A Beginner Guide to Dialing in Espresso
Introduction
Hi there! I’ve had a lot of questions both online and in person from friends of mine wondering how they can dial in their espresso. Now, I don’t have a DE-1 that measures every little detail, nor do I have a ton of experience in pressure-profiling, temperature variation, or specific flow rates over the course of pulling a shot. Thing is, I haven’t really needed this to make good fucking espresso at home, and so I wanted to make a short (well, at least not-overly-complex) guide on how I dial in espresso.
Worth noting: I try at least one if not two new coffees a month. This is a lot, sometimes, and it’s nice to have some beans on-hand that you have a recipe for and can fall back on. Espresso dialing is an iterative process — once you’re good at it, you’ll only need 2–3 shots before your coffee is tasting just the way you want it. Until then, you will likely go through a bit of coffee chasing it. I recommend having a good amount of coffee that is fresh, affordable, and that you don’t mind using up.
First Principles — Who is this guide for?
This guide is meant to be a beginner-intermediate guide. If you already have a decent grinder, you’ve already familiarized yourself with the process of dialing, but you still find yourself a little confused or lost, then this is for you! I don’t plan on going through each step of the roasting process, the finer chemistry involved in espresso, or the complexities of using tools like filter paper or puck screens, rather I want to cover the absolute essentials of your run-of-the-mill espresso, while giving a little more attention to things than just a rundown of the variables at hand.
If you’re a rank beginner, I highly recommend James Hoffmann’s series on espresso. For many of you, chances are you won’t even need this guide afterwards. If you think you get it, but still find yourself having trouble, feel free to come back!
What I won’t be covering
I am NOT going to cover puck prep. There is a massive amount of information on this, and the principles are fairly straightforward. If you are not confident in your puck prep, you’re definitely not going to be confident in your dialing. That being said, if you’re having trouble, find some guides, watch some videos, and practice.
I am also not going to be talking about temperature and pressure curves here, nor will I discuss pre-infusion. For most people on relatively affordable machines, you won’t have the option to adjust these consistently by much if at all. I’ll touch on the basic principles, but if you’re curious about the details regarding these two things beyond the fundamentals, there are people far more qualified to talk about it than me, and I’m sure you’ve already learned a good bit.
So what are we doing, exactly?
I say it all the time, you’re making espresso — a drink. Make all your decisions based on the drink you’re making. Your goal is to make a shot of espresso that you enjoy, and to get the most out of your beans. If your shot doesn’t come out in the time window that is recommended, but you think it tastes delicious, then congrats, you win! Don’t change the recipe from something that tasted good just for the sake of meeting a recommended ballpark.
Now some of you may be unsure what tastes good when it comes to espresso. You’ll hear words like ‘sweet’ and ‘clarity’ and ‘over/under-extracted’ and sorta-but -not really get it. Here’s my recommendation: find a roaster nearby (or a cafe that is well-liked by other coffee nerds). Go and tell them that you’re getting into espresso and want something to help show you what espresso can be. If they’re nice, they’ll ask you questions and help you out, giving you a shot of espresso that is up to their standards. If you like it, you can buy some beans from them — supporting local business, sick!
What if I uh… don’t like any of them
Some people just don’t like espresso. That’s fine. You can make milk drinks that taste great, make/add flavoring and syrups, and worry a little less about the shot itself. Check back every once in a while to see if you acquired the taste for it, but I’ve seen a lot of people who swear they love espresso but complain about every single shot they’ve ever had and drown every drink with milk, sugar, etc. It’s fine if you don’t like espresso. Really, I still love you.
Holy crap just get into it already
Extraction
The whole idea here is to extract stuff from the coffee grounds, yada yada yada, you know this part. But while we all know this, we can easily forget it when we’re actually making espresso. Everything relates back to how the extraction process occurs. This is why I’m not getting into tools and pressure curves and pre-infusion — they make the explanation of extraction more complicated than I want to get into right now. This is about the fundamentals. Maybe another time.
Broadly speaking, more extraction tastes better, up until a point where the flavor drives off a cliff and makes it hard to swallow. Generally, if a brew tastes pretty good but could be better, I will go for higher extraction in one way or another. More often than not, when a shot is over-extracted, the taste is past ‘kinda close’ into ‘ew.’ Not always horrible, but not as close as a slightly under-extracted shot.
