Took me way too long to figure out why my shots were channeling

I spent like 6 months chasing perfect espresso and kept getting uneven extractions. Turned out my grinder was producing way too many fines, but only on certain beans. Finally fixed it by asking a roaster in Portland what their starting point was... took all of 5 minutes to adjust my grind setting after that chat. Anyone else get blindsided by bean-specific quirks like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_sam1mo ago

200 grams of coffee through a single batch is where I started noticing the problem. Had a bag of Ethiopian naturals that would choke my machine no matter what I did. Took a video of the grind and sent it to the roaster who told me those beans are just denser and need a coarser setting than most people think. Never would have guessed a single origin could change the grind requirement that much.

jasonf171mo ago

Actually I just watched a video from one of those coffee science guys talking about how bean density can vary even within the same region based on altitude and processing. They said Ethiopian beans are usually grown at way higher elevations so they're packed tighter, which means water struggles to get through them unless you open up the grind. Makes total sense once you hear it explained that way, but man, it's frustrating when you're just trying to brew and the machine starts choking. Did you try slowing down your pour rate too or just stick with the coarser setting?

alex_wilson791mo ago

Yeah bro, Ethiopian naturals are notorious for that. Had to dial way coarser myself.