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Single shot advice
I am a relative novice with the L1 and am interested trying single shots so would appreciate advice on which baskets to consider and perhaps some bean/recipe options I can try. I have experimented with quite a few different beans and extraction methods before arriving at espresso and prefer light-medium roasts with chocolate/nut flavours over anything fruity.
I currently have a Mythos grinder and have been using an 18g and more recently a 15g basket but after a wee trip to Accident Emergency following quite a serious coffee OD I'm inclined to drink smaller cups and more of them...
I currently have a Mythos grinder and have been using an 18g and more recently a 15g basket but after a wee trip to Accident Emergency following quite a serious coffee OD I'm inclined to drink smaller cups and more of them...
Comments
- IMS "The Single". This is a relatively new basket and is the most convenient since you can continue to use your existing 58+mm tamper.
- VST or LM Strada 7g basket. This is a more "true" single basket for which you will need a separate 41mm tamper.
I have used both and my personal opinion is that the IMS requires a shorter "ristretto" type shot (e.g. 10g -> 10g) whereas the VST/LM does a better job at producing a more standard shot (e.g. 7g -> 14g).
My preference is for the VST/LM though finding a good tamper is tricky. I have a 41mm tamper from Torr but it is not a good fit, if anyone knows of a better one I would be interested to hear it.
do type 'IMS' and 'VST' and perhaps 'baskets' into the search box in the top right and your should get some positive matches come back as we have chewed this over in some detail in the past
a tapered basket, like the one we supply our machines with, is more forgiving but doesnt yield the last word in taste
lighter roasts are more resistant to giving up their solubles so one approach that is currently in favour is to push more water through the coffee in order to fish more soluble material out of the bean and into your cup. with a lever machine you have a fixed amount of water to work with, so you can address it by reducing the dose and grinding finer to compensate
i could be wrong, but i think most of the chocolate-nut flavours will come from appropriate beans that have been medium roasted, as opposed to light roasted. the fruit, by which i take to mean citrus (but you could mean berry fruit too) is typical of high grown central american coffees and the higher the coffee is grown the lighter you would roast it, as a rule. you say you don't like them, but one way to approach them is to deal with them as described above, where you in effect lower the brew ration to achieve a more complete extraction
if you move to single origin beans you can almost certainly remove the robusta from your coffee, and this will bring the caffeine down. espresso also has less caffeine than filter coffee, assuming you used the same beans for both methods
kind regards
reiss.
I have a matching 41.2mm funnel and 41mm tamper that works well. (The 41mm tamper has a flat 58mm tamper on the reverse side, which is useful for 58mm VST baskets.)
Here's a tedious YouTube video where you can see the items in action, although employing a slightly different procedure than mine.
Matt
I think singles might suit me so just playing with the basket I have to get an idea to delay/avoid comitting to another purchase. What I'm after is just a reasonably balanced shot I can drink either as espresso or in a flat white so can someone give me ball park figures to help please.... perhaps its worth using a smaller dose and improvising a tamper(?)
your L1 should have been supplied with a 'double' basket
i checked your order and you haven't ordered a single PF (which would come with a single basket)
so... can you please post an image of your basket so i can check you have the right one
if it is the stock double we ship then i like to use it with a dose not exceeding 15.8g
if it isn't the double, then i need to send you the correct basket
reiss.
Attached files
you'll need to export your image file out of OSX Photos or whatever image editor you are using and reduce it
i use the following parameters;
JPEG, medium quality (compression), and the longest side shorter than i think 2000 pixels?, perhaps even more than that now - i know kelsey raised it. but longest side limited to 1000 pixels is any amount anyway
i like the IMS 'The Single', if for no other reason than you can use the same tamper on it, which to me is a fairly significant advantage
I hope you can see these.... in any case I agree, i think its just a better idea to get an instantly use-able basket as suggested and if I want to go further down that road at a later date I can. Would you suggest a 7g size?
Attached files
My personal parameters for singles (whether espresso or 5oz flat whites) are: 7g in the basket; 17g to 20+ grams out in approx. 30 seconds, depending on bean, roast, my mood ... .
Matt
all you needed to do was click the 'insert' button to finish the job off. other than that, perfect!
if you are asking which size of IMS The Single basket to buy, again we go through that in the IMS thread
but the answer is the biggest one, which i think is rated as 12g and sold as the 'La Marzocco' version
this ensures you have plenty of head space between the top of the coffee puck and the shower screen
with singles i think you have to take a more care not to 'wash out' the puck as you pull the lever down, so when you get to the point of bringing the lever down where the piston is sufficiently raised to let the water rush into the brew chamber slow down to try and throttle that rate at which this initial surge of water rushes in
some people have said they don't like the IMS 35um screen and much prefer the 200um, but i purchased a 35um screen to try and haven't had a problem with it - the finer the better i think. a finer screen acts like a breakwater to arrest the surge of water into the brew chamber, which i think is helpful. secondly, it better prevents coffee fines being drawn in the opposite direction, up through the shower screen
reiss.
Preparation; I distributed with a needle before tamping to try and get a nice even pour but found it quite tricky to get a smooth polished finish. Perhaps these pics. help tell the story....
I guess the only person who can answer is you - try a shorter shot and let us know what it tastes like.
Are you using light or dark roast coffee? I suspect a ristretto shot will not be palatable if it is light roast
stick with your 10g dose for 10g brew weight recipe, but slow it down so it takes 25-30s
let us know
what coffee are you using?
Update; I coarsened the grind and managed 10g > 15.8g and it looked 'sensible' but tastewise there is sweetness but also sourness too.... I'm using El Salvador Finca Argentina Estate Washed Bourbon from Has Bean.
Might be worth extracting some sensible double shots to see how your current grind setting compares to that. It might also give you a better reference for what taste you should be looking for
A good plan is to have the same basket (manufacturer and style) in both a standard double and as a single. Then you should be able to dial your grinder in using the double basket, cut the dose to fit the single, and all should be well. You may have to make minor adjustments, but it shouldn't be much.
Thanks
I have also just finished the last of that bean and will be trying something different as from tomorrow (Colombia from Foundry roasters) so we'll see what is possible with than....
A new bean may of course reveal new possibilities so will be interesting to see if it reacts in the same way. I'm a big fan of Foundry so I'm sure you'll like the beans!
I've gone back this morning and pulled a few shots with The Single
in doing so I've remembered why The Single was created
the idea is that you can use the same tamper, as you know, but also so you can use the same grind setting
so get yourself setup pulling nice shots with whatever your favourite double basket is, the drop in The Single and off you go
drop the dose until you get the flow rate you want - in my case i dropped it to 9g to avoid having to change the setting on the grinder, and i didn't need to tamp hard either
and then after say 15s you will have 10g of espresso and you can just pull the cup from the stream
does that help?
its a basket worth investing some time with; I'm a fanatic for the reasons cited above
video to follow
reiss.