# Filling to the top



## AliC (Jan 9, 2014)

Here's a question on dosing.

With my Mignon I was able to set the timer for a pretty accurate doe which would be reliably within 0.3g tolerance either way.

Now with the SJ and doser, I am weighing out each dose into the basket and I must admit it's tasking away from the spontenaity of making a coffee.

Now we have a new coffee shop in town and the chap there is just filling the basket and levelling off at the top before tamping.

Now is there any reason (and a really good one at that) why I shouldn't do the same? If I just work out the weight of a levelled off at the brim basket and then work out the weight of the shot I want to extract and then I just need to weigh the out put if I'm pretty consistent by weight in - assuming constant volume=constant weight.

Thanks and Happy Day Before Mothers Day


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

There are no rules - try it! If you like how it tastes then that's all that counts.


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

If your finding weighing out into the basket a pain then try just weighing in to the hopper single doses. It won't be as accurate (but not far off) and is a little less faff


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## AliC (Jan 9, 2014)

Daren said:


> There are no rules - try it!


I did think part way through writing the post that I should just give it a go and see what happens.

As regards the rules, and this is veering off topic a bit, I was struggling to get a decent shot out of Rave's Yigacheffe. I'd had a tasty filter but espresso was coming out sour. Ended up going 18g in and 34g out to get better balance. This morning by accident pulled a 40g shot and the damson jam really came through.

Enough tapping with one finger. Back to the coffee machine.


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## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

Grind in to basket, level off and see how much you've got.

Try it again.

Try it again.

If it's repeatable just go for it.


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## gman147 (Jul 7, 2012)

The problem with finger sweeping is that different varietals will have different grind settings. Some require a coarse grind and some require a fine. So if you're dosing to a level then your dose x weight will differ with each bean. It's up to you really, but it ultimately depends how much you value the taste in the cup..


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## AliC (Jan 9, 2014)

gman147 said:


> The problem with finger sweeping is that different varietals will have different grind settings. Some require a coarse grind and some require a fine. So if you're dosing to a level then your dose x weight will differ with each bean. It's up to you really, but it ultimately depends how much you value the taste in the cup..


Completely don't disagree at all. What I'm doing at the moment is going for 1kg bags of beans so I get a decent run to at getting the grind and extraction just right. So when I change beans I would just go through the process of weighing a full basket once - not hugely time consuming, and then take it from there.

I'm also using a lollypop stick to level off the top as it can be easy with a finger sweep to indent the centre of the grinds and be inconsistent by a fraction of a gram from time to time.

So back to the Yirgacheffe, a full basket for me is 19.9g. I then pulled a 40g shot in 55s and it was absolutely fine as espresso, but oddly not so great when I added milk to make a cappuccino. I found that when I was under extracting slightly (shot a touch on the sour side), that the hot milk actually balanced things out to make a very respectable latte. Hey ho, funny old life.


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