Quickmill Anita, Baratza Preciso and Slightly Sour Espresso

Beginner and pro baristas share tips and tricks for making espresso.
mattrichards
Posts: 12
Joined: 10 years ago

#1: Post by mattrichards »

Hello All,

After pulling shots at home for a few years with a Proteo Grande I found on the street, I came to this great forum for advice on a new machine. With the advice I received here I had a great conversation with Chris' Coffee and purchased a Quick Mill Anita with Eric's thermometer and a bottomless portafilter. My hopes were that with some practice my new setup would "take me to the next level" and it certainly has. My shots have improved dramatically.

The one thing I'd say is that I've been unable to "work" the sour/bitter balance as I would like (I hope that's a good description). With my triple basket I was producing very syrupy but sour shots (almost a ristretto in its honey like consistency, but sour and with a very intense molasses taste). I moved back to my double basket thinking I needed less coffee to try and move the taste towards better balance and the bitter tastes at the end of the pull. It's worked a bit, but I'm still certainly at the sour (though definitely still quite drinkable) end of the spectrum.

Here's my setup:
- Quick Mill Anita
- Baratza Preciso
- Eric's Thermometer
- Bottomless Portafilter
- Double basket that came with the machine
- Grimpeur Brothers 9 Dub roasted 10 days ago (similar results with the same coffee closer to roasting date, Black Cat, various Stumptown offerings, and what I get from my local guy)

Here's my routine:

1. I warm up the machine for 45-60 minutes. I typically see 216-218 on the thermometer (variance seemingly based on the room temp).
2. I do a cooling flush past the "water dance" and down to 205 degrees. Typically this is about 20 seconds and 6 oz total.
3. I dose out 18 grams of coffee (any less and I don't fill the basket), grind, distribute (Stockfleths move... kinda) and tamp to 30 lbs (Espro - Staub method... kinda). I typically yield about 17.8 grams after the tamp.
4. I lock the portafilter in when I see 205 degrees (usually about 30 seconds after the end of the cooling flush) and pull the shot.
5. The temp quickly jumps to 215, then drops down to 209 where it says for the remainder of the pull.
6. I yield 40 grams in about 33 seconds, almost all crema. Good mottling in the cup, and tiger striping fading at the end of the pull.

Video:
Video note: This wasn't my greatest pull, nor is it my best video work. Apologies for that (and for my ridiculous shot glass). There's much better striping throughout than is captured here.

A few things occur to me:

1. Is 18 grams a lot for a double? I find it strange that I can't fill the double basket with any less as I had assumed a double was pulled from 14 grams or so. This makes me think that my grind is too fine (I'm down pretty far on the Preciso - 3F currently), but I've tried loosening it up and I get very quick, very bad results.

2. Assuming that the temp readings I'm getting from the thermometer are about 5 degrees higher than the brew temp, I'm brewing around 204 degrees. I assume this is high and I would expect that to yield more bitter flavors, but I don't seem to get them.

3. I'm yielding 40 grams in 33 seconds (sometimes slightly shorter), and that point seems to correlate to increased blonding (or, the fading of my tiger striping to be precise - I'm not sure that I know exactly what blonding truly looks like). I realize that I could pull a little longer to try and get some bitter flavors at the end of the pull to fight the sour and yield better balance, but I'm getting plenty of coffee at 30 seconds.

4. Pressure - I'm new to HX and seeing/managing pressure, so I don't know if this is a part of it or not. I see about 1.25 bar and 9 bar at the beginning of the shot, but pressure drops over the pull almost down to 1 bar and 8.2 bar. Perhaps my pressure is low?

Apologies for the length of this, but I wanted to be thorough in hopes that it helps triangulate what might be up. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thank you from a newbie!

Matt

bmb
Posts: 343
Joined: 12 years ago

#2: Post by bmb »

Check your water quality.

mattrichards (original poster)
Posts: 12
Joined: 10 years ago

#3: Post by mattrichards (original poster) »

Thanks for your reply. I should have included a note about that.

I ran a 5-part test on my water source (New York City faucet - Brooklyn specifically) to make sure that I can safely and effectively use that water with the Anita. I got the following results:

General Hardness - 30 ppm
Carbonate Hardness - 40 ppm
pH - 6.5
Nitrite - 0.5 ppm
Nitrate - 0 ppm

I believe that ppm divided by 17.1 yields grains - in this case 30 ppm would yield 1.75 grains, which is well below the max of 3 from the manual for the Anita. I sent this all to Chris' Coffee and they confirmed the source is good.

Of course, just because it's safe for the machine doesn't mean it'll produce great results.

Thoughts on the results above?

User avatar
erics
Supporter ★
Posts: 6302
Joined: 19 years ago

#4: Post by erics »

Of course, just because it's safe for the machine doesn't mean it'll produce great results.
Of course, this can be debated ad infinitum, but I would ALWAYS tend to "safe for the machine". It is relatively painless to switch between the two non-extremes and see if you can discern a differential.

Your boiler pressure is too high. I would reduce it to a maximum reading of 1.10 bar when fully warmed up.

Send me an email to the address below my sig.
Skål,

Eric S.
http://users.rcn.com/erics/
E-mail: erics at rcn dot com