MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
I can't remember if I've asked this before. Probably, but anyway.
With a bottomless filter on my Gaggia, I'm filling one shot glass. However the stock spout type filter would have to use two shot glasses as it has two spouts and the glasses are not wide enough to pour both into one.
Am I therefore making a single shot with the bottomless or is it the same strength as a double for the same extraction time, just less volume?
And to complicate further, the basket for the filter is a double, or may even be a triple, not sure. I just fill it to the top and tamp, but one shot glass full, or should I pour one glass and swap another in after? I.e. Am I wasting a shot only pouring one?
Rookie stuff I know (though been using it for years, just always wondered if I'm doing it right, or rather known I'm probably not).
You need to know the size of your basket and fill accordingly. Thats why the coffee geeks measure stuff out.
Or if you dont care carry on but maybe just use a double shot glass and fill that instead.
If you over extract it goes bitter ... if you under extract I have no idea but I'm guessing mainly just waste?
You will have the same amount of espresso if the amount of grinds you place in the portafilter remains the same.
Put differently, the weight of coffee you place in the portafilter determines the weight of espresso you get out. Not the strength.
With a double spout, you'll just get two smaller, same strength espressos.
A blind portafilter is great as it shows you how good or bad your distribution and hence your extraction is.
Ideally you time and measure the volume of water you pull through so you know how long and how much coffee to expect for the weight of coffee you put in the portafilter. Depends how geek you are about it, but if you have a naked portafilter you must be a bit of a geek 😉
Your basket shouldn't be full, it should contain the right weight of coffee. An accurate digital scales will show you how much coffee to put in your basket. Single, double, and triple are fairly obvious if you compare them to each other, but that requires you to have more than one size. As a rough guide a double will be 2.5 dessert spoons of fine grind, tamped that should be roughly 1cm below the rim of the basket, maybe a bit less.
If you take a look at the group head it protrudes into the basket when the portafilter is locked in, there should be just enough clearance in your filled basket to accommodate the group head without disturbing the tamped coffee.
I've taken the double spout off my portafilter to be able to get my cups underneath.
If you want to do it the official coffee ****er way....
Weigh in dry coffee
Weigh out extracted coffee
Measure time - time to pressurise, time to first coffee pour, time to end of extraction.
Ideally wanting to hit 1:2 doe coffee in:out
Ideally 9-11s for time to first coffee out
Total shot time (from start to finish) of 23-27s
If you under extract your coffee you will taste a bit bland and have a short finish, it will lack sweetness and may taste sour or have a salty taste.
If you over extract it will taste bitter and astringent.
Lots of fiddling to be had to get it right - when i lived in Aus one of my lab mates was a Barista and set up our work coffee machine and my home one. We used the same beans at work and home so no fiddling....
Different story now i'm back over here and am only recently settled on a coffee i like..