Evening all.
Northstar Brazil arrived and had a roast date of 9 November so figured I could go straight ahead and start using it without the need for any further resting. I’ve put half of it in a vacuum storage container and the other half in the freezer so should keep it as fresh as possible for as long as possible to allow me to to try and get this right.
Two attempts are linked below…
Attempt 1
- 18g in, 36g out
- No use of paddle or preinfusion set as trying to keep simple
- Timer is a bit off screen but it was 41 seconds
- Niche Zero set at 14 (this was the second effort at this grind so there shouldn’t have been any leftover grinds from previous shot).
- Pressure at pump set to 9 bar
- I would say the taste was not too bad and felt like I was in the right ballpark but with further tweaks needed to get the best out of it (not sure exactly where I’d go from here).
- There was definitely some notes of sweetness (but not much) and I would say some bitterness which was potentially distracting from that sweetness (perhaps indicating over-extracted?). No notes of sourness at all which I’m guessing is expected given the tasting notes suggesting more chocolatey flavours
- The pour looked ok to me, I guess my main question here i
Attempt 2
- Before I tried to change anything I thought I’d try to replicate the first attempt…unfortunately didn’t work put so well
- 18g in, 36g out
- No use of paddle or preinfusion set as trying to keep simple
- Time 32 seconds (not sure how I ended up 10 seconds shorter as I didn’t change anything - channelling?)
- Niche Zero set at 14 (no change)
- I would say the taste had a lot more bitterness to it (astringent) and no detectable sweetness (or sourness). To me this is saying that despite the shot time being closer to the 28-32s range, there’s something going pretty wrong here. Either channelling or the grind is just too coarse, but if its the latter I’m not sure how I got away with it the first time.
- I am trying not to focus on how the shot looked, but to me it looks to me like a less even extraction and more evidence of an increasing flow at the end so maybe evidence of some channelling.
Would appreciate any thoughts from here on where to go next. I can try another shot with the same parameters but I am pretty confused as to why I’ve ended up with such a different result and can only think of:
- Most likely is that I got channelling on the second shot but not that first. My puck prep/routine was exactly the same for both shots but I’m sure I’m not perfect so this could be the cause
- Possibly caused by a difference in tamping as that’s the only real variable I think I’m not fully in control of? I weigh beans (and output from grinder) to make sure I have 18g, WDT in basket, tap once to level after WDT and then tamp. I do use the stock Lelit tamper so I am relying on applying the same (and even) pressure every time which I could be getting wrong (although I guess I’d be surprised if that caused such a big difference on its own).
One other major point I should have asked earlier is when I should be timing from? I have seen mixed views on this with some timing from pump on and others from first drip in the cup. Based on two results (very small sample of course), it feels to me like 30 seconds (or less) from pump on is less likely to get me a good result and looking back I have found this with some of my previous coffees as well.
Any views very much appreciated. If I was on my own here unable to get any advice, I’d probably be tempted to try one more shot under same parameters but I’d be leaning towards going finer so interested to know if that’s what other people would do if my instincts need work!