New espresso equipment - Bitter coffee - Wife unhappy

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
cartnj
Posts: 25
Joined: 8 years ago

#1: Post by cartnj »

Hello,

This is not my first machine and grinder but I now have the Alex Duetto III and the Mahlkonig K30 Vario grinder.
I have had it running for about 2 weeks and we are yet to taste a decent espresso.

I tried 5 different beans including Redbird, Rojo's, thirty-thirty, and 1 local coffee shop and a large market roaster here in NJ and they all were not very good. 3 were undrinkable. All were mostly bitter.

I understand the equipment does not guarantee great tasting coffee but I would think it cant be this hard to get something decent.
Water is plumbed in and filtered. only fresh roasted beans,
I did read the Espresso 101 guide and try to follow that but they still don't taste good.

So my question is, is there maybe a lighter roast bean that tends to brew better, that is easier to get better tasting coffee, so I can at least for now, justify my purchase to my Wife?

LukeFlynn
Posts: 1293
Joined: 10 years ago

#2: Post by LukeFlynn »

Errrr, it might help to walk us through what you've been doing with the shots, prep, etc.

contraflow88
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#3: Post by contraflow88 »

What you need is a scale I recommend the hario vst-2000, very good scale with .00 accuracy. The beauty of this is that you will be able to get good consistency. start with 16g dose then adjust by taste. I always start low then work my way up. For some coffees I may dose up to 18.5-19g and for some I may dose 16.5g. It simply depends on the coffee. I used to have a K30 Vario and I found that it was a bit difficult to get a very fine grind. Until I re-calibrated of course. Even so I still found that I could not get a desirable espresso from that grinder. I have heard in some circles that the K30 has a very large break in period. This could be relative to the grinder it could not, some folks are able to get delicious shots out of the box.

Also for baseline temperature with the duetto I would recommend starting at 200F. Any coffee will be able to highlight some nuance at this temperature in my opinion.

Don't forget your water also, the water you use makes a big difference.

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jfrescki
Posts: 625
Joined: 14 years ago

#4: Post by jfrescki »

Something doesn't sound right. I wonder if it's possible your PID offset isn't adjusted correctly, or you're possibly over-extracting. Are you weighing your dose and output? That's the only way to ensure you're in the right extraction range.

Also, FWIW, the last time I had RedBird (Jan 2015) I needed to use a very low temp (91C) or it was ashy. I haven't tried the other two you named.

I'm in NJ, and I just discovered Fair Mountain Coffee Roasters in the Atlantic Highlands. Their espresso blend is on the darker side, just shy of a sheen starting on the beans, but it's very forgiving, and if pulled cool (91C) sweet and chocolaty. They ship two pounds or more free.
Write to your Congressman. Even if he can’t read, write to him.
- Will Rogers

Komponistkalle
Posts: 36
Joined: 9 years ago

#5: Post by Komponistkalle »

I've found Molinari Oro to be a very "forgiving" blend. It's certainly a mainstream supermarket product, but it's sweet and has minimal acidity and bitterness.

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jfrescki
Posts: 625
Joined: 14 years ago

#6: Post by jfrescki »

contraflow88 wrote:Don't forget your water also, the water you use makes a big difference.
+1
Write to your Congressman. Even if he can’t read, write to him.
- Will Rogers

day
Posts: 1316
Joined: 9 years ago

#7: Post by day »

Where have u had straight espresso good enough that your wife would feel the purchase is justifiable if producing its equivalent?
Yes, i you per this on an iPhone

cartnj (original poster)
Posts: 25
Joined: 8 years ago

#8: Post by cartnj (original poster) »

Thanks all. I do have a scale I bought from Chris Coffee and I am off to get this thing working right. Thanks.

And, sadly she likes the espresso from our Jura Giga 5 super auto that I need to retire

odysseas
Posts: 4
Joined: 8 years ago

#9: Post by odysseas »

I almost had the same reaction when I first got my Vetrano2B-Evo. Prefiltered water and it sort of tasted a bit bitter or sour (fresh beans, Vario grinder).
It was quite different taste from my old little Gaggia. After a month or so of continuous use and doing a bit of adjustment in my Mavea Purity filter, the taste came back to focus and all seem to have stabilized. Doing great shots now. My feel was that the new machine and its hydraulics needed to settle in and get some water to cycle through. I wouldn't worry too much about and give it a little time to settle in. Else your filter may be changing the water too much.

Bill33525
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#10: Post by Bill33525 »

http://users.rcn.com/erics/Water%20Qual ... %20FAQ.pdf
Skip down to 3. Water Hardness and Taste. B. A Taste Test.
If you are starting with relative soft water and filtering out more minerals then you could be brewing with too soft water.
Your new equipment is capable of stellar espresso. Check your filtered water for proper TDS.

I see your machine has a tank that is easily switched over. You may want to get some Volvic or Crystal Geyser Natural Alpine water to try.
Remember you will have to open the hot water tap and run out a few liters of water out of the machine to get the bottled water fully infused into the boilers.

Hope this helps.

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