HOW TO FIX SOUR ESPRESSO: 4 Easy Tips
Summary
TLDRIn this informative video, the host addresses the common issue of sour espresso and debunks misconceptions about its causes. They explain the three phases of coffee extraction—sour, sweet, and bitter—and how to achieve a balanced taste. The host offers practical tips for adjusting grind size, extraction time, and yield to fix sour espresso, emphasizing that there's no one-size-fits-all solution. They also remind viewers that preparation techniques and even hair products can impact one's coffee experience, adding a touch of humor to the informative content.
Takeaways
- 😕 Sourness in espresso can be a result of under-extraction, not necessarily the coffee beans themselves.
- 🔍 Three main phases of flavor perception in coffee extraction are sour, sweet, and bitter.
- 👨🍳 The quality of espresso depends on the balance between these flavors, often referred to as 'The Fun Zone'.
- 🚫 Over-extraction can lead to a bitter and watery taste, which is different from the bitterness of under-extraction.
- 🌡 The grind size and extraction time are crucial variables that affect the taste of espresso.
- ⏱️ If the extraction time is too short, the coffee may taste sour due to under-extraction.
- 🔄 Coarsening the grind and allowing more time for extraction can help achieve a balanced flavor.
- 🔎 Overly fine grounds can lead to uneven water flow and over-extraction in certain channels.
- 🛠️ Consistent preparation, such as distributing coffee grounds evenly, is essential for even extraction.
- 👍 The video suggests that there's no catch-all fix for sour espresso, but adjusting grind size, extraction time, and yield can help.
- 💇♂️ The video creator humorously notes that despite the focus on coffee, viewers might be more impressed by his well-styled hair.
Q & A
Why might an espresso taste sour?
-An espresso might taste sour due to under-extraction, where the coffee's sour compounds are more pronounced because the extraction process was stopped too early.
What are the three main phases of flavor perception during coffee extraction?
-The three main phases of flavor perception during coffee extraction are sour, sweet, and bitter.
What is the 'good zone' or 'fun zone' in coffee extraction?
-The 'good zone' or 'fun zone' in coffee extraction refers to the sweet spot where the coffee has a balanced flavor profile, neither too sour nor too bitter.
Why might people blame their espresso machine or grinder for a sour espresso?
-People might blame their espresso machine or grinder for a sour espresso because they believe these tools are not extracting the coffee properly, but the issue could also be related to the coffee's roast, grind size, or extraction time.
What is the difference between under-extraction and over-extraction bitterness?
-Under-extraction bitterness is often due to a heavy concentration of fines or particulates, which can make the coffee taste overly bitter and possibly sour. Over-extraction bitterness is characterized by a drying feeling on the tongue and a watery shot, which happens when too much water passes through the coffee grounds.
What is meant by 'modeling' or 'tiger striping' in espresso extraction?
-'Modeling' or 'tiger striping' refers to the appearance of black specks or stripes in the espresso, which are fines or small coffee particulates that have made it through the basket, often due to under-extraction.
How can adjusting the grind size help with sour espresso?
-Adjusting the grind size can help with sour espresso by either making the grounds finer to slow down the extraction and allow more time for flavors to develop (if the extraction is too fast), or coarser to speed up the extraction and prevent under-extraction (if the shot is too long and sour).
What is the recommended approach if the espresso extraction time is too short?
-If the espresso extraction time is too short, the recommended approach is to tighten up the grind size to slow down the extraction and allow more contact time for a more balanced flavor.
What should one do if the espresso extraction takes too long but the yield is still low?
-If the espresso extraction takes too long for the yield, one should coarsen the grind size to allow for a more even flow of water through the coffee puck, resulting in a less sour and more balanced extraction.
Why should one not blame the coffee roaster for a sour espresso?
-One should not blame the coffee roaster for a sour espresso because the sourness is likely due to the extraction process rather than the coffee itself. The coffee can be acidic, which is a characteristic of the bean, but sourness is an extraction issue.
