The espresso: A bold brew method perfected at home
Espresso might look simple in the cup, but creating a truly great espresso is no small feat. With so many steps involved, there's plenty of room for error - but don’t worry! With the right tools, techniques and practice, you can brew espresso at home that rivals your favourite coffee shop.
Here's a step-by-step guide on how to make espresso at home:
Step-by-step espresso guide
Before we begin, you'll need an espresso machine, grinder, tamper, scales, a timer and espresso cups.
1. Heat up your espresso machine and allow it to reach the proper brewing temperature before you start. Depending on your machine, this can take up to 20-30 minutes. Brewing with a machine that’s not fully heated can lead to under-extraction, resulting in sour flavours.
2. Before you start, make sure your portafilter and group head are free of any old, stale coffee grounds. Use a dry brush or clean cloth to keep your equipment spotless – clean tools make better coffee!
3. Each coffee is different, but all espresso recipes are going to call for a very fine grind. You’ll need to adjust the grind size to ensure the coffee extracts at the right time, a process known as 'dialling in'. It's a balancing act. You need to find the right amount of coffee, the ideal extraction time, and a taste you enjoy. Use your scales to accurately measure the ground coffee according to your recipe - 18g is a good starting point. Bear in mind that if your grinder runs on a timer, then making your grind finer or coarser will mean that less/more coffee is ground in the time you have set. The grinder has to work harder to grind finer, so won't produce as much coffee, and vice versa. Check the weight each time you make a change.
4. After grinding, your coffee will naturally pile up in a heap in the portafilter. Flatten this out by tamping and create a compact, even coffee bed. Uneven grounds can lead to "channeling," where water flows unevenly through the coffee bed, causing under- or over-extraction. Use your hand or a distribution tool to level the surface.
5. Brush off any coffee grounds from the rim of the filter basket to prevent them from getting stuck in the shower screen and going stale. Lock it securely into the machine's ground head.
6. Press the button immediately after locking the portafilter to avoid the grounds contacting the hot shower screen for too long. This could potentially start to 'cook' the grounds, leading to a loss of the volatile compounds that make coffee so delicious. Depending on your recipe, the extraction time will be different, but a good starting point is 25-30 seconds. A typical espresso shot yields double the liquid compared to the coffee grounds used - for example, 18g of coffee produces 36ml of espresso.
7. After brewing and before you drink your espresso, knock out the spent grounds from your portafilter and wipe it clean. Flush water through the group head to clear any residue, and reattach the clean portafilter to your machine. Consistent cleaning ensures every shot tastes fresh.
Tap here to download a simple espresso brew guide.
Common Issues and Troubleshooting
- - The espresso shot is too sour. This can be caused by several factors, but is typically caused by your shot being too fast. Try slowing the shot down by making your grind finer. You could also add more coffee to the basket, but try and stick to your recipe first, and change the grind only. Make small adjustments to your grind each time, and make sure the weight out of your grinder is as it should be.
- - The shot is too bitter. Some coffees (like darker roasts) are naturally more bitter than others, but astringency can also be caused by a shot running for too long. Speed this up by making your grind coarser, but again make sure you're not inadvertently grinding more coffee in the process.
- - It'll take some trial and error to get the weight out of your grinder correct (if it's grinding for a set amount of time). If you are single-dosing (just putting in the exact amount of beans you want to grind), then don't worry about that - grind them all!
Preparing espresso is a bit of a learning curve, but when you get the hang of it, it becomes second nature - honestly!
Hopefully this guide sets you on the right path. If you need any other tips, you can always reach out to us at info@rountoncoffee.co.uk. Happy brewing! Find your perfect espresso coffee here.