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L1 Extraction help - Medium/Dark roast
Hi all,
I've recently acquired a new-to-me L1, and i am loving it so far. I love the extra involvement in making espresso, coming from a DB PID machine, where it was just a click of a button.
That said - I'm trying to get my extraction right on the L1, and i'm having a hard time finding some "beginners tips" for this fantastic machine.
1: For medium/dark roasts, how long would you have the lever down before you should see first drip?
From what i can read in one of the permanent files on the forum, 7 seconds should be somewhat in the right range. But if i grind course enough to accomodate that, coffee will fly everywhere once i pull the lever up. Where as if i grind like i would with my previous DB, i would never see first drip, but the end result would be pretty good (to me).
I get that "go by taste" is the way to go, but i would appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction (be it a forum post, video or w/e).
2: I am kinda shooting for a 1:2 recipe with 18g in 36g out in 30 secs - but it pretty much always stops around 30g. How would i go about increasing the water volume in the shot? or am i going about this the wrong way :-)
Grinder is Eureka Mignon Specialita.
I'm using the IMS basket and shower screen
Best regards,
Niels
Comments
hi niels
thank you for your post
if you have a method that produces espresso that you like stick with it
i take it you have an L1(2012-16), so you are pre-infusing at boiler pressure
in this situation you need to tamp lightly as a firm tamp will prevent the water from ever making its way through the puck when the preinfusion pressure is equal to the boiler pressure, say 1.3 bar on your machine
for a dark roast i would say the first drip in 2-3 seconds and a medium roast 7-10 seconds, so perhaps 5 seconds for a medium-dark roast
the shot volume produced from the group is a function of the pre-infusion pressure. there is an air space below the piston and above the brew water. when the preinfusion pressure is equal to the boiler pressure this air space has a certain volume. When the preinfusion pressure is set to pressures greater than boiler pressure the volume of this air space is reduced by the upward force exerted upon it by the brew water at the higher pressure (models with a cold fed heat exchanger) for a brew weight of up to 60-65g
so if you want to achieve a 1:2 brew ratio with the L1(2012-16) you could drop down to a 15g dose and a 30g of brew water, or you could try making a double pull/Fellini move to increase the volume of the brew water to get you up to 36g brew weight
kind regards
reiss.
Hi Reiss,
Thank you for taking your time answering here!
From what i can understand above, i have a couple of things to try:
Regarding the part about shot volume - if i understand you correctly, shot volume should be the same if preinfusion and boilerpressure is the same. So instead of trying to increase that, i should go for a lower dosage to match whatever recipe i'm aiming for?
Thanks again,
Niels
if you want to dose 15g you would be better off with the stock basket, or another basket designed for a dose of around 15g, eg the 15g VST and IMS will also make baskets for that dose
yes, if you want to avoid the double pull, which is probably wise as it tends to disturb the puck, then reduce the dose
definitely tamp light when preinfusion pressure equals boiler pressure
kind regards
reiss