What is the importance of coffee preparation in achieving a balanced espresso?
-Proper coffee preparation is crucial for a balanced espresso as it ensures a consistent and even extraction. This includes homogenizing the coffee grounds and ensuring even tamping to prevent uneven flow of water through the puck.
What is the role of tamp strength in espresso extraction?
-While tamp strength is important for ensuring an even pressure on the coffee grounds, over-tamping to the point of fully compressing the grounds will not affect the flow speed or extraction rate. The focus should be on grind size, extraction time, and yield ratio.
Outlines
😖 Sour Espresso Dilemma
The speaker begins by expressing dissatisfaction with a sour espresso and introduces the video's aim to address this issue. They encourage viewers to subscribe and interact with the content, reminding them to hit the like button and comment. The main topic is the sourness in homemade espresso, which is often mistakenly attributed to the coffee beans or equipment. The video promises to explore basic methods to correct this, focusing on the extraction process and its impact on flavor, distinguishing between under-extracted (sour and possibly bitter) and over-extracted (bitter and drying) espresso.
🔍 Understanding Espresso Extraction
This paragraph delves into the science of espresso extraction, explaining the three phases of flavor perception: sour, sweet, and bitter. The speaker uses personal experience to illustrate how stopping the shot short can result in a sour taste, while allowing it to continue can lead to a sweeter or more bitter outcome. They clarify the difference between under-extracted bitterness, caused by fine coffee particles, and over-extracted bitterness, which feels drying on the tongue. The goal is to find the 'sweet spot' in extraction for a balanced espresso, and the speaker emphasizes that the perceived bitterness can vary based on the size of the espresso shot and the presence of coffee fines in the final cup.
🛠️ Adjusting Extraction for Better Espresso
The speaker provides practical advice on how to fix a sour espresso, explaining that there is no one-size-fits-all solution due to the complexity of espresso making. They discuss two common scenarios: a short shot with quick extraction, which suggests the coffee grounds were too coarse, and a long extraction time with a low yield, indicating the grounds were too fine, leading to uneven water flow. The recommended solutions include adjusting the grind size to allow more contact time for the former, and coarsening the grounds and shortening the extraction time for the latter. The speaker also touches on the importance of not blaming the coffee beans for sourness, but rather the extraction process.
📝 Final Tips and Debunking Common Misconceptions
In the final paragraph, the speaker summarizes the main points, emphasizing that there is no inherently sour coffee, only sour extractions. They reiterate the importance of adjusting grind size, extraction time, and yield to achieve a balanced espresso. Additionally, they debunk the myth that tamping harder can affect the flow rate, stating that the key variables to focus on are grind size, time, and ratio. The speaker also humorously suggests linking hair product recommendations, as they have improved their curls, and invites viewers to engage with the video by subscribing, commenting, and considering Patreon support.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Sour Espresso
💡Extraction
💡Grind Size
💡Over Extraction
💡Under Extraction
💡Yield
💡Portafilter
💡Channels
💡Tamping
💡Contact Time
Highlights
The video discusses common issues with sour espresso and aims to provide solutions.
Sour espresso is often blamed on light roast coffees, espresso machines, or grinders, but the issue can be multifaceted.
Coffee extraction has three main phases: sour, sweet, and bitter.
Under-extraction can lead to a bitter and sour taste due to the presence of fines or particulates.
Over-extraction results in a watery and drying taste on the tongue.
The distinction between under and over-extraction bitterness is important for understanding espresso flavor.
Adjusting grind size and extraction time can help achieve a balanced espresso flavor.
A short extraction time with a small yield indicates the grounds were too coarse.
If extraction takes too long for the yield, coarsening the grind can improve evenness of water flow.
A very long extraction with little yield suggests uneven water flow through the puck.
The presenter debunks the myth that tamping harder affects the flow speed.
Grind size, extraction time, and ratio are the key variables to adjust for better espresso.
Temperature adjustments on the machine should be minimal and gradual.
