bonjour fellow coffee botherers in this video we're going to be talking about dialing in espresso but specifically about recipe in my recent top 10 dialing in errors video and that will pop up here at the end of this video one of the errors I mentioned is not following a recipe and I said i' do a video on it so here we are as promised what is an espresso recipe if you ever bake would you bake without following a recipe how much of each ingredient would you use how long to prove how long to bake and so on come on it's not easy we've all seen Bake Off I'd be out in week one you might if you're an experienced Baker but if you're just learning you'll probably follow a recipe the same is true of espresso there are various variables interact with each other the core parts of the espresso recipe are ground size shop time dose weight and ratio these are what you'll often see people referring to as the recipe there are more though and when it comes to developing Barista skills I think it's helpful to be aware of all these variables and treat them as part of the recipe so we're making sure we're not accidentally changing any of these other parameters as we go along and so we understand what to do if adjusting these core variables don't quite work as we expect these additional parts of the recipe are dose volume Brew temperature pre-infusion Puck prep grind size or shot time the reason I'm saying grind size or shot time and not just one or the other is that in theory the two are one and the same I say in theory it doesn't always quite work out like this and I'm going to do another video purely aimed at simplifying this part of dialing in so subscribe and stuff to see that when it's done grind size is a key part of the recipe and it's where most of the initial tweaking is done when dialing in which is why I'm covering this first dose weight dose weight obviously just means the weight of the dose and the main reason it's important is because of its relationship to ratio if we don't weigh the dose each time we pull a shot then even if you're weighing the shot yield or measuring it with a shot measure not fixing the dose weight means the ratio is continually changing and we've got little chance of dialing in if this is the case ratio ratio is a relationship between dose weight and yield meaning shot weight so a 36 gram yield from an 18 gram dose means you've doubled the dose weight with the espresso so a one to two ratio this is a very important part of the recipe the bigger the yield from the same dose weight meaning a bigger ratio increases the extraction and reduces the intensity and texture so this means you can use yield to a certain extent to control the extraction and when I say to a certain extent this is because of the Dual impact changing the dose has both on strength and extraction for example you might find a 1 to2 ratio with the beans you're using produces a strong intense shock with a thick syrupy texture but it has sour notes that you're fairly sure shouldn't be there and that you're not enjoying increasing the ratio to 1 to 2.5 or 1:3 would help to increase the extraction reduce the sourness and balance the shot but you might find in doing so you've sacrificed some of the intensity and the body that you noticed in the earlier shot this is why it's important that you learn about all these variables and how they can be used because there are times when you tweak one variable over another a big mistake I see is people who completely Miss yield and ratio as a variable and they just use a pre-programmed button on their machine at the factory preset and they find diing in very frustrating as they missing out one key variable for example if the machine is preset to deliver 50 mil shots it could be that all they need to do in order to make a huge difference to the shot is to change the shot volume to 40 mil for a 1 to2 ratio so these are the three big parts of the recipe the key variables but there are more to be aware of starting with dose volume dose is usually referred to as just dose weight but I think it's important to understand that there are two sides to dose weight and volume we mainly want to focus on weight but it helps to be also mindful of volume dose volume means how much volume the ground coffee takes up in the basket and this determines the amount of head space the space between the shower screen and the Poke of coffee as you change the grind size the same dose weight will result in a different dose volume and a different head space a coarser grind will increase the dose volume and decrease the headp space and a finer grind has the opposite effect if you didn't know this changing the grind size can have an effect that appears to be counterintuitive if you don't appreciate that as you make the grind more course you're reducing the head space and as you make it more fine you're increasing it and this is why I always recommend that anyone using the sage or brav up machines uses the razor tool that comes with them at least while they're learning as this keeps that variable the same every time if you have the Barista Express impress or touch and press you don't need to worry about dose volume as a dose sensor deals with that the change in volume relating to grind size is fairly small it's not a huge thing the main thing though is just to make sure you're not overdosing the basket meaning that there's not enough head space this can lead to uneven water distribution from the shower screen and dry spots across a puck leading to an uneven extraction if you don't have a sage or brevel machine and can't use the razor tool you can try the coin test which is where you put any of the thinner coins a 50p piece for example or a nickel on top of the puck lock the pter filter in unlock it and look for an indentation on the Poke if there is one the dose volume is too high don't pull a shot with the coin in there by the way as there'll always be an indentation in the Poke if you do that as the grounds Swell this isn't to say by the way that a 2mm headp space is optimal 2 mil is usually considered the minimum but lots of people find they get better results with a bigger head space the sage Razer tool and the sage machines with automatic dosing are set up for about 7 mil of headspace there's no real negative to underdosing other than soggy pucks which aren't satisfying to knock out and needing to grind finer Brew temperature this is important whether or not your machine has adjustable Brew temperature if your machine does have adjustable Brew temperature then you can use this as a variable for example if you're diing in and you think you should be about there but no matter what you're doing it just tastes Tangy