Over on home-barista.com, I posted the results of a little experiment on brewing temperatures and brewing ratios. The article attempts to correlate observations that I previously made here and here.
The HB post has pics and graphs and all that stuff, but perhaps the executive summary is something like this:
Even if your espresso machine delivers perfectly consistent brew water temperatures, the average temperature at which your espresso extracts is much lower for a ristretto than for a "normale." Baristas should take this into account when dialing in coffees to taste.
This may have been obvious, but I'd never seen it mentioned until Scott Rao pointed it out in The Professional Barista's Handbook (which, by the way, Scott recommends that you buy :-)
OK, I recommend that you buy it, too!
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Not so fast, Mr. Schecter.
ReplyDeleteThe key word here is "average." If you're talking about brewing temperatures in espresso, then you have to look at it 3-dimensionally.
I just think that you're sorta oversimplifying things here. That said, are you just making an observation, or are you trying to prove some sort of point?
Are you blind? Sometimes you can fool people into thinking so. ;-)
> The key word here is "average."
ReplyDelete> If you're talking about brewing
> temperatures in espresso, then
> you have to look at it 3-dimensionally.
If you really wanted to do it right, you'd have to look at it 4-dimensionally (three dimensional puck over time). I'd love to see someone do that convincingly, but it ain't gonna be me.
> I just think that you're sorta
> oversimplifying things here.
Guilty as charged.
> That said, are you just making an
> observation, or are you trying to
> prove some sort of point?
Don't really get your distinction. I'm trying to do both, I guess. Although oversimplified, I do believe the point about brew temperature varying with brew ratio is a valid one.
> Are you blind? Sometimes you can
> fool people into thinking so. ;-)
I haven't met anyone in coffee who wasn't blind as a bat. The fun is in struggling to see in little glimpses, no?
Nice job Andy, another interesting view into the science of this.
ReplyDeleteJohn
what do you mean by this: "Baristas should take this into account when dialing in coffees to taste."
ReplyDeleteHonestly curious...I feel like I'm missing something.
If you're dialing to taste, then you're dialing to taste. If you pull a shot that's short as shit and it's amazing at (insert temp/temp swing)...why does it matter if it would extract at a higher average temperature if you pulled the shot longer? Why do I need to take this into account when dialing to taste?
Good point, Chris. I should have said something like, "Baristas may find this helpful when dialing in coffees."
ReplyDeletesweet, thanks Andy. I thought I may have been overlooking sumpin'.
ReplyDeleteEvening Andy, Dave (cannonfodder). I have been meaning to post this on your thread at HB but have not had a chance. Back when uber flat brew temperatures were the obsession of the season I had made a couple of observations and posts on HB, long since buried and forgotten. My thought, your brew temperature is only as stable as the temperature in the puck during the extraction. The weakest link theory. If you have a 6 degree delta between the top and bottom of puck, why do you need. 0.2 degree stability in the brew water? The variance in temperature in the puck is greater than that of the water being dispensed which would nullify the super flat brew temperature the machine dispenses.
ReplyDeleteThis was back when PID’s were the rage and I was thinking of putting a PID on everything under the sun. I came to the conclusion (right or wrong) that having a brew temperature delta of one degree or less from my stock heat exchanger machine was just fine. The added resolution would serve no purpose. In my mind, adding a PID was beneficial for the repeatability of the shot and not necessarily needed for the super flat brew temperature provided the machine in use did not suffer from 4 degree swings in temperature during the shot.
Hi Dave:
ReplyDeleteI guess the jury is still out on temperature profile (flat, humped, etc). But I think most people would agree that reproducibility of the profile is a very good thing.
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