Preparation techniques such as shaking the grounds can lead to more even extraction.
The video emphasizes that there's no such thing as a sour coffee, only sour extractions.
The presenter humorously suggests linking hair product recommendations in the video description.
The video concludes with a reminder to experiment with extraction to find the perfect taste.
Transcripts
what the heck this espresso is so sour
sour now have you ever reacted thusly to
an espresso you pulled at home well if
you have this video is for you
[Music]
thank you
foreign
[Music]
number four we hop into today's video
I'm going to ask that you would hit the
Subscribe if you enjoy my content
obviously if you don't no worries there
hit the like button because I know a lot
of you will not because you don't really
think about it which I'm just reminding
you right now I have a lot of people say
oh I always forget thanks for reminding
me so I'm just you know just playing the
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know hit the dislike it's you know it's
up to you leave a comment whatever it is
um check out the caption below because
I've got resources there but anyway
let's go and hop into the video
now I don't know about you but I for one
do not like sour espressos that make me
pucker up like I'm eating a warhead when
I'm 12 years old at a high school
basketball game that's not what I want
all right instead I want to fully
balance my sweet delicious velvety
smooth
yummy shot of espresso all right now but
one of the biggest culprits that I've
noticed and one of the biggest things I
see on forums and in my comment sections
and everywhere else is Lance how do I
make my coffee not sour oftentimes I see
people blaming lightly roasted coffees
for being sour I see people blaming
their espresso machine or their grinder
and the truth of the matter is it can be
a little bit of each but today we're
going to talk about some of the most
basic ways to turn your sour espresso
into not sour espresso so buckle up
because we're gonna take a little drive
so what is it that is causing sour
espresso well I'm gonna break it down
for you very simply just like so when
coffee is extracting there are three
main phases of flavor perception that
occur now this is this is very much
roughly drawn out but it's been helpful
for me in my 10 years of professional
coffee and however long I've been just
drinking coffee regularly and that is
coffee extracts sour sweet
bitter meaning that early on in the
extraction those compounds that taste
sour are going to be heightened if you
stop your shot short if you keep pushing
it then you can have a sweeter shot this
is kind of the the good Zone The Fun
Zone and if you keep pushing your shot
you get into this bitterness this
dryness now it's very important to
understand that there's a distinction
between the bitterness that can occur
from under extraction and the bitterness
that can occur from over extraction now
when we're bitter and under extracted
this can mean that there's a heavy
concentration of fines or particulates
now what I mean by that is whenever you
grind up your coffee you're grinding it
so fine and powdery that what's
happening is you're breaking down some
of the cell cell walls their cell wall
fragments throughout your bed of coffee
and they're a small particulates that
can wiggle their way through your basket
so after you Tamp the coffee you're
really pushing down on that bed of
coffee so that when the water column
starts to push through bits of that
coffee can get through into your final
cup and you see this oftentimes as
what's called modeling or tiger strip
driving that's like the black specks or
stripes in your espresso those are so
all fragments or fines or bits of coffee
and that can be really bitter now the
smaller your shot of espresso is say
maybe on the more restretto side the
more prominent the percentages of those
cell wall fragments or bitters or fines
whatever you want to call it so you can
have a really bitter shot that's
horribly under extracted it'd be better
maybe some Sour in it but the bitters
can overwhelm the sourness sometimes so
just know if you have a shot that's 20
grams of coffee in your portafilter you
pull out 30 grams and you're like wow
this is super bitter it must be over
extracted because Lance said sour sweet
better just know likely what's going on
in that situation is you have a high
concentration of those those fines those
particulates that are getting through
and just completely covering your tongue
now on the the over extracted bitter
side what you have there is more so a
drying feeling on the tongue you have a
more watery shot because there's an
inverse relationship between coffee and
water as the extraction continues early
on you see those big viscous drops of
dark brown sludge coming out of the
portafilter you look at it like oh it's
like chocolate rain just dropping down
