Nothing but sour espresso. Any advice please? - Page 2
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hifier
- Posts: 23
- Joined: 5 years ago
2 things:
1) older coffee will change how it brews but it's a gradual change and as long as you grind just before brewing, 6 weeks or two months is not a problem per say and is not directly responsible for sourness. Guidelines are just that, nothing magic happens to the beans at 2 weeks or 2 months.
2) flavor notes like lime, lemon, citrus, berry, often refer to the acidity. This is not the same dimension as sour/sweet/bitter. These notes do not necessarily correlate with how much sweetness is in the coffee. Coffees vary on sweetness for sure, but those saying to avoid these notes are just flat out wrong. Sorry, but this incorrect information needs to be called out for what it is. You can have incredibly sweet coffee with lime like acidity. Think of a margarita or lime soda.
That said, some suggestions on how to fix:
sourness can be dominant due to an even, under extraction or due to an uneven extraction as well. Google evenness in espresso extraction. If you think your extraction is even, then you could try upping the brew temp as others suggested as you've tried grinding finer and increasing ratio already. Try something outside the box like a super long brew time as others suggested. If you can lengthen pre-infusion to 15seconds or even 30s try that - my machine is different but I have had amazing results with a varied low pressure 30-40s pre infusion and 70s total brew time. This is just an example. Your machine is different so you have to find your own way. Do something way out of bounds to get some bitterness. If that is still sour it's likely a very uneven extraction.
1) older coffee will change how it brews but it's a gradual change and as long as you grind just before brewing, 6 weeks or two months is not a problem per say and is not directly responsible for sourness. Guidelines are just that, nothing magic happens to the beans at 2 weeks or 2 months.
2) flavor notes like lime, lemon, citrus, berry, often refer to the acidity. This is not the same dimension as sour/sweet/bitter. These notes do not necessarily correlate with how much sweetness is in the coffee. Coffees vary on sweetness for sure, but those saying to avoid these notes are just flat out wrong. Sorry, but this incorrect information needs to be called out for what it is. You can have incredibly sweet coffee with lime like acidity. Think of a margarita or lime soda.
That said, some suggestions on how to fix:
sourness can be dominant due to an even, under extraction or due to an uneven extraction as well. Google evenness in espresso extraction. If you think your extraction is even, then you could try upping the brew temp as others suggested as you've tried grinding finer and increasing ratio already. Try something outside the box like a super long brew time as others suggested. If you can lengthen pre-infusion to 15seconds or even 30s try that - my machine is different but I have had amazing results with a varied low pressure 30-40s pre infusion and 70s total brew time. This is just an example. Your machine is different so you have to find your own way. Do something way out of bounds to get some bitterness. If that is still sour it's likely a very uneven extraction.
