I bought my first espresso machine and grinder, expobar brewtus-iv & baratza vario, this week and my shots are sour and no crema, help. I tried different fresh-roasted beans and grinds but no difference still not good. I think it may be my tap-water, its not filtered, I am not sure what else it could be. The shots are not too fast or slow, about 20-25 sec for a double, but they do not taste good or have much crema. I don't know what's causing all this sink shots, help!

Your timing is still a bit fast, try for 1.5-2oz in around 30 seconds. No crema is a tale tale sign of old beans. What was their roast date? Sour shots are also a sign of a cold extraction. Are you letting the machine heat up for an hour before you use it?

JoeWeiss wrote:I bought my first espresso machine and grinder, expobar brewtus-iv & baratza vario, this week and my shots are sour and no crema, help. I tried different fresh-roasted beans and grinds but no difference still not good. I think it may be my tap-water, its not filtered, I am not sure what else it could be. The shots are not too fast or slow, about 20-25 sec for a double, but they do not taste good or have much crema. I don't know what's causing all this sink shots, help!

Remember too that there is often an "offset" between the indicated temperature and the actual shot temperature. With the Speedster, for example, the is about a 2.5 degree differential. I'd try boosting the temperature a couple of degrees over what you have it at now and see if the sourness doesn't begin to go away.

If you have a thermometer available, pump a couple ounces of water out of the grouphead into a styrofoam or paper cup and measure the temperature

I'll double checked the water temp with a thermometer to see if my shots are a little too cool and making them sour. I may raise the temp from 201 to 203 and see if it starts to go away. I am concerned about the lack of a good "guinness" effect, the shots are improving little by little. The crema is thin and dissapears quickly in under a minute. I bought two types of fresh roasted beans from whole foods, they were one day old roasted so I dont think it is my beans. Wholelattlelove sent me two pounds of beans but they were even worse. My vario seems to be grinding maybe too fine so I'm still dialing it in. I've read the calibrated grind-settings from the factory are not consistent. I don't understand why I'm not getting tons of crema in my shots.

Did you buy from the open bins at Whole foods?
I wonder how fresh your beans really are. Those beans sit out all day, and I think the just add new beans on top of old ones.

I suggest you find someone from this list, and order some beans from them
List of our favorite Roasters

If the beans were really fresh, it should be pretty easy to get crema with your gear.

Randy

Are you really sure those Whole Food beans were actually roasted the day before? - or was that just a delivery date?...
Perhaps, try filtered water or buy a bottle of distilled water.... you have purchased a very good machine and grinder, so, no reason to think you will not get good results... and, as suggested play with grind setting and temperature.

Howard

The bins at Whole Foods were closed and roast date was 1 day old, but they did not seem so fresh from my shots. I did not see a local roaster in Louisiana from the list, is there one? I'm still dialing in the gear and playing with settings, but I thought I would be drowning in crema. I'll try using filtered water and I'd like to find some for-sure fresh roasted beans too.

I don't know if there is a roaster from Lousiana on the list, I don't remember seeing one.

Texas or Kansas may be the closest to you.
That's OK anyone, these roasters will ship the beans the day they roast them, and the beans need 4-5 days rest to be at their best anyway. So, when you get them, they should be about ready to use.

Redbird is a little farther, but their 5lb bag is a good deal. Most people divide up the bag into something like weekly portions, and freeze them.

Regardless of where you buy, freezing will cut down on shipping costs.

Randy

My thoughts are that, quite simply, the beans are to blame.

Even with TERRIBLE technique, no distribution and smashin the tamper onto the puck, running 2oz in 15seconds, its near impossible to not get a lot of crema when using fresh coffee.

Some people are lucky enough to have a quality local roaster where they can go buy beans as they need. The other 90% of us order coffee from any number of Artisan Roasters weekly/bi-weekly. Some people like to buy in bulk and freeze, other prefer to buy what they will drink in 2 weeks time, and then order more.

I personally suggest Counter Culture Coffee to start. I find they're blends not only very, very easy to work with, but very delicious. The fan favorite is Toscano. Classic caramel and toffee. I prefer Rustico, brown sugar, dark chocolate and figs. Aficionado is also quite good. La Forza is GREAT for larger(+8oz) milk drinks, but for straight espresso, look to their other blends. I'd skip apollo for the time being, it can be a little finicky(but utterly amazing). Order what you can finish in 14 days time. You'll recieve the coffee probably in 2 days, mayyybe 3. Let it rest until its 4-6days old, and enjoy it until its 10-14days old. Then, repeat.

When making espresso, freshness is vital. BUT, its not only freshness that matters.. Quality of the coffee matters as well. When buying from roasters like Counter Culture(for example), you're buying, literally, the best coffee available on this planet. Best part? Most of the time, you'll spend around $10-$15 a pound, depending. The same cost, sometimes a few dollars more, than what you'll find in super markets, dunkin donuts and the like. Whole Foods' coffee doesn't have a great reputation.. They're not using great coffee to start, and their roasting style is not what you should be after. Ordering coffee every other week/once a month of the internet might sound strange, or even silly.. But, thats how you get the freshest highest quality coffee available. You've bought yourself some very nice equipment.. Don't skimp on the coffee. After all, isn't that the whole point?

Best of luck to ya!
Jeff