The variables
These are things that can and should change from shot-to-shot during the dialing process. They all affect or are affected by your extraction.
A dependent variable is something you change on purpose. Find griner? That’s because grind size is a dependent variable.
An independent variable is something you measure the change of. Shot tasting more sour? Took 5 seconds longer than last time? You didn’t change those directly, but they were changed by your dependent variables.
Grind size and Taste are affected by extraction while the rest affect it. See the pattern? I will not walk you through what all of these are. The crux of this discussion will instead be how these variables can change extraction. How do we know which way to go?
Taste and Brew Time
This is the reason you’re doing it all — to get a shot of espresso that tastes good. This is also why puck prep is key — if you channel your puck, the taste is gonna be off no matter what you do. If you don’t know what that tastes like, mess up your puck so it gets channeled and taste it. Weird, strong mixture of sour and super bitter, right? Remember that taste, and if you taste it again, be aware that the puck prep might be to blame, not your other variables.
Outside of describing the taste of the coffee itself, when we dial in beans, we primarily say it is either under-extracted or over-extracted. Under-extraction tastes really sour, over-extraction tastes really bitter. There is a lot to say about sour-bitter confusion during tasting, as well as the right amount of acidity in a cup, but honestly just make some purposefully bad cups of coffee and see the difference. Grind too coarse and taste your shot — note the unpleasant acidity and puckering feeling, it’s almost vegetal. Now grind too fine — way too strong, with the bitterness almost drying out your tongue. Now we know what to look for.
Brew time is a complex topic. The recommendation for beginners is 25–30 seconds from switch on to end of shot. This is a good recommendation, but it’s not the goal here. So why do we care?
Brew time is a very good way to track your shot, since taste is a qualitative measurement that you can’t necessarily measure and record. It, along with the taste, can inform you as to the adjustments you want to make. You want to stay somewhat close to this 25–30 second range, but it’s not strict. I’ve had shots that I pulled in 21 seconds that were absolutely delicious. I’ve had shots I pulled in 28 seconds that I couldn’t even finish.
Brew time will inform you on your extraction — a longer brew time generally means more extraction as a result of finer grind or more water going through the puck. Use it as a good quantitative metric, but please do NOT base your dialing process on shot time. It can be useful when you know what you’re doing, but too many people are a slave to the 25–30s window.
Revisiting our Dependent Variables
Now that we get what we’re going for, how do our variables change extraction and brew time?
So an increase in Grind Size and Ratio make the extraction go up, as well as time. An increase in Dose causes extraction to go up but brew time to go down. But why the ‘sort of’ on the ratio?
Ratio
Ratio is a weird variable. It is, sort of, the way we define a ristretto vs a lungo. Really, ratio comes down to what kind of espresso you like. Ristrettos (1:1–1:1.5) have more body, and taste much stronger, while lungos (1:3 — 1:4) are more balanced and clear, but sacrifice texture. In all likelihood, you’re going for a 1:2–1:2.2 ratio. This is fine, and I recommend sticking with it until you really know what you’re doing and what you like, but keep it as a small range. Try to maintain consistency, but don’t lament when your shot comes out at 36.8g instead of 36g.
Ratio is an underrated variable to change, but the reason I said ‘sort of’ with ratio is that you really aren’t changing it much during the dialing process, if at all, until the very end. When pulling a shot, in fact, it is the variable that directly affects when we stop the shot. If I do change the ratio, it is usually one of the last things I change in order to get that extra bit of texture or clarity I want, which isn’t always related to the extraction or brew time. I’d only touch this after getting a shot that is pretty good as is, and just needs a tiny nudge. Specifically, raising the ratio will allow the flavors to come out more balanced, while lowering it will sharpen both the taste profile and texture.
Grind Size
Yes we know, grind finer. I will generously assume you already understand that coffee needs to be ground quite fine for espresso.
