Thread: Grinding freshly roasted beans

I've scoured the web and googled a few threads re grind settings for fresh beans (circa 3 days - week old) and i've found conflicting responses as to how they are best extracted.

Seeing as how the beans in question are a rather popular blend here in Aus, being five senses' twenty four seven, I thought I would get a more specific and concise response here on CS.

These beans are 4 days old at the time of posting. And my usual espresso grind settings on my vario produces a much faster flow/extraction time with these beans, all else being constant, e.g. tamping technique and brewing temperatures.

The Result:

I'm not big on describing flavours, but it was noticeably weak compared to my usual supply of week old, darker blends. Now for those familiar with this particular blend, my description of 'weak' meant it was lacking in the 'bitter punch' department. It doesn't seem to have traces of choc or caramel. All I could taste however was the signature buttery smoothness at the start and that's sadly, also where it ends. I've actually had someone brew me an older pack of the same blend a couple weeks prior and it tasted heavenly, and contrary to what I believed, was extracted with a coarser grind setting.

So I decided to grind finder to achieve a slower extraction time, and now the flow seemed right but I'm still not getting that thick dark brown pour that usually lasts for a good 10secs at the start of extraction. All I get is a swift 4-5secs of decently brown fluid followed by blonding at the 10 sec mark, despite still taking a whole 27-30 secs to attain 60ml of espresso.

Can anyone point me in the right direction or tell me where I'm going wrong? Are the beans simply too young to achieve a flavour that my tastebuds are already accustomed to?

Thanks!

I too find that the older the beans are the finer I need to grind to get a 25 to 30 sec pour.

I home roast most of the time and try to use it between about one and three weeks after roasting.

Barry