Chocolate Rain Tay Zenday one of the
first ever YouTubers
um so what you have there is these big
old bits of Chocolate Rain kind of
coming down looks so beautiful full and
then you know the stream kind of Narrows
into one and then it starts turning
colors into a lighter brown and then to
like a yellow blonde yellow look right
well at the beginning it's because
there's a higher concentration of
solubles and insolubles that are making
it their way through the basket and then
as it keeps going it's a higher
concentration of water going through so
you literally have a relationship like
this okay where at first you have a lot
of coffee a little bit of water making
it through and then they inverse over
time okay
so as you keep going you have an
overextracted quote-unquote shot what's
really going on is you have uh you're
kind of washing a lot of those channels
washing them through and you're getting
a lot of particulates but it's drying
out your tongue all right so it's having
a similar effect like tannins do in wine
all right so if you have a physically
drying aspect of your of your espresso
or if it's like bitter and watery you're
likely gone you've likely gone too far
you need to reel it back and if it's
sour or if it's pungent or if it has a
ton of that modeling and that overwhelms
your espresso you're probably on the
underside So today we're going to fix
that sour Underside so there are a few
different ways normally people kind of
give a catch-all like this is going to
fix it there's no such thing as a
catch-all on espresso because it is
annoying so normally what you have is
just a short shot you have 20 seconds
and you have two ounces that came out
but it came out really quickly what that
means is your ground is that your
grounds were too coarse and so in 20
seconds even though you had the proper
yield it may not have had enough time to
fully extract those rounds and so you're
getting more on that Underside it may
not be that thick but it will be a
little bit sour and so in that situation
you might want to find it up allow more
contact time with the same yield so
you've changed two variables of
extraction you've gone a little finer
and you've allowed more time with the
same yield and that's going to help you
improve your extraction on the flip side
you could have 20 grams of coffee in 30
grams out and it could take 50 seconds
and you're going how the heck is this
under extracted there's no way it's 50
seconds long it's got to be over
extracted well I've got news for you if
that is happening if you have 20 grams
in your basket and you have 30 grams
coming out so a one to one and a half
ratio and it takes you 50 seconds the
likelihood is water is not evenly going
through your Puck otherwise it'd come
out a lot faster what's really going on
there is water is only going through
certain channels because you have your
grounds so fine it's difficult to get
through so whereas someone might say
well you need to go finer because it's
sour and we need to extract more so we
need to open up the surface area of the
grounds that would not be the answer
here you would want to coarsen your
grounds up shorten your time and what
that's going to allow is a more even
flow of water through so that you're not
just hitting channels what's happening
in that 20 and 30 out in 50 seconds is
you're under extracting the majority of
the puck and just over extracting little
bits and areas so overall your cup is
sour because the majority of your cup is
under extracted coffee
so what you would do coursing it up
allow shorter time the water will flow
through more evenly and you'll get a
more even extraction equaling better
tasting coffee so the two big fixes here
are if you have a short time ready
you're short that means you pull out
your amount and it's like 20 seconds 18
seconds 16 seconds and for you that is
sour all you do is tighten up the
tighten up the the grind size a bit and
allow it a little bit more contact time
as well as a little bit extra surface
area that's going to extract more
hopefully put you in that sweet zone so
we're taking it from under
to sweet now also if you have a really
long shot but it's not giving you much
weight 20 and 30 out in 50 seconds
coarsen it a bit I know it sounds
counterintuitive but we're going to
coarsen it we're going to allow more
even flow through it because that's
something we often don't think about we
think in terms of okay
I have this coffee it's ground to a
certain grind size I need to extract
more therefore I will make it finer
because the open surface area but that's
not taken into account the flow of water
water needs to flow as evenly as
possible through the pucks that takes
into account preparation that takes into
account the fineness of the grounds
because at some some at a certain extent
water just cannot get through how
tightly packed those grounds are so we
need to take those two things into
account so if you're sitting there
