00:00Brewing espresso is really difficult and
00:03Brewing really good espresso is even
00:06so and I think my last few videos have
00:09really kind of shown that with a lot of
00:11these advancements that we have in our
00:12understanding and even though they might
00:14seem to make just a minute change all of
00:16these small changes can improve our end
00:20quality over the years there have been a
00:22lot of people mostly home enthusiasts
00:24who have been running loads of
00:26experiments in order to figure out the
00:28best way to move forward
00:30so I'm going to be looking at a few of
00:32these experiments one by Stefan ribe
00:34which we have looked at a few times but
00:35we'll look at in more depth today with
00:37his cookie cutter experiment he did in
00:392020 and then again in 2021 with Puck
00:42screens added we're going to look at
00:43decent user Mike leen's data where he
00:46has built what he calls a floa filter in
00:49order to see what the water is like
00:51coming out of the screen during that
00:53filling of the head space and then we're
00:55also going to take a look at Rohan who's
00:57someone that I've talked about a lot on
00:58this channel he's help helped me a lot
01:00he's a patreon of mine and he uh did an
01:02experiment on my request where he was
01:05looking at Edge under extraction with
01:07different types of dispersion blocks as
01:09well as baskets and styles of
01:12shots these things are really good for
01:14us to understand and that's why I'm here
01:16trying to make sure that there is a
01:17megaphone to it so people know the
01:20issues inherently in our espresso
01:23extraction whether it's our preparation
01:26ourselves or whether it is the equipment
01:31due to the high amount of pressure the
01:33finely ground coffee the tamped bed all
01:36of these things make waterf flow being
01:38even really really difficult especially
01:41with how chaotic coffee seems to be when
01:43grinding that finely with a particle
01:45size range from down to one micron up to
01:48300 microns or whatever the biggest
01:50Boulder might be so we're already
01:52fighting a somewhat losing battle but
01:55that battle becomes even more difficult
01:57when we see that there are elements that
01:59we've taken for granted for so long good
02:01grief Lance you're complicating espresso
02:03again what you need to understand about
02:05all these experiments that I'm doing
02:07that the community is doing is not
02:08necessarily to complicate your life
02:10based off of some of these tests that
02:12are done in the decent Community there
02:14are new Innovations coming out in the
02:16next year or so that is going to help us
02:19so that we don't have to think about it
02:20anymore now it's no secret that our Puck
02:23preparation is a big thing that's
02:24something that's been harped on for many
02:26years a few decades now it's no secret
02:28that temperature variation has an impact
02:30on your espresso but there are other
02:32things that we have not yet considered
02:34that are kind of built into espresso
02:35machines and haven't been questioned
02:37very much and one of those is your
02:39shower screen and your dispersion block
02:43what some of these experiments show us
02:45is a lot of shower screens tend to be
02:49inefficient so what I have here two
02:51different dispersion blocks for the
02:52decent espresso machine and I have an
02:54IMS competition shower screen water
02:57enters the dispersion Block in order to
02:58disperse into the screen so that it can
03:02it we know if there's like massive lumps
03:05of water coming out in different
03:06directions that that's probably not good
03:08we want it to be as even as possible so
03:11when we look at this the diameter of it
03:13is about 51 mm we have 58 mm surface
03:17area but only 51 or so 50 mm of coverage
03:21screen which you might think that's not
03:24a big deal once the water fills the head
03:26space it's going to just turn into a
03:27compression of all the water going
03:29through evenly and you would be sort of
03:31right but also we have proof that that's
03:33also not completely the
03:36story because of some of these
03:38experiments going on and the fear of
03:40undere extraction on the edges they
03:42created a prototype with Teflon of a new
03:47block I have said in many videos that
03:49dut shots are not fundamentally wrong
03:52when the shots are coming around and
03:54they start around the edges of the
03:55basket that logically it must be overe
03:58extracting the edges you want want that
04:00bottom to be filled all together
04:01simultaneously for an even extraction
04:04but that's not necessarily the case this
04:06was proven by Stefan Ribas with his
04:08cookie cutter method back in 2020 with
04:10radial extraction he would take a cookie
04:13cutter he would cut a puck after it was
04:15extracted and then he would extract the
04:17remaining solubles in the spint puck to
04:20see how much was left over from the
04:21center versus the outer edge he did show
04:24that puck screens aided in that edge
04:27extraction a lot of people because Their
04:29Fear of dnut shots made them think it
04:31was a bad extraction they started making
04:33these you know concave tampers so when
04:35you went in it was going to push the
04:37center down more the edges up higher so
04:39that you would have a more even filling
04:41of the bottom of that basket the
04:43traditional basket where the holes
04:44aren't all the way to the
04:45edges Stefan showed that when you use a
04:48convex tamper the edges are even more
04:51horribly undere extracted down to like
04:54so because now you're encouraging even
04:57more so a center flow when it's already
05:00being encouraged just by the build of
05:02the machine the build of the basket so
