Here's the story, I usually get my beans from one local roaster, but I'm also trying other places and beans whenever I have such chance - point being is that my beans are never older than 7 days from the roast date, and quite various. But ever since getting a naked PF, I have never really seen that caramelly, thick, heavy type of flow. I was figuring that it was my setup or humidity or whatever...

Well, up until this weekend. My sis was over and brought a bag of beans to abuse my grinder - which she did. But she also left half a hopper for me to try out. Well, to my surprise - these beans were pouring down like molasses!!! WTH?

Thing is, the only known fact about these beans - they were "fresh", no roast date, no origins, nothing... just a sealed bag of nicely-looking beans...

So.... what's the deal here?

Are the beans you are getting the same variety but from different roasters? Were her beans a different variety or even a different roast? I try a lot of different varieties and have found that some beans although being very good quality just do not produce the nice thick crema in my setup no matter what combination of grind, tamp, etc and others that produce a beautiful flow almost in spite of anything I am doing.

Processing.

You can pull shots of a pulped natural Brazil that pour like that.

Are all of these beans ground to give you about the same extraction time? For me, the thick flows come consistently when I do a preinfusion (either 30 seconds at boiler pressure or 10 seconds at 4 bar) and as fine a grind as I can use for a 30 second extraction.

No change to my usual routines what so ever - didn't even have to adjust the grinder.

If anything - my usual beans have been giving me hard time last few days by producing lots of micro-bursts and making a hell of a mess... so it was really hard not to notice how heavy and thick the flow from these "new" beans was.

I'm trying to find out where she's got that batch from.

Tonefish wrote:Are all of these beans ground to give you about the same extraction time? For me, the thick flows come consistently when I do a preinfusion (either 30 seconds at boiler pressure or 10 seconds at 4 bar) and as fine a grind as I can use for a 30 second extraction.

I find the same with Jim but the bean matters and the freshness matters. At some point the oils which create the flow dreams are made of will dry out, and the shot becomes less viscous.

Four things:
(1) Freshness - you need the right amount of rest. Which is usually around a week post roast. Too fresh and the shot will gush. Too stale and there's not enough CO2 to produce good crema.
(2) Processing - nautrals, pulled naturals, and honey processed coffees pull thicker shots than washed coffees.
(3) Roast level - roast level right around 2nd crack gives the most syrupy shot, very light and very dark roasts pull thinner bodied shots.
(4) Shot parameters - dialing in properly is important. Too fast a flow results in a thin shot. If you want a syrupy flow grind a little finer and pull more of a ristretto shot.

And of course an espresso blend with robusta in it will really pour thick and creamy.

alexeyga wrote:No change to my usual routines what so ever - didn't even have to adjust the grinder.

If anything - my usual beans have been giving me hard time last few days by producing lots of micro-bursts and making a hell of a mess... so it was really hard not to notice how heavy and thick the flow from these "new" beans was.

I'm trying to find out where she's got that batch from.

I have been roasting the same Brazilian the same way for over a year and every once in a while I get a batch that misbehaves. Darn gremlins


Randy