# trying to improve my espresso



## Kyle T (Jan 6, 2016)

So, I've done a lot of reading on here and on other sites people have recommended over the last few months. I put some new beans into my grinder today (sage smart grinder pro) I set the coarse setting to 8 and produced 18g of grinds. I very lightly tamped (just enough to level the grinds and polish) and then placed into my Duo Temp Pro and produced 36g of espresso in exactly 30secs. Great! I thought, but the espresso was bitter and so I repeated the process only this time I adjusted the dial of the grinder slightly coarser to number 9. This time the 36g of espresso took 25 seconds but now taste pretty sour. So my question to the experts on here is, what is the next thing to adjust? I have kept everything the same except for the grind, I am surprised there was such a difference between 8 & 9 but there seemed to be. Also the Duo Temp Pro cannot have temp adjusted manually so temperature adjustment is out of my hands.


----------



## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

What are the beans ? How old are they ?

What notes do they have from the roaster?

Are you purging the grinder between doses ?

You don't have a bottomless pf - so hard to tell if the difference in taste is limited steps on your grinder or channeling in the puck.

Even with spouts and extraction and prep clip might help .

I know there is this grind fine tamp light mantra but it does need a grinder capable of finite adjustment and consistent fine settings . I don't think it's appropriate for all set ups . You could be leaving air pockets in the puck for instance if your going that light as to level and just polish


----------



## risky (May 11, 2015)

Do not tamp that lightly, that is bound to end in disaster. 'Grind fine tamp light' does not apply to your setup. And even then, by light, people don't mean that light.

Answer the questions above and we will be better placed to help further.


----------



## Kyle T (Jan 6, 2016)

Ok, so no i did not purge between grinds. The beans i am using are below, they are just under 4 weeks old. Tasting notes are; bold, rich, earthy, big body and dried fruit. So should I go back to number 9 and tamp harder to increase the time?


----------



## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

If your not purging then there is a chance you are mixing old and new grounds as you change em .


----------



## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

As above, tamp a bit harder and see if that makes a difference.

If the extraction you want is between two settings on your grinder then you can tweak the taste with the amount in the basket or the length of extraction.

So lets take your first shot - Setting 8 - 18g - 36g in 30 secs.

So try this same setting but this time cut the shot off at 30g

Still not where you want it? Then on the same setting only use 17g (into 34g) of coffee, it should extract a bit quicker which should taste less bitter


----------

