quiggers Senior Member Joined: 27 Jan 2012 Posts: 8 Location: FL Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Fri May 4, 2012, 12:00pm Subject: Mypressi question
So, I'm having some of the best espresso I've ever had, and I know there's a long way to go.
I'm using different beans from a mixture of places - nothing special. I fought the urge to go buy red bird for a while. I want to get improvement with what I'm using and then move into decent beans and eventually home roasting, see incremental improvement.
I have been using the pressurized basket and getting good results, and now am using the non-pressurized.
I am using the hario skelton mini grinder set to -4 clicks as recommended on here. I use this setup on my lazy mornings off obviously.
I'm getting a looooong extraction (40+) and figure I can either tamp with a little less pressure or increase the courseness of the grind.
What I'm ending up with is a very dark crema and pretty decent balanced taste to begin with then undrinkable bitter acrid last 1/3rd of cup, tastes like a battery.
What could be the reason for such a dramatic change in the cup ?
DCcoffeeman Senior Member Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Posts: 47 Location: Maryland Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: MyPressi Twist, Bialetti... Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso, Zassenhaus Vac Pot: French press Drip: Melitta manual Roaster: Hot air popper
Posted Fri May 4, 2012, 12:20pm Subject: Re: Mypressi question
I have a My Pressi Twist and I never have had an extraction lasting as long as 40 seconds. A couple of suggestions. Are you using freshly roasted beans and grinding them just before making espresso? Using old beans and/or not grinding them freshly may be your problem. You may also be grinding too fine. Keep experimenting and you will get a great result. The My Pressi is a super little machine which can produce great espresso.
calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,685 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Fri May 4, 2012, 1:44pm Subject: Re: Mypressi question
While I own a Mypressi, I have not played with it much so what I am going to say is based on espresso in general. As mentioned above, fresh beans are mandatory. If you feel you must use what you have so you don't wast them (how many $ are you using in gas carts to save cheep/old beans?) go right ahead but the best from stale beans is often not as good as a bad shot from fresh beans, just something to think about.
If your beans are over two weeks from the day they were roasted, they are near or are shot and good for not much more than plant mulch.
Fresh beans DO freeze well (at least I can't taste any real age in frozen beans -though there are those who say they can, who am I to say what they taste?) There have been MANY threads on freezing beans. What I have found that works for me is to break a 5# bag (normally Red Bird) into zip top bags that last about 4 or 5 days each or about 3/4 pound. Remove as much air as you can then place in the coldest part of your freezer and do not touch until you need more beans. Remove only ONE bag at a time and let it come to room temp on it's own, a few hours at least. Then use up those beans before opening another bag. Works for me anyway.
Roasting is not for everyone. I have done a very little of it and though the process is not hard, the methods for home use tend to be on the smaller batch size. I want to roast 4 or 5 pounds at a time and I will either need to get a GREAT deal on a used roaster, build my own or go with a BBQ drum type. But when I am really honest with myself, I just don't want to bother with doing it when there is so much great great coffee out there that I can have with a click of a button.
That is not to say that doing it is a waste of time, it is not. Members here who roast find a great deal of satisfaction with the quality, multitude of choices and the feeling of a job well done. Me personally, I would rather buy.
Now to your problem. Provided you have fresh beans, grind more coarse. Tamping is the LEAST important part of the process. All you are doing is to try to compact the puck to remove air spaces and to present a uniformly dense puck to the water. Once you have done that, any more is a waste of time. The number is not really important either, just be consistent and all will be well.
The exact "number" or setting on your grinder is not important. It is different for every grinder and is only a reference point to keep track of how much you have adjusted the grinder for each shot.
Dont forget that as you change the grinder, when you go more fine, make sure the grinder is running as you adjust if you have beans in the hopper. If you forget to do this, you may jam the burrs and with a motor powered grinder, you can cause damage to the motor with the burrs locked. You might even damage the grinder, depending on how much you adjust, on a manual unit. You are putting a lot of pressure on the burrs when you tighten them down with beans between them.
Going more coarse, you will have no problems if the grinder is off.
Dont forget though as you adjust the grinder there will be grinds in the burr chamber and grind path to clean out before you get grounds from your new setting. This usually results in a mixed grind for the first pull after a grind change and it will not accurately reflect the true timing of the shot. The timing is just a guidline, not a cast in stone value. What counts is the taste in the cup. If your particular setup gives you great coffee in 30 seconds or 20 seconds rather than 25 seconds, then that is where you want to be. Make small changes from there to fine tune to get the best taste.
In a nut shell, Long pull, grind more coarse, short pull, grind finer.
Properly ground coffee will run faster and faster (at the same grinder setting) as it ages so you then need to adjust the grinder to get the result you want. (I guess, seeing that the grinder needs to be adjusted, it really isn't properly ground coffee then is it? Just trying to paint a word picture!)
I think what you are tasting is over extraction when you are getting that long of a shot.
In real life, my name is Wayne P.
Feed the newbs, starve the trolls and above all enjoy what you drink!
quiggers Senior Member Joined: 27 Jan 2012 Posts: 8 Location: FL Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Sat May 5, 2012, 6:18am Subject: Re: Mypressi question
fantastic, thanks for such a detailed response. The whole puck explanation makes perfect sense and I had never thought of it in that sense.
I shall start with increasing the courseness of the grind. Thats a useful guide with the speed of the pour as the coffee gets older, which make sense when I think about the absorbancy of the fresh grind as opposed to a more oxidized surface offering less resistance.
I totally get what you say about fresh roasted, I do grind right before I brew and want to spend less on technique fixing at this stage. For example, even store bought beans will taste better (not best) with the better technique, then once I'm happy I can up a gear to fresh roasted.
Although a bad pull from fresh beans being better than good pull from bad beans has given me something to think about.
I do have a cafe near me that roasts, maybe I'll grab a bag there and try it. I travel with work a lot, so only use the mypressi half the time, the same justification I use for increasing the quality of what I buy elsewhere, eg good microbrews.
All food for thought. If we wanted perfection and uniformity off the bat, we'd buy nespresso's right ;-)
Symbols: = New Posts since your last visit = No New Posts since last visit = Newest post
Forum Rules: No profanity, illegal acts or personal attacks will be tolerated in these discussion boards. No commercial posting of any nature will be tolerated; only private sales by private individuals, in the "Buy and Sell" forum. No cross posting allowed - do not post your topic to more than one forum, nor repost a topic to the same forum. Who Can Read The Forum? Anyone can read posts in these discussion boards. Who Can Post New Topics? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post new topics. Who Can Post Replies? Any registered CoffeeGeek member can post replies. Can Photos be posted? Anyone can post photos in their new topics or replies. Who can change or delete posts? Any CoffeeGeek member can edit their own posts. Only moderators can delete posts. Probationary Period: If you are a new signup for CoffeeGeek, you cannot promote, endorse, criticise or otherwise post an unsolicited endorsement for any company, product or service in your first five postings.
= No New Posts since last visit 