Although 3+ week old beans aren't typically ideal you won't get sour flavor but rather muted flavor from the extended bean age. Having pulled Lovejoy on my Slayer I can tell you its not the coffee. This is a very tasty comfort style bean blend! And it has a relatively wide sweet spot.

Encourage you to post a video of your process as others have suggested for a quicker resolution. As other's posts: Using a scale to weigh input and output along with having a hot portafilter is necessary.

Since it hasn't been mentioned yet, as your purchased your grinder used, you might have a look at the burrs to see if they're overly worn or damaged. Odds are that they aren't, of course, but wouldn't hurt to check, and besides, you'll learn how to disassemble and reassemble the grinding chamber, which is a useful skill. Have someone experienced on hand to show you the ropes (ideally, someone who knows your grinder reasonably well -- some have their unique little quirks).

spressomon wrote:Although 3+ week old beans aren't typically ideal you won't get sour flavor but rather muted flavor from the extended bean age. Having pulled Lovejoy on my Slayer I can tell you its not the coffee. This is a very tasty comfort style bean blend! And it has a relatively wide sweet spot.

Encourage you to post a video of your process as others have suggested for a quicker resolution. As other's posts: Using a scale to weigh input and output along with having a hot portafilter is necessary.

May I ask how you pulled that? Temperature, amount in and out etc. I wasn't thrilled with that coffee. I wonder what I could have done better. It was a bit thin and citrusy for me thou I tried some different things.

osel wrote:May I ask how you pulled that? Temperature, amount in and out etc. I wasn't thrilled with that coffee. I wonder what I could have done better. It was a bit thin and citrusy for me thou I tried some different things.

#5.5 grind setting on my Monolith Flat + 20g bean weight with the Slayer set at 27% & 200°. 10-second pre-brew and 30g espresso in 29-30 seconds. FWIW I've had the 6-day post roast beans vac sealed in glass in my -15°F freezer since last October.

rilec wrote:So I'm a total 100% newbie. I know close to nothing about this, but I've been doing as much research as I can and I just received a profitec pro 500 to use with my pre-owned profitec T64. I've spent the last hour+ trying to dial in my grinder to get a drinkable shot and I haven't been able to succeed.

Any help?

Making a cup of coffee compared to making espresso is like riding in a 63 VW bug as a passenger and then assuming that you can pilot a 911 Porsche around Laguna Seca on the clock.

Take a deep breath. Relax. Understand that espresso is not terribly difficult. making good espresso takes time and practice. Making great espresso is a daunting mixture of science and art.

Not trying to frighten or make it sound impossible, but espresso is something to look at as a long-term application of senses and scientific organization. 0.5 grams difference between two doses will make a HUGE difference in the cup. With some grinders, one click of the adjustment can be a five to seven second difference in extraction if all other factors remain as constants.

Dan's video is a good resource. On my website www.EspressoMyEspresso.com, check out this article: 12 - EASY GUIDE TO BETTER ESPRESSO AT HOME. It may not be a huge help right away, but it will help you understand the various parameters that need to be controlled.

And if the grinder is used, I would suspect that right off, if only because the grinder is the key to the process. If you have done as mush research as you stated, you have read over and over again that the grinder is of primary importance when it comes to equipment. If it is has seen a lot of use, the burrs may very well need changing. You may not even be able to tell from looking at them or feeling the cutting edges.

Sour and Watery as you describe the espresso can be caused by a number of factors. Those might include stale coffee, using too much coffee per extraction or even too much, low water temperature, poor coffee distribution in the basket, tamping errors, too high brewing pressure... you get the idea. It is a lot to get a handle on and that will take time and practice. Lots of practice.

And the best advice would be, get someone over who knows what they are doing and have them help you get started. BBQ and scotch can be used as an effective lure!

Hope you didn't give up.

It seems you got the grind process down. The fact that you can choke the puck and control timing relatively consistently means you are 1-2 steps away from good if not Great coffee.

Forget timing for Preinfusion. The 6 seconds matter little if the pour timing is good (25-35 seconds).

If you pull good timing and it flows nicely (forget picture perfect) - and it is sour - you are probably underextracting.

Underextracting means you are leaving too many flavonoids in the coffee puck. To increase extraction - use less coffee. Counterintuitive maybe - but using less coffee will get a larger % of the coffee puck into the cup. Hopefully it will then balance the sour notes of the underextracted sour notes.

When you dose lower (use less coffee) you may have to grind a bit finer to keep timing constant. A fortuitous cycle is that grinding finer also increases extraction.

These two changes (lower dose and grinding finer) amplify the response. So a small change in both may go a very long way. Don't be tempted to make large changes or you'll end up frustrated. With experience 1-2 iterations are all that is needed.

It is very hard to do this process without a scale. But it is possible.

Last point I'll make is get really (<1 week) fresh coffee. While flavor may be better a bit later - the fresher the coffee the more hydroscopic it is and it makes it much more forgiving to make a creamy shot.

It will help build the confidence needed to try to extract good flavor and body and crema from a 2 month old roast!

One more thing to consider. If you're not happy with results from a semi-auto, wait till you taste full auto...

come to think of it, Starbucks uses full auto and we all know their final product

Randy G. wrote:Making a cup of coffee compared to making espresso is like riding in a 63 VW bug as a passenger and then assuming that you can pilot a 911 Porsche around Laguna Seca on the clock.

Take a deep breath. Relax. Understand that espresso is not terribly difficult. making good espresso takes time and practice. Making great espresso is a daunting mixture of science and art.

Can this please be a sticky or required reading for newbies?

It's sad to read someone wanting to send back gear after a week because "espresso is hard." Of course it's hard.

TxHr wrote: come to think of it, Starbucks uses full auto and we all know their final product

Lol! To be fair, though, IMHO you can't fault Starbucks for their equipment. Their espresso comes out exactly how they want it, pretty much every single time.