What correct dose for my basket.

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Milesy
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#1: Post by Milesy »

How can I tell what the advertised size of my basket is so I can dose it appropriately for it. It holds 22g when overloaded and levelled.

Thanks

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HB
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#2: Post by HB »

A good starting point is the coin test. Dave explains here; I've excerpted photos below for easy reference:

Image Image
Not enough puck-to-dispersion clearance on left; there's enough on right

Some espresso machines are more fussy about proper clearance than others, though the right photo shows a safe starting point. If you see evidence of channeling like early blonding, allowing a bit more clearance may help by prolonging preinfusion and reducing the risk of damaging the puck integrity on lock-in.
Dan Kehn

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Milesy (original poster)
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#3: Post by Milesy (original poster) »

Thanks. If I can get 22g of some grinds in without touching the screen would it be a 22g basket then?

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cafeIKE
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#4: Post by cafeIKE »

If the basket came with the machine and fits a spouted PF, then it's likely a standard 14g double.

The amount you can squeeze into a given size basket and still clear the screen varies by machine, grind and coffee.

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another_jim
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#5: Post by another_jim »

I'm not really sold on the coin test; it works for some machines, but not all of them.

The correct dose for a basket is the one which uses a grind setting which produces a properly extracted and good tasting shot from your machine. This grind setting is in the same range for all baskets and all espresso machines. The upshot is extremely simple: if the shot is too sour and/or bitter, grind finer and dose less; if it is too sweet and/or milquetoast, grind coarser and dose more.

If you think you ought to use the same dose in the same basket all the time; you will never make consistently good espresso. To make good espresso, you need to stay within the same range of grind settings for all machines and all baskets; and vary the dose to maintain that range.
Jim Schulman

Milesy (original poster)
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#6: Post by Milesy (original poster) »

The basket came with my naked PF.

As in my previous posts I want to work with 16g doses but I'm concerned it's way too low for the basket. Surely there must be a way to measure the volume and see what it is? Is the advertised rate the levelled off untamped volume? Is it the tamped volume to the ridge? There must be a way of easily quantifying this surely? :)

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erics
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#7: Post by erics »

The basket came with my naked PF.
The usual basket that comes with a naked portafilter (as part of the sale) is a "triple" basket, i.e. nomally 21 grams.
Skål,

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

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Bak Ta Lo
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#8: Post by Bak Ta Lo »

another_jim wrote:I'm not really sold on the coin test; it works for some machines, but not all of them.

The correct dose for a basket is the one which uses a grind setting which produces a properly extracted and good tasting shot from your machine. This grind setting is in the same range for all baskets and all espresso machines. The upshot is extremely simple: if the shot is too sour and/or bitter, grind finer and dose less; if it is too sweet and/or milquetoast, grind coarser and dose more.

If you think you ought to use the same dose in the same basket all the time; you will never make consistently good espresso. To make good espresso, you need to stay within the same range of grind settings for all machines and all baskets; and vary the dose to maintain that range.
Jim,

I just realized that I am not really following your above advice, even though I have read it in detail here before, I have yet to properly apply it. I am maniacally trying to put 18.00g of fresh ground coffee in my standard Strega 14g basket, every single time. I am weighing the shot as it pours, and watching the timer I run next to the machine. I have finally started consistently getting shots that are 32-34g in 30-40 seconds, pulling when there is obvious blonding (still not sure I am good enough to recognize this 100%, but I can see it at some point.). I am adjusting only the grind from shot to shot, and the beans as I use up bags and move to a new one. It seems my shots at this point are a little slow and light, they blonde before hitting the right weight for an 18g dose. I have found though that if I back off the grind even a little from where I am right now, the shots are fast, and if I go any tighter they will stall, taking 2-3 minutes to run up the lever. I am doing this now while letting the lever follow its natural movement, before I had to retard the lever action by hand to get my shots even close.

Now that I have a pretty good spot dialed up on my Pharos, are you suggesting I could basically leave it as is, and play with my dose to change the flow and timing of the shot? say go to a 17g or 17.5g dose to get my shot time down to 25-30 seconds for a 36-38g shot?

I think I am going a little crazy trying to get all these numbers to sync, and overlooking the shot in the cup, even though I am getting fair shots every time, and great shots occasionally, of course all very subjective.

Any ideas for some simplification I can do in my current process, so that I can find one thing to perfect at my current stage of learning, and then move to say another indicator once I have that one down? Just looking to break the process down in to some landmarks or "chapters".

Your tip to do all basket prep out of the portafilter, for example, really helped me make a leap forward in shot quality and reproducibility.

Thanks!
Jeremy

EDIT:
(Sorry, Chris, hope I did not hijack your thread, I have a habit of running on when I type!)
:?
LMWDP #371

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another_jim
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#9: Post by another_jim »

How many times do I need to say the same thing? If it tastes blah, grind coarser; if it tastes too sour/bitter, grind finer. Then do whatever you need to with baskets, doses and whatever to make it work.
Jim Schulman

Milesy (original poster)
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#10: Post by Milesy (original poster) »

That's ok. Don't worry :)

Right so it might be a triple basket? How do I know for sure. I'm trying to be empirical here to quantify this.

Also I am not sure exactly why there even exists a triple basket? What does this gain?

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