# Recipes and times



## Tryfan (Apr 11, 2012)

Things aren't looking too bad with the espresso machine at the moment. I'm still trying to tamp consistently and the Rave beans I've just ploughed through, once dialled in, are fairly consistent.

my current recipe of intent is 18.5g in, 36g out between 25 and 35 seconds - a straight down the middle 'normale'. My question is around the times they seem to be quite tolerant - am I interpreting things correctly.

The way I'm implementing the recipe is either:




Stop the pump based on weight, at 34g to let it run to approx 36g. If the time was between 25 and 35 seconds then I'll keep it.
Or if the flow is a bit slow, stop the pump based on time at approx 35 seconds. If the weight is between approx 30g and 36g, again it's a keeper.

If the result is around the boundaries, I'll usually taste it also, but if way off it goes down the sink.

For the purposes of judging my shots and whether recipe a is 'better' than recipe b, for example, should I be more precise with brew times?

Thanks in advance.


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Should keep the time 27sec plus or minus 2-3secs. Adjust your grind accordingly but, above all, be guided by what tastes good to you. Ristretto 18grm -> 27grm out should be in the above time frame.


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## Tryfan (Apr 11, 2012)

Understood.

My old 30 second +/- 5 felt too wide, so I'll adopt your suggestion - thanks.

A week ago getting it within the old times was a challenge, but things seem to be slowly coming together. Earlier I pulled two Rave Italian Job shots back to back, both 36g +/- 1g and 30 seconds +/- 0.5. Perhaps luck is playing a part but my enthusiasm and ego wants to believe it was skill.









On the taste: None of the shots I've kept tasted excessively bad to me, in fact most I would say were better then anything I've been served in cafes or chains I think. My palate isn't very sensitive at the moment however, it takes a really bad shot for me to know it.

New beans tomorrow - let's see how I fair with some Hasbean...


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## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

I wouldn't worry too much about time. I've had some very tasty shots that have take 35-45 secs. If you start going over that it might be a bit of a stretch though.


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Try pulling your usual shot in the 27 sec time zone but split the pour into thirds as it comes out of the brew head. First third should be quite acidic, second third should be sweeter and final third should be thin and unpleasant - shows how dynamic an extraction is.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Tryfan said:


> If the result is around the boundaries, I'll usually taste it also, but if way off it goes down the sink.
> 
> For the purposes of judging my shots and whether recipe a is 'better' than recipe b, for example, should I be more precise with brew times?
> 
> Thanks in advance.


You appear to be flitting between brewing by ratio & brewing by time. Brewing by ratio, stick to the ratio & judge by taste...record time, but don't discard a shot based on time alone. If shots are taking under 20seconds, then you might not want to spend too much effort on tasting.

It strikes me that you're possibly creating a self-fulfilling prophecy, by discarding shots based on parameters other than taste & ratio?


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## jjprestidge (Oct 11, 2012)

On light roasts time is less important than originally thought. This said, extractions below 25s don't tend to taste good on our Mirage. Ditto those over 40s.

JP


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