pumpkinscastle Senior Member Joined: 10 Jan 2008 Posts: 146 Location: Cincinnati, OH Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Quickmilll Vetrano Grinder: Mazzer Super Jolly
Posted Thu May 15, 2008, 10:17am Subject: What is your favorite brew pressure? And why?
I thought this might be fun although I assume there has been written a lot about it already. What I would like to achieve with this thread is a little "library" of brew pressures and what they change according to the experience of coffee geek members.
Here is my story: My QM Vetrano was set to 8.5 bar when I got it. I raised the brew pressure to 9.5 and then turned it back to 9 bar where it will remain. What I love about a slightly higher brew pressure is that it highlights the fragrance of quite a few coffees. They become sweeter, more sippable and also more aromatic in my view. I realized that 9.5 bar was a bit too much sweetness for my taste so I put it back to 9. I was really surprised how much influence the brew pressure can have on the taste of coffee. At 9 bar all my shots turn out ideally with a wide variety of coffees.
What is your brew pressure experience? And what flavors/profiles can you highlight with your altered pressure?
Quoddy Senior Member Joined: 17 Mar 2008 Posts: 29 Location: NY/VT Border Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: Andreja Premium Grinder: Macap M4 - Stepless w/Doser... Drip: Bodum French Press Roaster: HotTop B
Posted Thu May 15, 2008, 12:10pm Subject: Re: What is your favorite brew pressure? And why?
I'm running at 8.9 to 9.0 on my Andreja Premium. Flow just "seems" right at that pressure and I'm getting good, consistant results. I never really thought about it much more than that.
"There is no such thing as strong coffee, only weak people"
toots Senior Member Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 54 Location: belgium Expertise: Professional
Espresso: ... Grinder: Faema MPN
Posted Thu May 15, 2008, 3:27pm Subject: Re: What is your favorite brew pressure? And why?
is nice to try, with same grinding, tamping and temp settings, and different pump pressure... normally every espresso machine is between 9 and 10 bar. If you change bypass setting... hmm crank it up to 15 bars and see what comes out :-)
JimWright Senior Member Joined: 17 Jan 2006 Posts: 183 Location: SF Bay Area, CA
Espresso: LM GS/3, Estro Profi Grinder: Macap M7KR Vac Pot: Yama Drip: Other: Eva Solo, Press Pot
Posted Thu May 22, 2008, 9:37am Subject: Re: What is your favorite brew pressure? And why?
This could be in the next generation of machines... paddle groups with pressure settings (0 - n bars) indicated as a dial around the paddle... Of course, whether this is helpful to most people is another question...
In fact, generally speaking, it seems like adding more adjustable parameters is tricky at best when so many of us already have trouble acheiving consistency with the parameters we have today.
JavaJ Senior Member Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 138 Location: Roseville, CA Expertise: Pro Barista
Posted Thu May 22, 2008, 10:32am Subject: Re: What is your favorite brew pressure? And why?
JimWright Said:
In fact, generally speaking, it seems like adding more adjustable parameters is tricky at best when so many of us already have trouble acheiving consistency with the parameters we have today.
A very good point Jim. It should also be stated that 9 bars is not 9 bars. While the readings on our own machines mixed with our own experience can be very helpful, when we talk about pressure settings, we are not all on an equal playing field. Unless of course we are all using the exact same calibrated Scace to measure our respective machines, it is quite possible that there is enough variance in our respective instruments to make the readings meaningless to share with others.
Another issue is temperature. 9 Bars at 199.5 F is different than 9 bars at 201 F. There is an inter-relationship between temperature and pressure. Increase the pressure, and you have effectively increased the temperature.
Personally, I believe pressure profiling is the new frontier of espresso extraction.
SL28ave Senior Member Joined: 19 Mar 2004 Posts: 769 Location: Rockville, MD Expertise: I live coffee
Grinder: Baratza Virtuoso Drip: Technivorm
Posted Thu May 22, 2008, 11:03am Subject: Re: What is your favorite brew pressure? And why?
For light roasts I use 9 bar on a Scace2 gauge, which often translates to 10 bar on a La Marzocco gauge. It brings out the best and balanced flavors from light roasts without becoming astringent.
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