If you’re grinding fresh (which I hope you are), this is the primary way in which you should adjust your brew. A finer grind will increase your extraction since smaller particles are more easily extracted, while also making your brew time go up since the water will have to work more to get through. This means that, for the same ratio and dose, a finer grind will make overall extraction go up in two ways. Adjustments here are usually pretty tight, which is why people love stepless grinders. If a shot is finishing in 20s and tastes sour, grinding finer will help both of these problems.
A very important factor is your knowledge of your grinder. If your grinder retains a lot of grounds and you don’t realize it, you can end up chasing a shot around and around because leftover grounds from your previous grind setting are still in there. For some grinders, the retention can be as low as 0.1g or as high as 1g, maybe even higher for some large/commercial grinders. You may need to purge a little coffee from your grinder at the new setting before throwing in your dose, although this feels wasteful, hence the prevalence of low/zero-retention grinders. If you change your grind but don’t see much of a change in either brew time or taste, maybe just try to do the same thing again. It could be an effect of leftover grinds in the grinder, or inconsistencies in puck prep.
Dose
Keep this constant based on your basket. Dosage is an strange way to adjust a brew, and I think it’s because of that Down/Up relationship with extraction and time. If you do want to play, though, you can, but keep in mind that changing dose can completely reorient your dial in regards to your grind setting.
This is where it’s important not to be a slave to brew time. You may have a shot that took longer than 32s, and want to push it down a bit to get the time down. But keep in mind that by using less coffee, your extraction will increase. You will simultaneously decrease time and increase extraction.
I would get my grind as close as I can to good before changing it, but if you, for example, have a shot pulling in 42s that tastes okay but just a teensy bit under-extracted, why not just grind a little finer anyway? Isn’t brew time unimportant?
In most cases, I would just grind finer still, but sometimes adjusting your grind setting can get a bit… really-fucking-annoying. Changes in grind can create a pretty dramatic change in the final shot — a change of 0.5 on my DF64 gen 2 can change my shot time by 8s and really affect taste. At this point, I may just decrease the dose by up to a half of a gram and see how it works out. If I get closer to my desired taste and texture, I may keep it and refine my grind again. If not, just go back to the previous dose.
Also worth noting is that a higher dose will mean higher caffeine. I mention this as a not-so-unimportant variable that we don’t usually care too much about. While the difference isn’t monumental, it may be worth keeping this in mind depending on when/where you’re making coffee, or your personal experience with caffeine.
A Note on Roast Level
Roast level will often affect your desired dose. The extractants in lighter roasted coffee are less soluble in water, and thus are harder to extract. In general, they will require a lower dose and a finer grind. For really light specialty coffee, I’ll go down to 16g, and for darker roasted coffee I go as high as 18g. If you have a larger portafilter, you can certainly try a 19g+ dose, but for me 18g is my limit.
Keep in mind that darker roasts are not only easier to extract, requiring higher starting doses, but are also less dense. This means 18g of a really dark roast will take up much more space in my basket than 18g of a light roast. Something to keep in mind, especially if you use a puck screen that’s 1.7mm thick.
Holy shit quit with the background and get into the practical stuff
The Practical Stuff
Starting point
Start off with a ratio you like and an appropriate dose. For me this morning, that was a ratio of ~1:2 with a dose of 17g.
Hopefully you know your grinder well enough to get a good ballpark off the bat. Awesome, time to pull a shot. Your goal is to get just under the extraction level you want, and then refine. Go over and I’d recommend just bumping back down.
Also, I feel compelled to make sure I mention this:
TASTE EVERY SINGLE SHOT YOU PULL
I can’t count the number of times I’ve had a friend start a shot, have it go over time, and either throw it out immediately or stop the brew entirely. Every single shot is information, even if that information is ”holy fuck that’s terrible”. Learning to taste espresso includes knowing what terrible espresso tastes like. You have to be able to tell when something is very over-extracted to know when something is slightly over-extracted. Give it a little stir (not just a swirl), and give ‘er a loud little sip.
How’s she taste?
Way too bitter :(
First off, make sure you aren’t confusing bitter and sour here, it’s easier than you think. Shot time can give you a clue here, did it run for a long time? Or was it short, and actually really acidic? If it’s the latter, you may be under-extracted, not over-extracted.
If you are overextracted, this is easy, bump your grind down and go again.
