Bitter finish on shot | Espresso Aficionados | Page 1

lyric rampart Jan 16, 2023, 10:19 PM

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Background: Same beans as shop, shop shots are sweet, mine have a bitter finish

Setup:
Vario-W Hyper aligned (steel burrs)
BDB
Paper filter sandwich
WDT
Pullman 22g basket

Shot Parameters:
20:40 ~28-30s bitter finish
20:30 ~25s bitter finish
~8-10s preinfusion till drops appear on screen
190F brewing temp

Misc:
Haven't cleaned grinder in a while
Pull looks good w/ bottomless PF

stuck gull Jan 16, 2023, 10:39 PM

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What beans are they, what grinder does the shop use

ripe widget Jan 16, 2023, 11:54 PM

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how are you timing, do the 25-28s include PI?

dense bridge Jan 17, 2023, 2:45 AM

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My first thought is the water.

lyric rampart Jan 17, 2023, 6:25 AM

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same beans, they use an EK43

lyric rampart Jan 17, 2023, 6:25 AM

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ripe widget how are you timing, do the 25-28s include PI?

shot time includes PI

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beans in question: https://www.coffeeandteacollective.com/collections/front-page/products/steel-frame-1

Coffee & Tea Collective

Steel Frame

Steel Frame coffee showcases flavors of wafer cookie, drinking chocolate, and brown sugar. Steel Frame is the backbone of Coffee and Tea Collective's operation—a carefully chosen single origin coffee that is reliable, approachable, & genuinely delicious. Roasted in North Park, San Diego.

chrome tiger Jan 18, 2023, 7:04 AM

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What does it taste like besides the bitter finish?
Does it taste sweet? Burnt/ashy? How about flavour?
Because there are a lot you could do depending on what you're getting currently

lyric rampart Jan 18, 2023, 8:12 PM

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rich/sweet/lot of body I guess

chrome tiger Jan 19, 2023, 3:18 PM

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I would try to cut it short personally
Maybe get another cup and get the last 5/10g in there, so you know if that's the problem or not

supple shard Jan 20, 2023, 7:48 PM

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If there's no harsh acidity at this point, I'd probably also suggest cutting the ratio a bit shorter, but as Bailey said above, it could be your water comp

grim osprey Jan 20, 2023, 7:53 PM

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can someone help differentiate harsh and sour?

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i think of harsh as like dry bitter astringency

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i never feel like sour is harsh

supple shard Jan 20, 2023, 8:11 PM

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For me, harsh is just generally something that is heavily jarring or unpleasant to my senses. So harsh acidity would be what I consider 'sour'. Extreme acidity that makes my mouth pucker up.

Harsh bitterness can make me feel like I need more air and leave me slightly breathless (in a bad way). It usually comes with astringency that makes my mouth feel dry.

grim osprey Jan 20, 2023, 8:14 PM

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yeah im following this thread because im getting alot of harsh bitterness/dry on my current shot at 1:2 for a medium at 198F

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so whatever gets mentioned im trying too

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i dont want to dilute the thread with my own stuff so ill stop now

supple shard Jan 20, 2023, 8:14 PM

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Are you also getting acidity with the shot as well?

grim osprey Jan 20, 2023, 8:14 PM

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no

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right im out, ill keep listening

supple shard Jan 20, 2023, 8:16 PM

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I think it's alright to address your issue as well since it seems similar to Renori's. If you're not getting any acidity, my recommendation would be to cut the ratio to 1:1.5 first and see how that tastes. If you keep cutting the ratio shorter, you'll eventually hit some acidity granted the beans aren't just roasted extremely dark (which shouldn't be the case for the both of you)

grim osprey Jan 20, 2023, 9:03 PM

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hmm 1:1.5 was sour

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somewhere inbetween then

supple shard Jan 20, 2023, 9:06 PM

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Yep, sounds like it. If you like the texture at 1:1.5, you can also try to increase the temperature instead

grim osprey Jan 20, 2023, 9:08 PM

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Interesting will do!

supple shard Jan 20, 2023, 9:14 PM

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My last advice if changing ratio and temperature don't work to cut out some unwanted acidity would be to up the KH in your water as that's helped me out recently with some pesky acidity in my TW Kenyan.

This is also assuming you're extracting reasonably evenly and well. If your shots have apparent channeling then that should be addressed first

#Bitter finish on shot