Blew a whole pound of Intelligentsia Tikur Anbessa (espresso profile) trying to get a shot without sourness. I didn't succeed. Best shot I got at 1:2 was only 17.2% EXT and sour. Best shot I got was at 1:3, lacked sourness, and was just above 18%

Anyone else have difficulty with espresso with any of the following criteria?
-S.O.E
-Light roast
-Dense beans
-African
-Washed process

I would like to know a bit more about the variables and measurements
Grinder used ?
Baskets ?
Water quality ?
Extraction temps ?
How and what are you measuring extraction yield with .
I've had tasty espresso from a few grinders of African coffees ( these are my favourites ) but this will be a function of the variables I outlined above ...and how the coffee is roasted

Something I've gathered through trial and error.. There are a lot of SOs that just don't like to work for Espresso.

Big burr grinders like the Major, Mythos One, Peak, or maybe even the K30 (And also Conicals like the K10) usually work better for single origins, due to the low heat transfer and grind consistency.

My go to basket for Single Origins is the Strada 17 gram (Or a VST 18 gram is also close).

Pergdistribution.. always works great for me, regardless of the coffee, little to no side channeling.

Temperature.. I like 200-203 for Yirgs..

This worked good for me when I was brewing CC Idido, another Ethiopian.

Most single origins are going to be harder to deal with than blends, and that's a reason why blends are served just about everywhere commercially.. the margin of error for a single origin coffee just isn't that large (Typically). Measure your ins and outs and you'll be getting closer.

Yes typically a light roast gives me subpar results for espresso. However, I have been liking the Ethiopian from Highwire roasters. Their roasts are all around full city, and that particular coffee has been giving me a sweet candied citrus flavor very good, feels like there is sugar on my lips.

One of my wholesale customers started doing SO espresso. Sadly, not MY Ethiopia but one from Novo (in Colorado I believe).

They have a Swift grinder that doses and tamps ~16.5g and a La Marzocco to pull the shots. As much as I wanted to hate it, it's a great combo. Expensive and of course good. A blend of 3 Ethiopian beans, which might break the 'SO' rule but who cares if it's a good pull!?!

Me, I'm enjoying a shot of Aricha that I roasted. Just as good but then I used an R120 and a Vesuvius to pull the shot. Still, this combo will open up everything for scrutiny, so that includes good and bad.

The V is at about 202°, I think the LM is at 200°.

Prescott CR wrote:One of my wholesale customers started doing SO espresso. Sadly, not MY Ethiopia but one from Novo (in Colorado I believe).

Those Novo (http://novocoffee.com/) Ethiopians, brewed as espresso are favorites of mine. Usually bought their Anyetsu, and occasionally would splurge on a Nekisse. Novo recommended that it be pulled cool and slow (see Novo Coffee - Anyetsu) , which worked very well for me. They used to also sell an Anyetsu espresso, roasted a little longer, but the lighter standard roast was more to my taste. Nowadays they sell a blend of Ethiopians called Three Suns Espresso - that sounds like what your shop may be using.

My favorite nowadays is an Ethiopian Natural from Prosum roasters here in my home town (http://www.prosumroasters.com/ethiopian ... kellensoo/). As with the Anyetsu and Nekisse I like to pull it cool and slow as possible. Prosum recently started online sales, and I'm curious to hear if others on this forum have tried that Ethiopian as espresso.

Some coffees work better for espresso than others, but I think the biggest issue is development time in the roast. Some roasters, roast everything for single origin espresso, some will roast lighter/faster for drip which leaves the coffee unsuitable for espresso(sour, tart, early blonding).

Idido from counter culture pulls some good shots, I have a yirgicheffe adado natural that has been pulling incredibly and tastes like apricots/butterscotch, but I purposely extended the development time to make it work for espresso

Mrboots2u wrote:I would like to know a bit more about the variables and measurements
Grinder used ?
Baskets ?
Water quality ?
Extraction temps ?
How and what are you measuring extraction yield with .
I've had tasty espresso from a few grinders of African coffees ( these are my favourites ) but this will be a function of the variables I outlined above ...and how the coffee is roasted

My bad,
-- Forte' with steel burrs
-- 18g vst ridgeless
-- bottled spring "drinking" water from target. Haven't fallen into the water composition wormhole yet.
-- Pid'd v3 silvia, so have to accommodate for the falling temp over the course of the extraction by setting it for 204-205 at start
-- Atago tds model, I am filtering my samples using the vst filters

coffeemmichael wrote: Anyone else have difficulty with espresso with any of the following criteria?
-S.O.E
-Light roast
-Dense beans
-African
-Washed process

Many coffees I use fall into all categories mentioned above.
I drink mostly Scandinavian roasts and SOs.
Roughly estimated 50% are dense, African and/or washed.
Ethiopians and Kenians are my big favorites.

Maybe once or twice a year I come across a bean that I just can't get to work as espresso or cappu. The rest might sometimes be a little trickier, but most of the time everything goes smoothly. I usually buy from roasters that I am very familiar with, so that maybe helps a bit.
I don't buy especially espresso roasts but just coffee. Those rare occasions when I run into a bean that is hard or impossible (for my skill and with those 250g bags that I buy, that is) to get right as an espresso, they usually are very very lightly roasted and meant to be used as filter coffee.

You can always try to extract with hotter water, but my preferred method for tricky beans is to underdose my 18g VST basket (16g is a good place to start) and grind a lot finer, so that I can get approximately 1:2 shot in about 35-40s (I once met some Asian baristas who liked to use very light roasts and they might extract up to even 45s with great results).

So, if need should be, just forget your basic espresso rules (because they are meant for traditional Italian roasts) and boldly go where no man has gone before.

coffeemmichael wrote:Blew a whole pound of Intelligentsia Tikur Anbessa (espresso profile) trying to get a shot without sourness. I didn't succeed. Best shot I got at 1:2 was only 17.2% EXT and sour.

Grind finer, dose lower. If you are new to this, Intelly's offerings will be a challenge.