# How do I get my gear dialled in?



## AlIam (Aug 30, 2011)

So just ordered my espresso machine (Fracino Piccino) to go with the vario I've owned for a few weeks now.

As understand it, I'm aiming to grind the beans so that it takes ≈ 25 seconds to draw ≈2oz of water through ≈15g of beans. Any suggestions how I learn to do this reasonably consistently without pulling too many sink shots whilst learning?


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## MikeHag (Mar 13, 2011)

The way I started was with a short training session in my own home. Highly recommended as it's not just about how and what, it's also about why. Glenn does training.

If you ask one of the many coffee wives they may say it's about how much!


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## MonkeyHarris (Dec 3, 2010)

A short training session is a great idea. If that's not possible then you'll just have to wing it. I know Glenn has a Vario so he should be able to give you the settings to get you in the general ball park with your grind. It's pretty straight forward though and you'll soon be able to dial in new beans within 2/3 attempts on a new bag. The 25 second thing is a general rule but anywhere in the 20-30 second mark should produce something drinkable. It will depend on your own taste, the beans, the roast, the water temp...etc. Don't panic though, start off aiming for the 15g, 2oz, 25second thing until you're ready to complicate matters with different dosage vs extraction mass







You'll find that even once you've got your beans dialled in you'll have to make minute tweaks after every shot. Beans age and therefore so does the grind. Don't be put off if it takes you a few weeks to get the hang of it.

It's hard to sum it all up in one post. I've spent the last year on this forum trying to suss out the answers.....


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## chimpsinties (Jun 13, 2011)

You'll start off and think, "Ahh, that's not a bad shot". Then you'll tweak it and tweak it again and after months of doing that you'll be thinking, "I can't believe I've improved my shots, again!". This will probably continue for the rest of your days (or until your wife throws you out for buying too many coffee gadgets







)


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## Eyedee (Sep 13, 2010)

Buy some Tesco cheap beans, use all the tips already stated and when you feel very near to where you want to be go on to the good beans and tweak the settings. You'll almost be there with the cheapos so you shouldn't need many "sink shots".

Ian


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## Ian_G (Nov 10, 2011)

AlIam said:


> So just ordered my espresso machine (Fracino Piccino) to go with the vario I've owned for a few weeks now.
> 
> As understand it, I'm aiming to grind the beans so that it takes ≈ 25 seconds to draw ≈2oz of water through ≈15g of beans. Any suggestions how I learn to do this reasonably consistently without pulling too many sink shots whilst learning?


The rate at which the water flows through the ground coffee into the cup is directly related to the fineness or coarseness of the grind. Coarse grind water flows faster; finer grind slower. What some people do is set their grinder to the finest setting and work back from there. Instead of that approach set your grinder one full turn from its finest setting and time your pour. If it takes more than 25 secs to get your pour then coarsen the grind; or do the opposite if it's all done in under 25 seconds.

In order for this to work well, you must use the same weight of grounds each time as increasing the dose lengthens the pour time and decreasing it does the opposite.

The smartest thing you can do is to get a gram scale that measures to within a tenth of a gram and weigh out your dose. Maplin electronics sells them for about a tenner.


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## lookseehear (Jul 16, 2010)

While using cheap (stale) supermarket beans might be recommended, don't be surprised if the required grind is quite a long way from that when you're using fresh beans. I'd definitely recommend starting too fine and working backwards, it's probably quicker than starting coarse and working finer.


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## Coffeefusion (Nov 11, 2011)

The most important thing I can suggest is change one variable at a time. To start off, i'd suggest keeping your tamp pressure the same and your dose the same, and then adjusting the grind until you get a shot that suits your taste buds.

People will go on about x mL in x sec but it really depends on what you like. For example I would generally say I run my shots tighter than standard, but I like flat whites with a ristretto base.

If you think to yourself 'oh that shot is running fast' and then you go dosing more + tamping a bit harder, then you don't know what is fixing the issue.

Another person suggested a gram scale which is a good suggestion, but personally I don't weigh because I would rather get a routine happening which gives me a consistent dose.. Ie counting out how long the grinder is on for.. collapsing the coffee the same amount of times, distributing the coffee in the same way before tamping etc etc.. After a while you will get a feel for where the tamper sits after tamping to know you've used the same amount of coffee.

Like everything practise makes purpose. Try something, taste it.. then change on variable and taste it again. Then once you have figured out how the grind affects things, go ahead and experiment with dose ;-) Lots of fun times!


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