drinking coffee and those are two of the
problems you're experiencing take that
advice otherwise some of the easiest
fixes are just run your shot longer
let's say I have 20 grams in and I'm
doing 40 grams out and it's in 30
seconds right and you're tasting it's
like wow this is sour now that's not a
weird time frame for a 40 gram shot
perhaps with that specific coffee it
just needs a more bigger yield perhaps
with fat coffee it needs a little bit
more contact time so don't change
anything pull another shot and let it go
longer maybe five grams more maybe eight
grams more maybe 10 grams more all right
there's no such thing as a sour coffee
only sour extractions that's important
to know put that on a shirt tattoo it on
your arm whatever you got to do don't
blame a roaster for a sour coffee that's
not really the case you can have an
acidic coffee but if it's sour that's
from the extraction the coffee can be
really acidic and that might be up your
alley but it's not necessarily sour sour
kind of gives off this idea of a
puckering sensation or something like oh
it's like biting into a lemon or
something which by the way my kid
absolutely loves and it grosses me out
he walks around with it and when I say
my camera my one-year-old will sit
around with a lemon slice in his mouth
and I'm like anyway
um so what I'm saying is if it's sour
and you're at a place don't it's
probably not the coffee that's not
necessarily the bean that kind of has a
different connotation so sour would be
more so extraction and acidic could be
the bean anyway if you have something
that's tasting sour you must push the
extraction so keep these tips in your
head just to for a final summary one
coarse in the grind if it is taking way
too long for a little bit of yield all
right so if it's 20 and 30 out in 50
seconds coarsen your grind all right
that's going to help you lessen the the
sourness because it's going to give you
more even extraction the next would be
to find your grind if you have a two too
fast of an extraction or you're getting
too much yield in too quick of a Time
fine it up slow down the extraction and
allow it that same yield and then the
last thing is just to take into account
that at whatever place you're at you
could push your extraction more so the
third the third tip is kind of a more
broad tip which is if you are pulling 20
and 40 out in 30 seconds and it's sour
push a little bit more all right and
then I guess we'll add a fourth one just
work on your prep generally if you are
just grinding straight into your
portafilter tamping and going you're
going to have really uneven extraction
throughout your Puck you need to work on
maybe taking like shaking your grounds
or doing something to homogenize them a
little bit better maybe wdt which I have
videos on I'll link one right there
because why not but work on your
preparation make sure that it is
consistent now I am for the final thing
of this video I'm going to debunk
something that you're not gonna affect
the the speed of your flow with a harder
Tamp if you're tamping to where those
grounds are fully compressed you can't
Tamp any harder you can mutate and make
it more compact but we're not going to
get into that that's a little bit too
much so instead don't worry about your
Tamp the variables you need to worry
about or grind size time ratio those are
the three biggies you can obviously mess
with your temperature on your machine
but only really change at minimum one
degree you're not going to really tell a
difference less than that anyway I hope
that these tips one through four with
that little bonus for one I hope that
these tips help you brew sweeter coffee
sweeter espressos and because you can
also apply these to filter coffee for
the most part so if uh you know if
you're liking it you know just through
another reminder hit the Subscribe
button check out my patreon but anyway I
the one last thing I was gonna say you
know just one thing is I know you're
sitting there I know I know you're
sitting there and you're looking at me
and you're going oh my goodness his
curls are on fleek today and if you're
thinking that well thank you for
noticing because I did switch I actually
bought product
um and it's uh it's it's a curly girl
product and I know it's it's
it's looking pretty good
um so the question is and comment below
if if I should should I link my products
below the way James Hoffman links his
hair products because I mean
I know you're all looking at it like wow
that's like ziti pasta that stuff is
looking good so if that's the case let
me know below otherwise
you know
it is what it is so I'm gonna sign off
I'm going to take a little sip of the
throat
it's still sour I didn't switch the
coffee during that time yikers
um anyway I hope that you brew something
tasty I'm about to brew something else
that's actually tasty and cheers
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