots that are cheap. I just bought 0-3000g 0.1g ones for $20 and they're great)
To address your specific questions:
Not significant, but noticeable if you were doing say the 5c test. On the mini a change of one 'notch', if dose weigh is the same, will normally result in around 3-5ish seconds difference in the pour.
Very uncritical. My advice - forget assessing your fill by the imprint on the screen, there are too many variables associated with the imprint for it to be a reliable method of dose assessment. Seeing a clear imprint on the puck, and the puck being very firm and dry after the shot is (usually) an overdose on a VST.
A higher dose does not necessarily result in a lower extraction percentage, it depends on how long the shot pours for and how much coffee comes out. Extraction percentage is how much of the soluble bits of the ground coffee make it into the cup, and without a refractometer, you're just guessing. So don't worry about extraction percentage, be guided by taste.
You can use whatever basket you want, but I would steer clear of the 7g single. Any double is fine (14g-22g), but the best way to try to get the "right" (there's no such thing as right and wrong, only tasty and not tasty) is to aim for 2:1 brew ratio (eg 14g in, 28g out; or 22g in, 44g out - both in around 25 seconds).
Then once you have this, adjust your grind, OR dose, OR extraction time, one at a time, according to the taste you're trying to achieve.
Again don't worry about extraction percentage. Only way you can know this is by getting a refractometer, and I'd be recommending putting that $1000 into a grinder upgrade before a refractometer. It's way overkill.
In a nutshell:
- Get a 0.1g scale
- Dose to prescribed amount on basket
- Extract double the weight in the basket. Weigh the amount of coffee in the cup. Yes, measure liquid by grams, not mils
- Extraction time of about 25 seconds
- Taste, and adjust 1 parameter at a time until you have the taste you want.
Have fun!
OP asked about his kick-ass new GS3 - which would have come with VST baskets - yes Leonardo?
Others will (and have) recommended to dose by volume. However it is a fact that if you do, when you change your grind you will absolutely change the amount of ground coffee in the basket too. This is why I never dose by volume, because you will end up effecting 2 parameters - not 1.
If you are using the VSTs, it is very important to weigh, and dose in your VST to the prescribed weight + or - 1g (so get yourself some 0.1g scales. evilbay has lots that are cheap. I just bought 0-3000g 0.1g ones for $20 and they're great)
To address your specific questions:
If I weigh the dose, will I get a significant change in volume with changes in the grind?
How critical is it to achieve optimal fill using the screen imprint in the puck as a guide? Or is that overfill? The new basket does not have the ridge that I used to use with the old basket as a post tamp fill guide.
The traditional double espresso basket dose is 14g? The higher the dose, the thicker the puck the lower the extraction percentage for which I am trying to compensate by coarsening the grind?
For our specialty coffees is it better to go 17g or even 22g or 14 g and get the extraction right? Can you up the dose and get the extraction percentage right?
Then once you have this, adjust your grind, OR dose, OR extraction time, one at a time, according to the taste you're trying to achieve.
Aiming for 20% extraction? Does a 2:1 brew ration approximate this?
In a nutshell:
- Get a 0.1g scale
- Dose to prescribed amount on basket
- Extract double the weight in the basket. Weigh the amount of coffee in the cup. Yes, measure liquid by grams, not mils
- Extraction time of about 25 seconds
- Taste, and adjust 1 parameter at a time until you have the taste you want.
Have fun!



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