05:04Rohan did the same thing he was using
05:06about 15 to 16 second shots for his
05:08turbo shots with his super Jolly he has
05:10with a 64 mm multi-purpose burst from
05:13SSP he was using 35 to 45 second shots
05:17with his Niche zero with pre-infusion
05:19and all that good stuff using both a VST
05:22basket 18 G and a SARS high flow
05:25Precision basket and he also did some
05:30took a cookie cutter and he would cut
05:32the center out he would take the edge
05:34put it in one aluminum basket he would
05:36take the center and put it in another
05:38and he baked them at 250 Fahrenheit I
05:41don't remember how long exactly to
05:43rebrew them so he would rebrew it with a
05:46clever using a 1 to2 ratio and he would
05:48measure the extraction and then he could
05:50do maths in order to figure out what was
05:52left over from the Outer Edge versus the
05:54center there was a big
05:57discrepancy the center is all always
06:00always always preferred with a
06:03traditional basket and what we know for
06:04certain from this experiment is that the
06:07center is consistently the most
06:09extracted part of the puck regardless
06:12the edges are horribly
06:14suffering so what you see on these
06:16graphs here is the edges are extracting
06:18around 13 or 14% And you're like well
06:20it's just the edge that's such a thin
06:22little margin but what you have to
06:23consider is these graphs are showing you
06:25what the cross-section would look like
06:27so if you cut a puck in half and you
06:29look at just the edge it has the biggest
06:31circumference so that mass is much more
06:34than you think 30% so if we were doing
06:37say 20 G Puck 30% of that would be 6
06:40gram of coffee that are extracting down
06:42at that 14% And then the center is
06:46ton with these shower screens with
06:49traditional shots you're consistently
06:51getting edge under extraction especially
06:54baskets we see that modern baskets these
06:57kind of ones where the bottom surface
06:58area is much wider it almost matches the
07:01surface area on the top so there's more
07:02space for the water to run through it
07:05almost fully alleviates a lot of those
07:07problems it's still not up to where the
07:09center is extracting at but it's very
07:11close what we also notice is when you
07:14add a puck screen on top it also
07:17improves the flow rate to the
07:19edges whenever he moved to the turbo
07:22shots though what we see is a much more
07:24Even Flow throughout the whole Puck
07:26regardless of the basket regardless of
07:30so turbo shots seem to alleviate a lot
07:33of this issue around the
07:34edges so what we've noticed in these
07:36experiments with 95% errror bars is that
07:39the puck screen not only is it not bad
07:42for the coffee if the flow is even like
07:43on those turbo shots it doesn't really
07:45affect it negatively or positively if
07:47the flow is bad though it improves it
07:52extraction Mike leini with his testing
07:55he used this floa filter which here's a
07:57picture of that so he 3D printed this
07:59and he was able to measure the water
08:01coming in during that headp space
08:03filling and what he discovered was
08:05actually pretty unique at 4 and 1 half
08:07milliters a second using an IMS screen
08:10that edge was very underfilled and that
08:14c radian that was also pretty
08:16underfilled when we increased it to 12
08:19Mill a second however that radian C was
08:22a lot more equalized with the center the
08:24edges were still pretty low but that's
08:26because during that pre- weding this is
08:27a lot smaller than the is because his
08:30measurement tool doesn't do full
08:32extraction it's only really doing that
08:33head space filling we're seeing that
08:36there is a clear preference for the
08:37center but with a higher flow rate you
08:39objectively are getting more even flow
08:41through the puck which is showing you
08:43that fast fill is preferred over slow
08:45fill for a more even extraction water
08:48always wants to go the path of least
08:49resistance at the beginning you have
08:51droplets coming out and it's hitting
08:53different areas of the puck and if
08:55there's any weak spot which weak spots
08:57are formed once it's wetted the water
08:58will immediately want to rush there then
09:00once it's pressurized it will start to
09:02form these types of channels when you
09:05have a slower fill you have more time
09:07for it to really find those areas and
09:09fill it out when you have a faster fill
09:11rate there's not as much nucleation
09:12there's not as much area for it to
09:14really over Expos so it's more evenly
09:20water higher extraction it's not higher
09:23extraction equals better taste it's
09:25higher extraction all things held equal
09:28is showing a more even extraction
09:30through the puck it means we're not
09:31getting 25 in the center and 14 on the
09:34edges it means that likely we're getting
09:35like 23 in the center 23 on the edges
09:37with lower time so then you can lessen
09:39your extraction if you want and you'll
09:41have a much more holistic
09:43experience in fact I don't prefer higher
09:46extractions give me a solid 20 or 21
09:48maybe 22% extraction espresso I'm a
09:51camper I just want it to taste good and
09:54usually I'm getting better tastes when I
09:56have the most even setup as possible
10:01since it seems that more even
10:02extractions tend to taste better we
10:05might want to try to rethink how we're
10:07setting up these shower screens or these
10:12baskets all right Lance I'm lost dude
10:14you you're going too fast that's too
10:16much information you're throwing at me
10:18what is the importance of all this well
10:20first of all as I said we're not chasing
10:21High extraction that's not the point of
10:23all of these Innovations or