and you can't get away from that tanginess with the key recipe elements above just up in the Brew temperature slightly May fix that instantly or on the other side if no matter what you're doing it tastes a bit burnt a bit roasty you might find that just dropping the Brew temperature slightly might help this is most common when you switch beans for example if you're switching from a darker roast Bean to something more in the medium roast range and you don't change the Brew temperature then you might find that the Brew temperature is just a bit too hot vice versa if you're switching from a medium roast to a darker roast if you don't have adjustable Brew temperature it's still important from the perspective of doing whatever you can to ensure the Brew temperature is the same from shot to shot this can mean getting into a temperature surfing routine if you're using something like the Gaza classic or ranilo Silvia without a PID with a lot of machines it just means doing the same flush before each shot and or properly warming the machine before the first shot which is particularly important with the sage or bravel machines with the thermog heaters as a heater is ready in seconds but the rest of the machine including the group will be Stone Cold a bonus tip for achieving this with the sage or bravel machines is to do the flushing using the Dual walled pressurized baskets and then swap back to your standard basket as the temperature will increase slightly due to the pressure in the basket pre-infusion pre-infusion comes from commercial espresso machines being plumbed in it's possible for manufacturers to include a pre-infusion so the water is introduced more gently into the puck of coffee at Main's pressure before the pump is engaged some home espresso machines have a form of pre-infusion all Sage or brevel machines very cleverly control the pump power so the water is initially introduced into the basket under lower pressure before the pressure ramps up if your machine has adjustable pre-infusion then the pre-infusion time is another variable so it's just something to be aware of also in case you're wondering the pre-infusion time is included in the total shot time so we' start the timer when pressing the button even if the machine has pre-infusion last but not least Puck prep by puck prep we're talking about producing a well-prepared poke of coffee to achieve the most even extraction possible pu prep starts with distribution and by that I mean we want the grounds to be nicely distributed in the basket to enable an even extraction we want to try to avoid channeling which is where the water finds lesser Paths of resistance through the puck leading to uneven extraction many probas will just tap the porter filter to distribute some people use a dose collar and give it a shake there's been a huge adoption of wdt in recent years but I think it's important to point out that wdt is just a distribution method personally I think it's the most effective distribution method for clumpy grounds so if your grinder produces clumps wdt is usually the best way to produce a nice fluffy PK but if you have a higher end grinder that produces lovely fluffy grounds without clumps you may well find that just giving the pter filter a shake or a tap is sufficient a quick note about this I've had a few comments suggesting that wdt is pointless in this instant because any clumps are crushed out during tamping this isn't quite the case from what I can tell there's a tendency for clumps to compress separately from the rest of the Poke meaning there's very small gaps between the clumps and the rest of the Poke if we were tamping hydraulically or something and putting very high pressure on the PO then maybe this will be true in the entire P would be completely even but I don't think it's practical to expect that from tamping by hand so in my opinion breaking up clumps is good practice and wdt is the most effective way to do that the next part of PK prep is the Tamp and the most important thing here is to ensure a level surface and consistency T Pressure is only important when it comes to keeping it consistent when you hear people saying You must exert a very specific temp pressure that's not quite right Baristas are trained to Tamp at specific pressure so that all Baristas in that c coffee shop are doing the same because Tamp pressure is one of the variables if change can knock everything else out so if some BRS Tamp at 20 kilos and some Tamp at 10 with all the other variables the same this will lead to inconsistencies between the shots these two bars are creating when it comes to home barers just get into a routine of tamping at a pressure that's easy to reproduce and if you like get yourself a calibrated tamper another important part of Pok prep is anything you put on top or underneath the Poke I had an email from someone the other day who was really struggling to dial in and one of the things they mentioned was they were Sometimes using a Pok screen using or not using a Pok screen is quite a big variable if you're dialing in without a pu screen and then you throw a pu screen on top you'll have to start dialing in again pretty much from scratch I will do another video on Pok screens but for now just bear in mind that you can't just do something like drop a puck screen in on top of the puck when you're dialing in not expect to basically have to start from scratch anyway a tail for another time so there we go all important parts of the just to recap it's dose weight ratio and grind size or shot time that are the most important but the reason I think everyone should be aware of all the others is so we can ensure that we're only changing one variable at a time when we're dialing in and so we know that there are other tools in our toolbox if we find we can't quite get dialed in with the main variables one of R Do's teachers wrote in his school report card I've never met anybody who so persistently writes words meaning the exact opposite of what is intended which has something to do with clicking the like button so don't click the like button thank you very much for watching and if you think people who don't like coffee are twits and you enjoyed this video we've got tons of content about how to make better coffee at home to take you from beginner to home barisa we've got reviews and howtos on the most popular machines if you like the sound of that click on my face to subscribe Tatty [Music] bye so there we go all of the important parts of the expressive all of the important parts of the expressive so so there we go all the I can't do it I can't do it hello fellow etno bonjour fellow coffee b as [Music] promised you totally hit the microphone