Compass Coffee wrote:Without being willing or able to manage your shot temp you have little chance of dialing in many different coffees. Just a reality, shot temp is not a parameter to be ignored.

And this is why those beans are in my freezer and won't be ordered again any time soon. There is only so much I can do with the equipment I have, and brewing these beans in a way that tastes good is apparently not one of them. A scale is a near term upgrade. A PID is a long term one. I figure I need to learn to control one parameter at a time, so once I know I have a consistent dose, I can play with temp surfing to see if I can get a feel for how a few seconds on the steam button translates to flavor in the cup & I think I'll have better luck figuring that out with my favorite beans. Maybe once I feel like I've got a handle on that I'll try again with the "brighter" blends.

Compass Coffee wrote:Without being willing or able to manage your shot temp you have little chance of dialing in many different coffees. Just a reality, shot temp is not a parameter to be ignored.

+1

Temperature is a very important aspect of dialing in, which if not calibrated to a particular bean at a particular grind fineness (measured by the drinker's taste) can easily kill the shot. To dial in effectively, consistency and precision with respect to temperature is required. Or at least try to get as close to consistency and precision as you can.

If you can't get that consistency and precision, then try a more forgiving bean/blend? Maybe something in the range of a medium roast that can still be pleasant with wider temperature variations.

Hey Matt,

First I would recommend starting with a larger dose than 14g or 15g. Once you get in the 15g and smaller range for your initial dose the shape of the coffee bed is so pancake-y that problems start showing up. I think using your 21g basket and starting with 19g of coffee or in that range will set you up for more success. You absolutely without a doubt need to get a small scale. Just one that weighs in grams is fine and they can cost less than your bag of coffee. I just put up a blog post on this issue on our website the other day if you're interested (link in my profile) just click the "learn" tab to find the blog.

I'm also in the minority here and going to say to not worry about your temperature at all. There's a passing explanation for this in the same blog post I mentioned above, but short version: Only the water that hits the top of your puck is clean water at temp. As it passes through the puck it loses temperature and gains dissolved solids at a rate dependent on the bed depth(your dose), the type of coffee used, the temperature of the coffee beans themselves, etc. Our boilers are set to 198 but anything in that range is fine, just stick to it. There are better ways to chase the white whale of a coffee's perfect expression than fussing with the boiler temp, especially at home.

For really great "further reading" you should check out Matt Perger's Barista Hustle website. TONS of great helpful info there. Good luck! Let me know how your next BlueBottle shot turns out!

Alright, I ran out of my favorite beans this morning, and a lot of fine tuning has happened in my espresso process since the last of the opascope went into the freezer, so I figured this was as good a time as any to give it a second shot.

Since the last time I tried this stuff, I've adjusted my OPV down to 10 bar static, added a scale to my routine, bought a 14g ridgeless basket from espressoparts.com and just last night I got a new 58.55mm sharp edge tamper.

For my first shot this morning I dialed the grinder down 2 notches finer than what I had been using with my favorite beans, remembering that the Opascope demands a fine grind, but it was still 2 notches coarser than when I last brewed it, because the new basket wants a coarser grind than my old ones. I dosed 17.7 grams, and drew an aesthetically beautiful looking shot 36 grams in 40 seconds. The result was miles better than before. Definitely bright, but we'll balanced. I enjoyed it, and that's saying something as bright coffees are not usually to my liking regardless of brewing method.

So many variables have changed, it's impossible to say which contributed most to the improvement, but I would say reducing the pressure was probably most important factor, and then after that distribution. All of which led to a shot that flowed more evenly from a narrower darker funnel, slightly less volume in the same amount of time. The dose probably did not change much, but the shot volume is less, and still tastes better developed. The temp didn't change at all.

Having another shot this morning, and I quite like it! It was 19 grams in, 42 grams out in 35 seconds and it's really quite delicious. Now I'm tempted to try a shot in the triple basket I was using before just to see wether it was really the OPV adjustment, or the new basket that made the most difference, but it's almost gone, and I'm not sure I want risk to suffering a sour shot for science.

Alright I spent some time and wasted some beans this afternoon experimenting with my latest beans from Blue Bottle, and I believe I've solved the mystery of what it takes to get good tasting coffee from lighter roasts on this machine.

The latest beans are Dandy Espresso which according to BB is their designated Los Angeles Espresso. It is similarly light roasted to the Opascope so I was not overly optimistic, but my first few shots which used the same settings I'd been using successfully on stale Vermont Artisan Coffee Moka Java were actually pretty good. Yes bright, but balanced and not objectionably sour. While I had been dosing 18 grams, on the VACMJ beans I got about 19.5 grams in the same time out of the Dandy set at 13 on my grinder.

I decided this was as good a time as any to experiment and try and see what made the difference, so I tried to dial in the new EPNW ridgeless double basket for 18 grams. The recipe card calls for 18 in/32-36 out in 26 seconds. I got that right away, and it was an unacceptably sour sink shot. So I went finer, and it wasn't any better. So I went back up to 19.5 grams, and it was OK. I then tried the same dose in my stock Gaggia double basket. The basket was overstuffed, so there was no headroom, but it still flowed faster and less evenly than the EPNW basket, and it was unacceptably sour. With the EPNW basket, I think I am getting better flavor at a slightly coarser grind setting. 1 or 2 notches coarser for the same weight is giving me the same time/weight out as the old baskets, but the flavor is better and the color is more developed looking.

Conclusion: I don't think I can brew light roasts on a Gaggia classic in the stock Gaggia basket. The EPNW basket seems to run slower allowing for a coarser grind setting, and the cone looks darker for any given coffee, and it will hold a couple grams more than the stock basket which is good since the stock basket won't do an 18 gram dose for most coffees. I think the light roasts must weigh more by volume than darker roasts, as 18 grams of a medium dark roast is about the same volume as 20 grams of Dandy. The EPNW is the best $7 I've ever spent on coffee. Since I started using it, my pours are slower, and more even, and every cup tastes better than what I was able to make before. That's pretty good for the price of half a pound of beans.