Hi all
I’m new to all this and as such I struggle. I thought after reading and watching lots of YouTube videos pulling a shot will be a breeze.
I’ve got a bambino plus and a breville grinder pro. No matter what I do, coffee tastes the same – very sour almost all the time. Normally, grind finer, right? Problem is, I’ve gone through grind 15 all the way to 7, and the only thing that changed is the length it takes to get 36-40g of coffee.
I grind 18 grams, WDT, use coffee distribution, use pre set tamper, and a screen. All seems ok, but coffee tastes sour and not sure what else I should try!
by carnalio
13 Comments
[That’s what you need to do.](https://youtu.be/ZChV2RR6c04?si=jWX54j6NJd7STMWW)
You’re at 2 to 1. Try 3 to 1. Does it change?
I would grind finer. Try for 30 seconds extraction time since you are including preinfusion in your shot time.
The first drip came out around 8s, and you were almost at 39g by 24s, which meant that whole extraction happened in only 16s. That’s way too fast. Highly likely underextracted. Grind finer.
And yes, I have read that when you went down to grind size 6-7, the machine choked. Is that right? That means nothing was coming out? If that’s the case, try reducing your dose by 0.5 to 1g and see if that helps.
This is the reason why a good grinder is more important than the machine, because it’s not just about being able to grind fine enough, but having more ‘steps’ in between to make very small adjustments.
Now, this is something I also find many people overlook. What beans are you using? Origin, processing, roast level, roast date? Maybe that’s just how those beans taste. Many light roast, natural, funky processed beans are very acidic and fruit forward by nature.
What beans do you have? Roast level? And roast date if possible.
The shot did come out a bit too fast; however, without acquiring more information about your beans, it is hard to come up with a strategy.
I found that my smart grinder came out of the factory unable to grind fine enough for espresso even at grind setting 1. I had to adjust the burrs down to hole 3 and now I use grind settings between 5 and 2 depending on the beans.
How to adjust burrs: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaFbTeltbmg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaFbTeltbmg)
I’d suggest trying a shot on grind setting 1. If it doesn’t completely choke the flow then adjust your burrs until it does, then move to higher grind settings from there.
Edit: I just saw you said in another comment that it already chokes at grind setting 5? I dunno then…
This may be a dumb question, but are you using a single-walled / unpressurized basket? With the spouts we obviously can’t see, but that style of portafilter often comes with pressurized portafilters which would make dialing in kinda hard.
But I agree with the others that this shot is just too fast. The noise of your pump doesn’t come on until the 3 second mark and you cut it at about 20.5 sec, so total pump time is well under 20 seconds. First drop looks fine, but the flow rate is pretty fast beyond that.
Especially if you’re trying to cut back on acidity, push to get that to 30 seconds, from when the pump kicks on to when you turn it back off. That’ll be a better starting point. The general 25s-30s recommendation sort of assumes you’re using a machine where pump kicks on as soon as you press the button or pull the lever.
If you can spare the beans a great exercise is to jump to the other end of the spectrum – grind as fine as you can to where your machine is choking up or in full restretto mode. Then pull back the grind size bit by bit from there.
I find it’s easier to get the hang of where espresso should be from that side of things. Many beginners underestimate how fine you have to grind.
Plus having a wdt means you’re not instantly automatically running into channeling problems.
Is it light roasted beans? I’ve used that grinder on bambino plus and usually the problem is the grinder can’t grind fine enough for lighter roasted beans. On bambino plus you have pre-infusion, so the shot time should be more than 25 – 30s. I usually aim for 30 – 35 with max (10s) PI on bambino plus.
Honestly sounds like it’s the beans you have. Try a darker roast with a roast date of about a week. Currently it’s sour because the shot is too fast and it’s under extracted. This is a very common challenge with lighter roasts when you have more entry level gear.
I switched to dark espresso beans. Italian style. That solved my “sour” issue. 18/36 in 25-30 seconds. Period.
What kind of water are you using? Also had the issue with sour coffee a lot. I live in Switzerland in a region where the tap water is very hard. I put my coffee water through a brita filter twice and it makes all the difference. If you can translate this it might be helpful: https://www.kaffeemacher.ch/blog/kaffeewasser/
The dose is typically 15 or 16 grams for the Bambino. Basket is too small for 18.