Effects of brew pressure on taste of espresso - Page 2

by **cafeIKE** on Sat May 14, 2011 10:49 am

innermusic wrote:Should I be calculating brew pressure or backwash pressure? (About 1/2 bar difference on my machine.)

If you don't know gauge accuracy, you're adjusting blind. When the gauge 'ages', you may adjust needlessly.
Lot's of experimenting w pressure, not profiling, many years ago led to the conclusion pressure is not crtical.
As Chris says, trust your taste.

PM me if you want borrow my gauge. You pay shipping & insurance. Both ways. :lol:

.75kg

by **innermusic** on Sat May 14, 2011 11:59 am

Didn't realize that gauge could be inaccurate - I figured a gauge measures pressure. Babe in the woods that I am. Anyway, this morning I dropped down to 8 from previous 9ish and the difference in taste was huge, and terrible. Then I pushed it up to 9.6 same coffee and tasted much better. Low pressure was more dry. Awful.

by **cafeIKE** on Sat May 14, 2011 1:29 pm

8 on the gauge could be below 7 on the puck... yuck

by **cannonfodder** on Mon May 16, 2011 8:40 am

Machine gauges are notoriously inaccurate. The capillary tube that feeds the gauge connects pretty far upstream from the grouphead will also affect the reading. Before I had the scace I simply screwed a pressure gauge onto one of my spare portafilters. Do not take the onboard gauges as being an exact measurement, but a general reference point for changes. Adjust the machine to your taste.

by **AndyS** on Mon May 16, 2011 8:04 pm

cafeIKE wrote:8 on the gauge could be below 7 on the puck... yuck

Doesn't that pressure regime describe most lever shots?

by HB on Mon May 16, 2011 8:09 pm

No doubt that it would describe the majority of spring-powered lever espresso machines. I certainly wouldn't describe the espressos they produce as "yuck". In fact, for some coffees, I think spring-powered levers produce more nuanced, flavorful espressos than those produced by pump-powered machines.

by **cafeIKE** on Mon May 16, 2011 8:28 pm

AndyS wrote:Does that pressure regime describe most lever shots?

Never measured pressure on lever.
Anything tried below 7 on a vibe pump was less than appealing.
Kinda a flat and 'oh so coffee'

The response was to a post with a vibe machine

by **AndyS** on Tue May 17, 2011 6:40 am

cafeIKE wrote:Kinda a flat and 'oh so coffee'

Espresso that tastes like coffee? Disgusting.

by **aecletec** on Tue May 17, 2011 8:01 am

AndyS wrote:Espresso that tastes like coffee? Disgusting.

I'm not sure about 'oh so' coffee (or what that is), but 'so so' coffee I can empathise with.

by HB on Wed May 18, 2011 3:03 pm

Split follow-on discussion to Brew pressure gradient of espresso.


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