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Making a Good Espresso

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  • Boggas
    replied
    Hi Scotty,

    I am not on a Linea Mini, but can relate to this. I am always trying new things and keeping notes, but my go to recipe is a very tight ristretto ( 20g dose, 20g yield 45 sec).

    I don’t know the science, but my taste buds like it a lot

    Leave a comment:


  • mocchi
    replied
    when it's been ground fine and you blast the puck swith straight 9 bar, it chokes the water flow abit as the puck is compressed and fines have hard time to migrate. if you mod your linea mini to have soft pressure to saturate the puck before blasting 9 bar, it will benefit in 2 ways:

    1. less chance of messing your puck due to bad puck prep and cause channeling, less channeling means more even extraction.
    2. allow fines to go through the puck before it's constricted under 9 bar pressure, as the puck degrades more water can flow through the puck.

    you should also analyse your alkalinity in your brew water at home, here in sth east of melbourne the alkalinity is 11-15ppm/L (500ppm scale - sodium chloride) where as SCA water standard is abt 40ppm/L. what does this mean? means your brew water will easily turn acidic if the alkalinity is low. brewing coffee with higher alkalinity water will give you more subdued acidity in your espresso. i had the longest problem with sour espresso and after using formulated water it's my breakthrough.

    https://awasteof.coffee/how-to/mixing-water/

    good luck!

    Leave a comment:


  • scotty595
    started a topic Making a Good Espresso

    Making a Good Espresso

    Hi All,

    I've been struggling a bit to make a 'good' espresso shot on my Linea Mini combined with my Niche Zero.

    A lot of the beans I use are relatively light, at the moment using a coffee from The Reformatory Caffeine Lab which was amazing when I had it in store, but alas incredibly acidic when I took it home.

    I've been following all recommendations around timing and dosing, generally dosing 18g in 45g out, or 21g in 50g out, time from turning the pump on to weight around 26-30 seconds. Have tried hotter/cooler temperatures but the lip puckering acidity still persists. Been using a bottomless portafilter, and all looks to be even extraction, no channeling etc.

    This morning, I was playing around with the grind, and it was 'too fine' - i.e. 21g in 49g out in about 60 seconds from pump turning on, first drop around 20 seconds in.

    I decided to try the shot, and was amazed, there was a small amount of acidity, a little bitterness, and a lovely sweetness which has all be missing from the 'recommended' brew time/recipes etc. It seemed to be almost perfect.

    I'm just a little confused though, why would I need such a long brew time???

    Are there any other variables I should look at tweaking, or do I just run with my new found approach?


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