10:25experimentations the point is to ensure
10:27that we're understanding what's going on
10:28and order to help make the right fixes
10:30in manufacturing and in our
10:33understanding our approach to Espresso
10:35extraction to make better improvements
10:39forward if you do have one of those you
10:41know modern baskets you can rest assured
10:43that that edge underere extraction is
10:44not as big of a deal so if you're
10:46getting a doughnut shot maybe it isn't
10:48the greatest thing but again what was
10:50used in rohan's testing was the SARS
10:52basket and their holes go even closer to
10:54the edge so maybe with something like
10:56the pado or the Waf or the Weber Maybe
10:59maybe that edge potential overe
11:00extraction in comparison to the center
11:02is not as big of a deal but that's just
11:06speculation those baskets tend to really
11:08help with those Edge extractions which
11:10is going to force us to rethink how we
11:12pull espresso you cannot apply the same
11:15old same old traditional ratios and time
11:18limits when you're extracting with these
11:20newer baskets because it is a completely
11:22different extraction those edges are no
11:24longer way low in the center way high
11:27that's now more even across cross that
11:32puck you're going to want to do
11:34something a little different you won't
11:35need as much time maybe the texture will
11:38down you could do a finer grind but you
11:40would pull a much shorter ratio because
11:42you don't need as much water to get as
11:44much of an even extraction across that
11:46puck so there's a different approach
11:48we're dealing with a different game
11:49altogether it's kind of like if you've
11:51ever extracted coffee that wasn't
11:53Arabica like a eugenides or a libera or
11:56something like that if you approach
11:58those with the same same mindset of
11:59Arabica you'll have terrible results you
12:02cannot approach it using the same time
12:03parameters the same ratios the same kind
12:06of mindset when you're using those
12:09coffees we're now unlocking something
12:11that has not previously been
12:15unlocked a bottom paper filter as we
12:17showed in previous videos will help you
12:19with your traditional baskets extract
12:21more on those edges but it's not going
12:23to do the same as a modern basket it
12:25will help it though screens need to have
12:27a relook just because it looks like it's
12:30really good coming out and just because
12:32you think that evenness all around is
12:34ideal maybe that's not what we need to
12:36be doing maybe it needs to have a
12:38concentration around the edges because
12:40this is always going to be undersized to
12:42the basket based off the way that group
12:46designed Puck screens are going to be
12:48helpful so if you're someone that
12:50doesn't want to fool around with
12:51cleaning a puck screen that's fine you
12:52don't need it maybe use a paper filter
12:54on top or nothing at all doesn't really
12:59but the puck screen is going to help you
13:01with some of that edge underere
13:02extraction Allah rohan's
13:06data we didn't know that temperature was
13:08important until a home Barista wired a
13:10PID controller on their home machine we
13:12didn't know that puck distribution was
13:13that important until John Weiss took a
13:15needle and started playing around with
13:16it and now we have a focus on that we
13:18didn't know about temperature volatility
13:19and their effect on volatile organic
13:21compounds until more recently when the
13:22studies were coming towards that and now
13:24we have things that can meet that
13:25criteria we have temperature profiling
13:27and different things all because we had
13:29people who are willing to put themselves
13:30out there experiment to discover and to
13:32glean knowledge on what is previously
13:35unknown there is so much more to be
13:37found out and there's so much more
13:39needing to be studied and examined and
13:41all of it is with the goal of a better
13:43cup of espresso a better cup of coffee
13:45less waste more efficiency all with the
13:48goal of expanding this to everyone out
13:52there so I hope that you appreciated
13:54this video I hope that you can learn
13:56something from it maybe Implement
13:57something from it in your your home
13:59workflow whether it's adding a puck
14:00screen or maybe you switch from doing a
14:02low flow fill rate because you now
14:03understand that it's worsening that edge
14:05under extraction and just this the
14:07variation of the stratification of the
14:09extraction throughout the
14:11puck maybe it'll help you understand the
14:14overall importance of keeping your Puck
14:15screen really clean because in the end
14:18even droplets will be better than three
14:20streams coming out because you're not
14:21keeping it clean and there's oil residue
14:23or there's coffee ground stuck behind
14:25it so I just want to thank so much to
14:28Mike lepini from the decent forum who
14:30allowed me to use his data for this I
14:32want to thank Rohan for doing this
14:33insane amount of work with drying all
14:36these pucks and taking all these
14:37measurements over the last few months
14:39and I want to thank Stefan for you know
14:40being a trend Setter here with the
14:42cookie cutter technique he may not have
14:43been the first to do it but he's the
14:44earliest that I know of back in 2020 so
14:47thank you for that data thank you to Dr
14:49Jonathan G who helped me with data
14:51analysis and for just all of them
14:52altogether pushing the industry forward
14:54and helping us understand all of this
14:57and I think that's about it for today
14:59now you can go put an ice pack on your
15:00brain because I'm sure it's been
15:02exploded just a little bit and uh beyond
15:05that I hope you brew something tasty
