Hi,

Despite spending many hours reading forums, suggestions I cannot get a _proper_ espresso from my setup. I just wanted to see if the assumptions I have about making espresso is right. I would really appreciate some feedback.

First and foremost this all started because I was not satisfied with the taste of the espresso I was making.

The setup:
* Sette 270
* Sage/Breville Dual Boiler

Assumptions:
* The water pressure should be around 9 bar. The pressure display on the machine implies that 8 to 10 is the acceptable range.
* A single shot brew should take something between 20 to 30 seconds
* For a single shot you should use 6 to 10 grams of coffee. (Though number I've seen the most I think is 9)

The problem:
No matter what, I cannot adjust my equipment (basically the grinder) to satisfy all of the assumptions above. Are my assumptions not right? Am I doing something wrong? Or maybe do I have some faulty equipment?

Attempts:
If I literally grind 9 grams of coffee fine enough to build 9 bars of pressure, it's a very little amount of coffee in the portafilter that I cannot even tamper it. Basically coffee doesn't even get to the wide portion of the portafilter and tamper cannot reach it to apply pressure.

If I go the other way around and just make it coarser, I have to use a lot of coffee (like 12-13 grams at least). It barely fits the portafilter and then the shot takes like 40 seconds or more and the resulting coffee is really bitter.

I tried different beans. I tried all of the experiments with both pressurized and non-pressurized portafilter but results are the same.

I'm certainly no expert and I'm still learning as you are, but I've read single shots are much harder to nail than doubles. Can your basket hold a double? Maybe experiment with doubles first?

^^^^

You are fighting a common issue.

Your espresso machine is fitted with an OPV, which is a device that limits the maximum brew pressure that will be reported on the brew gauge. It sounds like your OPV is currently set to 10bar or higher.

You are trying to (understandably, but incorrectly) regulate your brew pressure with grind fineness.

Don't do that.

Use your grinder to set how long it takes to pull your shot. Adjust your grind until you can pull a single in 27-33s and ignore the pressure gauge entirely. Once you've achieved proper shot timing, you can then open the top of your machine and adjust the OPV until the max brew pressure is 9 bar. From there, you can dial your grind in some more to adjust your shot timing and taste.

Also, I suggest starting with doubles, because they are more forgiving, but the big issue here is that the OPV sets the brew pressure and the grinder sets the shot time. If you attempt to set the brew pressure with the grind setting, you will be frustrated.

Cheers!

- Jake

Thank you for the explanation and suggestions. I'm gonna try tomorrow morning and report back.

And, though you have tried "different beans," make sure they are freshly ROASTED within 2 weeks or so of use.

Also small shots like 9 gram shots are challenging. Often, the best 9g shots are half of an 18g shot.

Agreement with Jake.

-Peter

I've done my experiments today and am back to report the results. First of all I realised a mistake I was making: the espresso cup I have is for 2 shots and I assume it to be for 1. I was trying to pull 2 shots of espresso from 1 shot of coffee I ordered an espresso cup with measurement levels on it for future experiments.

As suggested I focused on pulling 2 shots. I'm mostly ignoring the pressure though I'm just noting it down for future reference. I'm nowhere close to the ideal pull time. I'm a bit puzzled why the first one I did with the coarsest setting (12G) took longer than a much finer setting (8G). I kind of had the idea that, with same amount of coffee, the finer you go the longer it will take as it is harder for water to go through. I'm guessing the machine's "smarts" has something to do with this.

Next steps:
* Play with grind settings between 10 and 12
* Stop buying huge amounts of coffee at once. I (again wrongly) assumed, as long as it's freshly ground, it doesn't matter how old the beans are that much.

perhasp you should start buying fresh roasted 'everyones friend' coffee blend and start using it a couple of days post roast, Munich has a couple of good roasters (of which I personnally only know Vogelmaier). Let your roaster know you need a user friendly coffee or you may end up buying something super special that may be a pain to extract properly.

I was using beans from Dinzler and was planning to switch to Van Gülpen. Thank you for the local suggestion. I'll give them a try once I finish what I have. Never thought some beans would be easier to deal with - thanks!

Aim for 14 gram grounds in, use a double basket (as mentioned single shots are more difficult) and go for 28-30 gram out in a duration of around 30 seconds (measure starts when coffee starts to flow), Adjust grind size to meet your goals, taste and only then adjust boiler temperature (start out with a middle of the road temperature setting) and perhaps your OPV max pressure.

28-30 gram is the weight of the final espresso? If so, I can put the espresso cup on the kitchen scale and pull the shot while on it to measure outcome.

And you say 14 grams but I keep seeing 9 grams as the recommended amount for single and so was going for 18. May I ask what you base this 14 on? Experience? Or is this general rule?

Thanks