Way too sour
You guys know what they say. GRIND. FINER.
A little too bitter
Okay now we’re moving. It’s close, but not quite there. Try bumping your grind down just a touch.
A little too sour
If the taste is still a good distance off, then grind a little finer. If you’re just sorta too sour but still pleasant, you can try and make a fine adjustment to grind, but if you go back and forth, look below at changing something else.
It’s… close? But not quite there
Like I said earlier, when a shot tastes close to good, it can usually benefit from a little more extraction. If you think it’s just slightly overextracted, I would bump the grind size down a hair, rather than switch variables, but it’s frankly rare to get really close on the over-extracted side of things, and more often than not an over-extracted brew is well off from your target.
When I change something other than grind size, I usually just change it once. I won’t chain two adjustments of ratio or dose back-to-back, I’ll change one and either keep it or revert the change.
Now is the time for
dramatic pause
Personal taste.
How’s the texture? Do you love it? Would you hate to see it change? If not, maybe change the ratio. Push a little more water through, maybe increase it by 2 or so grams.
If you’ve already changed ratio or just don’t want to change the body of the shot at all, but you’re just so goddamn close, you can try and lower the dose instead. I would make a change of 0.5g, although after changing dose a few times, you’ll know when you need to go for the full gram.
If you change dose, it’s time for another choice, and it may be a weird one. Do you want to keep the ratio the same, or shoot for the same grams-out with the lower dose?
I know I know, changing two variables at once is frowned upon, but changing dose this way can give you a finer touch with your change.
Keeping the output mass the same (thus raising your ratio slightly) can give you a solid bump in extraction, while still staying light-fingered. It will be a weaker recipe, but may be all the better for it. I usually opt for this, since the higher ratio lets the flavors come out more balanced.
Keeping the ratio the same (and thus pushing less water out) will maintain the body of the espresso while very slightly raising the extraction. If keeping output mass the same was writing with a fine tip pen, this is using a 0.37 mechanical pencil. Despite only being a change in the one variable, I rarely go this route, as I personally prefer the balanced shot. If you’re after a razor-sharp, strong, bold shot of espresso though, this could be the way to go.
And that’s it.
Epilogue
What about temperature?
If you have a way to easily and consistently vary temperature, I would actually recommend adjusting that after ratio or dose. For many of you, however, changing temperature isn’t an option, which is why I didn’t go into detail on it earlier.
For those curious: increasing temperature will increase extraction while also increasing flow rate slightly. It’s a good way to edge out that last bit of sourness or harshness. These are espressos that are quite good, but have that last little bit of cleanup left to do to be truly great.
Your temps will be between 85–95 degrees Celsius (yes, I’m American, but we’re literally talking about water temperature here). Adjustments in temp should be at least a full degree, if not two. Many machines will let you change it by 0.5 degrees or even 0.1, but there’s frankly no way that a tenth of a degree Celsius is going to fix your problems. I almost always opt for a 2 degree change.
Summary of the Process
Here’s my summary for what I’ve laid out here:
- Get your puck prep in order first and foremost
- Learn what kind of espresso you like by going to a roaster or a reputable cafe
- Learn what bad espresso tastes like, including underextraction, overextraction, and channeled espresso
- Grind size should be your primary way of making adjustments
- Know your grinder, and be aware of retention so you aren’t chasing the extraction level you want
- STOP CARING ABOUT BREW TIME SO MUCH, it’s a nice way to track things, but taste is always your primary metric for making changes
- Because flavor drops off really fast when over-extracted, shoot to be slightly under-extracted and then nudge it up a bit
- Adjust ratio first, then dose if you have to. Make each change only once and either keep it or revert it.
- If you can adjust temp, do it last and change it by at least a degree Celsius
Closing Remarks
Hopefully that wasn’t an overwhelming amount of information. I’m sure everyone has heard the science and chemistry of extraction, but this was meant to be more of a practical guide on the exact levers of espresso dialing. It has worked great for me and for others as well. If you have any questions or want to correct a mistake I made, I’d love to chat. Best of luck with your espresso journey, and remember to try and buy local!
Also, here’s a shameless plug to my website, where I do not mention coffee at all (yet). Currently open for both full-time and freelance work!