# Espresso Brewing Ratios - Chris Baca



## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Interesting little clip. Good points.

You need to know what you want to get form a coffee.

No ratio is magic

Roast Level makes a difference potentially to the ratio used . Although id argue that Italian Espresso seems to be pulled longer and that is darker ( perhaps sugar helps here )

I still maintain you need a starting point and if you are draining light to medium specialty roasted coffee than 1:2 is still as good as any but only you know your preference and you have to be able to adjust your ratio to get to that.


----------



## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Great video but couldn't help my attention being drawn to the Sage B2C machine in the background


----------



## igm45 (Mar 5, 2017)

The Systemic Kid said:


> Great video but couldn't help my attention being drawn to the Sage B2C machine in the background


He did a review on it,

In another of his videos he says he enjoys coffee simple at home.

Metal filter in the filter machine and frenchpress plunged....


----------



## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

The Systemic Kid said:


> Great video but couldn't help my attention being drawn to the Sage B2C machine in the background


The Oracle , yeah he won it at a Breville event in the USA.


----------



## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

As always that's a great very informative Video.

All the best people have an Oracle somewhere..........well don't they?


----------



## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

ronsil said:


> As always that's a great very informative Video.
> 
> All the best people have an Oracle somewhere..........well don't they?


yep


----------



## craigsalisbury (Dec 8, 2017)

Mrboots2u said:


> Interesting little clip. Good points.
> 
> You need to know what you want to get form a coffee.
> 
> ...


it was me that asked him to do that video the other day









Edit : and I still didnt get how we went from a double being 60ml to a double using a 1:2 ish ratio being closer to 40ml (36g ish rough in volume)


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

craigsalisbury said:


> it was me that asked him to do that video the other day
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It was never 60ml exactly, it's always been a range.


----------



## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

craigsalisbury said:


> it was me that asked him to do that video the other day
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Yeah and the dose used to be 14g.....

Really don't let it bother you .

It used to be pounds and shillings, feet and inches too


----------



## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

If its sour then we just roast it more , no?


----------



## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

garydyke1 said:


> If its sour then we just roast it more , no?


Yarp.


----------



## GingerBen (Sep 7, 2017)

Off the back of this I watched the below by Matt Perger, sure most have seen it before but first time for me and found it really good.











couple of questions I had from this -

1. If you fix the dose to start with how do you know whether to grind coarser or pull the shot longer (or both) to increase the yield? Presumably visuals and time of first espresso pouring is the best way to know if the grind is about right?

2. How do you determine the best yield for the coffee? Is it when it tastes more or less right but just needs tweaking by grinding finer (and therefore running longer to get the same yield) to the point of diminishing returns as he says? He mentions up to 3:1 for lighter roasts and maybe less than 2:1 for darker. So I'm guessing something in that range is standard I just need to find it and stick with it.

3. For my oracle the dose is fixed at 23g so am I right in thinking I should set the grind to where they suggest to begin with then manually pull the shot until I hit 46g in the cup and taste it. If it's still sour go to 2.5:1 and try again? If 2.5:1 tastes good do I then fine tune by grinding finer and pulling longer to hit the same yield until it's 'perfect'?


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

GingerBen said:


> Off the back of this I watched the below by Matt Perger, sure most have seen it before but first time for me and found it really good.
> 
> couple of questions I had from this -
> 
> ...


1. Grinding finer/coarser does not increase yield. Pulling a larger shot increases yield. Grinding finer/coarser will lift/reduce extraction, the knock on effect being longer/shorter shot time. If the shot is sour, grind finer. If grinding finer doesn't shake the sourness, pull a longer ratio.

2. There's no standard. Just a strength preference when the shot is balanced. Darker roasts have been pulled longer for decades, you can pull shorter shots with more soluble coffee, if a given coffee is roasted much darker, it will likely be more soluble. If you are not bothered about hitting a very specific strength range, get a bunch of beans and see which needs the largest yield to taste ball-park. Start off pulling all your shots to this ratio, if you have a darker/more soluble coffee that starts to taste flat, or in extreme cases, smokey & drying, pull less yield/grind coarser to correct extraction.

3. If 2.5 tastes good, grind to steer the flavour (finer if you want to lose sourness, coarser if you want more clarity/liveliness). Changing the grind will affect shot time, but shot time can be +/5 sec for a similar extraction. Perfect? There might still be a little variation from shot to shot, some might be subtly better than others, but generally be 'good'. When you make shot, note dose, yield & time, then give each one a rough score (out of maybe 5, or 9, a middle value being neither like, nor dislike - no need to get madly analytical, major faults should be obvious), if shots for a certain coffee drop consistently into a range where you're not sure if you like them/like a little, you should act to correct it.


----------

