I was surfing Youtube last night in an effort to find some tips on brewing better shots.

I came across a seminar led by Heather Perry. In it, she said that when training new baristas she never uses a shot glass. Rather, she tries to teach them to stop the shot based on visual cues. She went even further to say that she has her students taste the extraction every 5 seconds with a spoon so that they can become familiar with what tastes are entering the cup with each portion.

So this morning, I did just that. Wow! The first few spoons delivered flavors like I've never tasted before. Although a bit sour (which is normal for the first part of the extraction), there was an explosion of flavors like chocolate, caramel, orange, nuts, wood, tobacco,etc.. Very interesting!

However, I discovered that after about 10-15 sec, the shot became very bland and watery.

This confirmed my suspicions that I have a major problem with channeling. After tweaking my grind setting and playing around with different variables in my tamping/distribution technique, I was able to reduce the problem somewhat. However, it's still far worse than I'd hoped.

I found out that after using WDT, it actually helps to tap the portafilter on the counter to help settle the grounds. I used to do this, but stopped, figuring it'd disturb the puck too much.

I can't figure out what to do to further reduce my channeling problem (I intend to get a naked PF, sometime in the near future), but I feel I've taken a significant step toward brewing much better shots.

All that to say, if you haven't tried this method of examining your shots, I'd highly recommend it.

Cheers!

brokemusician77 wrote:taste the extraction every 5 seconds with a spoon

Thank you! I haven't tried that, but it sounds a good idea. I've been loathe to use shot glasses, have just started recently to concentrate on volume, but i'm well aware that it's one of the less important things.

(Perhaps I just like to watch the shots). I remember a comment on here that went something like, "I get 25-30secs, but only because i stop at 25-30secs" - the poster was running the shot for a set amount of time, regardless of what was happening. I'm keen to avoid that approach!

The naked portafilter is a great tool for diagnosing problems; i use mine about 50% of the time. (Other half of the time, I'm splitting a double with someone). One thing - if the extraction is poor, there wouldn't be a single stream of liquid to 'sample', at least for a while. Luckily i think i'm at the stage where it's not that bad, most of the time!

Yeah, I found it really helpful in beginning to understand I had a problem.

My trouble was that I was stopping my shots by comparing the color of the extraction to the recommended stop colors I'd read about or seen online. The trouble with that was that I had absolutely no idea what that part of the extraction tasted like, and hence, no idea of what flavors I was adding to the cup.

Visuals are one thing, but they're arbitrary unless you understand their direct relationship to the taste they produce.

Fritz Storm recommended a similar procedure at a workshop in Stockholm. Extract 5-second portions of a shot into 5 separate espresso glasses and then taste one after the other. It's a very illuminating exercise!

Yeah. She suggested that as well. I didn't have 5 shot glasses, though, so I tried the spoon idea instead.

Tried it today with shot glasses/demitasses.

You can see the difference in the 5 stages. The photo shows the different portions in order, L-R. (Far left is the first 5 sec., far right is the last 5 sec.).

Cup 1 - 1st 5 sec.: Powerful complex flavor. Very thick. Very earthy. Almost like leather, or tobacco. A bit sour, but not ridiculously so.
Cup 2: Slightly less intense. Fruity. Not sweet, but almost. Maybe a hint of chocolate.
Cup 3: Delicious. A little sweeter. If I had 2 oz. of this I'd love it. You can tell that this is the shot I drank the most of.

By this point the shot has started to go blonde, and the flow is much faster.

Cup 4: Awful!! All the worst characteristics of the coffee distilled into a small fraction of an ounce. Sour and putrid. Almost like bile or vomit. Yuck!
Cup 5: Tasted like a decent cup of supermarket drip coffee. Very weak and watery.

Conclusion: Try to cut the shot off at the end of shot 3. Only trouble is, I'd have hardly more than an ounce from 20g. dose. Although if I ground any coarser with my Virtuoso, I'd end up with an 18 sec., sour shot.

brokemusician77 wrote:Conclusion: Try to cut the shot off at the end of shot 3.

Not necessarily. As just one component in the complete extraction, Cup #4 may just add some interesting(and necessary) bite and complexity. Only one way to know for sure ....

And to what Marshall says, I'll add that the tastes you get at the different stages will not be the same for all coffees - I've done the staged extraction experiment a few times before and also like to try coffees in a range of extraction volumes, and some coffees release new and interesting flavors at the later stages of extraction that are not present, or not perceptible over others (to me), at the beginning. The fact that this one was not great during the 4th quintile does not mean that the next one will be the same, or even very similar.

Heck, you might even find that these results change substantially with different dosing in the same coffee! Try changing your grind, up or down dosing, and/or using a different basket size, and you may be surprised by the variation you can sometimes get.

This is a helpful test but, like others have said, the lesson might not be to cut off the shot at 3. Ever had gingerbread cookies? They are pretty good, but lots of the ingredients are nasty on their own (raw eggs, cloves, etc.). The same goes for espresso, the final product doesn't taste exactly like the components.

-p

All good points. However, if I want to lessen the burnt, ashy tastes I've been experiencing, I should still cut off my shots a little earlier.