How to Dial In Espresso Without Overcomplicating It

People can make dialing in espresso sound like black magic.

It really doesn't need to be.

There are a lot of variables you can change. Dose, grind, output, temperature, shot time, pre-infusion and probably ten other things somebody on a coffee forum will tell you to worry about.

The problem is that if you start changing all of them at once, you have no idea which change actually helped.

When I'm dialing in espresso at Bee & Brew, I try to keep it much simpler.

Start with a scale

If you're trying to dial in espresso at home and you don't have a scale, that's the first thing I would fix.

You need to know how much coffee you're putting into the basket and roughly how much espresso you're getting back out.

It doesn't need to be an expensive scale.

You just need something accurate to 0.1 grams.

Without that, you're mostly guessing.

Keep the dose consistent

Once I pick a dose of ground coffee for the basket I'm using, I leave it alone while I'm working on the grind.

If I pull one shot with 18 grams, the next with 19 and the next with 17.5, I've added another variable every time.

That makes it much harder to figure out what's happening.

Pick a dose that works for your basket and keep it there while you dial the coffee in.

Then adjust the grind

This is usually the first thing I'm changing.

If the espresso comes flying through the basket and you have your full shot before the coffee ever really had a chance to extract, grind finer.

If almost nothing is coming through and the machine is fighting to push water through the puck, go coarser.

Then pull another shot.

Don't make a huge grinder adjustment and change the dose and change the output all at the same time.

Change one thing and see what happened.

Weigh what comes out

A common starting point for espresso is somewhere around a 1:2 brew ratio.

That just means if you put 18 grams of coffee into the basket, you might start around 36 grams of espresso coming out.

That isn't a law.

It's a starting point.

Some coffees are going to taste better shorter. Some are going to want a little more output.

But having a repeatable starting point makes dialing in a lot easier.

Shot time is information, not the goal

This is one people get hung up on.

You'll hear that espresso is supposed to take a certain number of seconds.

Time is useful. I absolutely watch it.

But I'm not going to throw away a great tasting espresso because it finished a few seconds outside somebody's recommended range.

And I'm definitely not going to drink a bad shot just because the timer says I did everything right.

The timer tells me something about how the water moved through the coffee.

The espresso still has to taste good.

Taste the shot

This is the part that actually matters.

If the espresso tastes thin, sharp and underdeveloped, It probably needs more extraction.

If it's harsh, dry or unpleasantly bitter, I may have pushed it too far.

I make another small change and pull it again.

That's dialing in.

You're not trying to find a magical recipe that works for every coffee forever.

You're trying to figure out what this coffee wants today.

Coffee changes after roasting

This is another reason I don't like treating espresso recipes like they're permanent.

Coffee changes as it rests after roasting.

A bag that's only a couple of days off roast may behave differently than that same coffee a week later.

You may have to make small grinder adjustments as the coffee ages.

That's normal.

If your espresso was great three days ago and suddenly seems to be running differently, it doesn't necessarily mean you forgot how to make espresso.

The coffee changed.

Lever machines make this even more interesting

At Bee & Brew we pull espresso on a Profitec Pro 800 spring lever.

A lever machine doesn't apply pressure exactly the same way a typical pump machine does. The spring gives us a naturally declining pressure profile as the shot progresses.

That's one of the reasons I like it.

If you want the longer explanation of what the lever is actually doing, I wrote about that in What Is Lever Espresso? Why We Still Pull Espresso the Old Way.

But the basic dialing-in process is still the same.

Be consistent. Pay attention to what the shot is doing. Change one variable at a time. Taste it.

Rustic Roast gets dialed in the same way

Rustic Roast is our house espresso, and we roast it here specifically for the kind of shot we like.

Full body, good sweetness, chocolate, caramel and enough roast character that it still tastes like espresso.

I wrote more about why we use a blend for that in Why Rustic Roast Is a Blend, Not a Single Origin.

One advantage we have is that the roaster and espresso machine are in the same building.

If I'm struggling to get something I like out of a batch, I can work on the grind and extraction.

But I can also go back and look at the roast.

That's useful because roasting and extraction aren't really separate things once the coffee gets into the cup.

Don't chase somebody else's numbers

If you're trying to get your home espresso dialed in, keep it simple.

Use a scale.

Keep your dose consistent.

Adjust the grind.

Pay attention to your output and shot time.

Then taste it.

Once you have something you actually like drinking, write the recipe down.

That's a lot more useful than trying to make your machine behave exactly like somebody else's setup.

If you're in Fort Worth and want to see how we do it, stop by Bee & Brew. We'll pull you a Rustic Roast espresso on the lever and talk coffee with you.

Espresso is complimentary for walk-in visitors, and we sell Rustic Roast whole bean or ground if you want to take some home.

Bee & Brew
217 North Rupert Street
Fort Worth, Texas