# Hello Coffee Forums People



## Rodgers (Jun 9, 2015)

Hi,

Over the last couple of years my appreciation for good coffee has grown and I am now at a stage where I'm looking to improve the coffee I make. I will be looking at tips and asking for critique on my shots along the way.

A bit about me; I'm 26 and live in the North-East; my favourite coffee shop is Flat White in Durham. My favourite places to buy my coffee are Has Bean and OCC. But there is a new roaster in East Rounton that is pretty neat. One of my favourite coffees was a Yellow Honey Villa Sarchi from Has Bean, that really opened our eyes to how good coffee can be.

We got to stage where we were buying fresh beans and grinding with a porlex. We used a french press mainly but bought an aeropress when they came on the scene and that was the go to brew method from then on, with the odd french press when we fancied. We then wanted the espresso, so in Nov 2014 we plunged for a Delonghi Espresso machine. In a bid to improve my shots I found out it was using pressurised baskets which limited where we could take our coffee. Never the less we still enjoyed great coffee with it, better than most coffee shops around here.

Today, we are proud owners of Rancilio Silvia V4 and Sage Pro Grinder. I am ready to learn!

My first shot out of the machine in naked portafilter triple basket was. I've attached a quick video I took on my phone. Apologies about the video orientation and quality.







Coffee Beans (g)Grind SizeExtraction Time (s)Espresso (g)16.562841.6

The grind size is the setting number on The Sage Grinder. Not sure how that compares to other grinders.

I expected my first shot to fail, however it came out much better than I expected, I was expecting it to spray all over and then taste awful. To my surprise it looked good (to my eyes) when it came out of the machine and tasted lovely.

To my dismay, without changing any variables my next shot was a disaster. I didn't change the grind size or weight, but got channelling pretty bad and only extracted 25.2g of espresso in 25s which as I expected tasted horrid! So, lots to learn, clearly!

I am looking forward to learning, practicing and hopefully getting to a stage where I can consistently pull a good shot.

Cheers,

Rodgers


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Welcome. ....nice first shot


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Welcome to the forum Rodgers.


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## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

Welcome to our Forum Rodgers.

Please feel free to ask your questions.

There are a lot of folk on here who can advise & help on most coffee related subjects.


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

Welcome Rodgers. Lots of good advice on here.


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## Rodgers (Jun 9, 2015)

Thanks!









Is there a post somewhere on here with guidelines as to volumes of espresso?

I just brewed a shot that was 16.5g coffee - 25s - 73.6g espresso. I reduced my grind size (10 on sage pro) so that would explain the higher volume? The video of the shot below.


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Don't go by volume go by weight ,,,,,









http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?t=22879


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Finer grind should lead to a slower shot ( if dose is the same )

Coarser grind should lead to quicker shot ( if dose is same )

If going for the sake brew ratio each time


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## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

Weighing sounds anal but I'm a convert.


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## Rodgers (Jun 9, 2015)

I've made sure I bought a set of scales and I've started a notebook so I can write down everything about the shots I pull. How can I possibly learn what I'm doing wrong or right if I've got no reference points? I'm just trying to change one variable and at the moment it's grind size. Fun stuff.


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