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 a few essentials: an espresso machine, grinder, tamper, scales, timer, and a cup (or two).
1. HEAT UP YOUR MACHINE
Switch on your machine and allow it to reach the proper brewing temperature. Depending on the model, this can take up to 20-30 minutes. Brewing before it's ready can lead to under-extraction, resulting in sour flavours.
2. ENSURE THE PORTAFILTER AND GROUP HEAD ARE CLEAN
Make sure that your portafilter and group head are free of any old, stale coffee grounds. Use a brush or clean cloth to keep them spotless - clean kit means better-tasting coffee!
3. GRIND YOUR COFFEE
Grind your coffee just before you start brewing. All espresso recipes are going to call for a fine grind, slightly finer than table salt. However, every coffee behaves differently, so you’ll need to adjust the grind size to ensure the coffee extracts in the right amount of time - this process is known as 'dialling in'.
4. WEIGH YOUR DOSE
Use your scales to measure your coffee accurately. A good starting point is 18g of coffee. Most recipes work on a 1:2 ratio, so with 18g in, you’ll aim for around 36ml of espresso out.
5. TAMP EVENLY TO PREVENT CHANNELLING
Transfer your ground coffee to the basket. It will naturally sit in a small heap. Use a tamping tool to flatten this out, creating a compact, even coffee bed. Uneven grounds can lead to "channelling," where water flows unevenly through the coffee bed, causing poor extraction.
TOP TIP: You don't need to push too hard here - just make sure that the bed of coffee is level and even.
6. LOCK IT IN
Brush off any coffee grounds from the rim of the basket to prevent them from getting stuck in the shower screen and going stale. Lock it securely into the machine's ground head.
7. BREW STRAIGHT AWAY
Begin brewing and immediately start your timer (if your machine doesn't have one built-in). Depending on your recipe, the extraction time will be different, but a good starting point is 25-30 seconds.
TOP TIP: Try to brew as soon as possible after locking in 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.
8. CLEAN UP AND RESET
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.
You can download a copy of our Espresso Brew Guide here.
Common Issues and Troubleshooting
WHY IS MY ESPRESSO SOUR?
Sourness can be caused by several factors but is typically due to your brew time being too fast. If water flows through too quickly, we don't extract enough flavour from the coffee - leading to this very sour and weak taste.
Try slowing the shot down by reducing your grind size. A finer grind will make it more difficult for water to pass through, increasing contact time and resulting in more extraction. Make small adjustments to your grind each time, and make sure the weight of coffee out of your grinder is as it should be.
You could also try to solve this problem by adding more coffee to the basket, but I would encourage you to try and stick to your recipe and alter only the grind size first.
WHY IS MY ESPRESSO BITTER?
Some coffees (like darker roasts) are naturally more bitter than others, but unpleasant bitterness can also be caused by over-extraction. If shot time is too slow, we take too much flavour out of the coffee and it ends up tasting harsh and bitter.
Speed this up by making your grind size coarser. 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!
It's a balancing act. You need to find the right amount of coffee, the ideal extraction time, and a taste you enjoy. 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.
Get In Touch
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.