Make sure to hit like and subscribe to support my work! Helps a ton. Excited to see some fruitful discussions below! And fingers crossed this is enough of a bat signal to push manufacturers to make some changes.
Hello Lance, I really like your content, but would it be possible to make the titles less clickbaity? The content of the videos are always interesting and detailed so I feel like there is no need for this kind of title. I don't think coffee nerds are that much influenced by clickbait as they are mostly adults or young adults. Therefore I guess it wouldn't make a big difference switching to more informative titles. At least for me, it would make me want to watch the video more. (English is not my first language so I hope I didn't convey my feelings in a harsh way, that's not the goal at all) Anyway thank you for doing all the videos, it's always such a pleasure to learn new things about coffee!! Have a nice day!
Leave him alone. He's doing this for a living not charity and the titles are intended to bring new audiences and irregulars to the channel. If you know him enough you just watch the video regardless of title verbiage. @@waffurups
@@softbeak8333 I know about this and I watch the videos regardless. It's just my opinion that I would enjoy viewing more if the titles were more informative that's all. Moreover both James Hoffman and Lance Hendrick's most viewed videos have more informative titles so I guess it isn't that bad for attracting audience
I and most people, including content creators, don't disagree too much with your opinion. It is the way it is now. I guess it's fine to complain about it general but I don't think the issue we're talking about begins or ends with him. I say this somewhat hesitantly as well because it should also not be an excuse. Yes it's annoying when it gets over done, but they themselves can't always win. Monetary value regardless they do put value in their work and I bet most of the time it feels such that you're always losing with someone or nowadays a global group of online strangers then you cant gelp but start to take things personally as a creator and having to defend yourself to alleviate the mental pressuresl, then it only gets worse etc and you start losing the balance of doing it for yourself which is what we all want them to do, or to manage subscriptions and views. Remember they also need to excercise lots of patience and mental fortitude so that's why you see the majory of people tend to be positive and enoucraging in their short replies. But again no nothing's wrong with your point generally. Cheers. @@waffurups
I noticed some time ago, a change in the tone (in the aesthetics, in the approach, anyway...) of your videos. Your videos are leveling up at an absurd rate. Very soon your channel will probably be known for being the most technical/scientific on RU-vid (if it isn't already) and I will love that (even more). Once again, congratulations on your work.
I’ve noticed the same thing but haven’t been able to articulate well. I’ve probably been watching his videos for the last 4-ish years. But over the last few months Lance has quickly become my favourite coffee “RU-vidr”. Great content presented clearly and produced really well.
As a scientist I believe that the recent videos you’ve been posting, is pushing our understanding of espresso and coffee brewing as a whole. Absolutely loves the data backed up videos and the innovation you are sharing ☕️😊
Never stop pushing lance. Been saying this since your first video in this series. There is nothing wrong with challenging norms. That’s whatve been doing since espresso became “mainstream” at home. I’m sure old Italians who just grind and tamp would be up in arms over what we do. Just because it’s a change and innovation doesn’t make it stupid or useless. Every 1 or 2% adds up to better and more consistent coffee. Thanks for bringing some of these niche papers and research to the forefront! I wonder if you’ve heard of grinding frozen beans and particle uniformity going up. Thanks again
Mikelipino here (one of many screen names through the ages haha). Nice work Lance consolidating all this work that's going on as we speak (i just ran some Flowtafilter trials this aftenoon)! Love that you're reinforcing that the goal here isn't TDS, it's understanding the mechanisms of extraction so that we make actual improvements and not head down wrong paths -- like convex tampers. Cheers to the coffee home scientists. And I have just a few more trials to complete, but I'll post the Flowtafilter design to the usual places so others can peer review on their own machines
I love just sitting and completely zoning out to your vids, im in complete nerd state and just trying to wrap my head around what you say is so satisfying. Learning and growing x
So nerdy -love it. I was thinking earlier that it's great how you show how accurately you measure radial extrusion, very helpful to do own experiments!! - now i can see it to the end :D
@@LanceHedrickdo these findings suggest we shouldn’t use something low flow mode on a Bianca V3, or even look for pre infusion at all? Amazing vid as always, you’re a rockstar!
these videos really help me so much . as someone with adhd i cannot remember things by memorising rules etc . but as soon as i understand the logic behind something i remember it for ever. and even when i forget i can just retract the logical steps back to the knowlege . this type of teaching is so much better than memorisation (wich is only used in school system to create good workers that can memorise but never think for themselves . but when you delve into how the human brain learns this type of teaching works so much better than memorising rules
It's all in a longstanding attempt to make it better, of course. Bailing out because something is difficult isn't the way forward. We have yet to brush the surface of understanding espresso. That doesn't mean espresso isn't currently good. But it can be so much better. Consider if people had this quasi defeatist attitude you're suggesting back in the 50s? We'd be drinking charcoal on machines with no stability etc.
I like whatever change you made (or recently made) to your audio equipment/editing. I like what I perceive to be an aggressive dB slope cut and/or slight pause applied to the end of each sentence. Comes across very polished and I like the subtle pause, gives time to absorb the vastness of the information you present.
Hi Lance. So I just started reviewing your channel and am extremely impressed that you are working with statisticians and taking large enough sample sizes to draw statistically significant conclusions. As a process engineer, I do very similar work. I take a hypothesis, create a design of experiment (DOE), and partner with a statistician to not only create the experiment, but also assist with analysis of the results. (p values and things of the sort). However after 20 years in this field I have come to find there are two types of differences...a statistical difference and a practical difference. A statistical difference reinforces that there there is a very high likelihood (95 % confidence, etc.) that a difference exists while a practical difference is what makes a noticeable difference that folks will care about. For example, you may find statistically that baseballs made in a factory on Mondays are 0.0005 mm smaller than baseballs made on Friday. However....it doesn't really matter that there is a statistical difference because there is no practical difference in how the baseball performs. Statistics are great to tell us directionally which way things are changing and I find it very value adding that you are answering these questions. I have one small request....could you start providing your opinion in your videos if a "practical" difference exists....meaning, does the difference in methods create a difference in the taste of the final product. That is very subjective I know, but time and time again, I find myself saying when I make a change "Wow its more repeatable, yes it looks visually better, and I can see different dynamics....but ummm.....it didn't really change the taste". In order to determine a practical difference, maybe a question you could ask yourself is "How much does this need to change before anyone gives a crap?" (from a taste perspective that is). I would really like to hear your perspective of this in your videos more often because ultimately knowing what knobs to turn that make a practical difference in tastes is the end result that we all truly care about. Keep up the good work and I look forward to more videos in the future.
Great video Lance (though I’m not sure I love the title). One thing I’d love to understand in this context is whether low pressure pre-infusion makes a difference - for better or worse. Would be interesting to see the same distribution studies with and without PI.
Thanks Lance! I love “Turbo shots,” and almost always use paper filters and a puck screen… IMS basket and pre-infusion had a big learning curve, and I now understand better why that is. Not really afraid of the “Donut pattern extraction” though… Chasing a good shot is fun!
Lance, Your videos are amazingly informative and so very well produced. As a home barista who enjoys making the best cup of coffee he can, thank you. The care you have put into your videos (especially the recent ones) really shows. The coffee community owes you a debt of gratitude.
Awesome work. Thank you (and the experimenters!) for all the scientific rigor and tinkering. This is how we learn! Lance, I really feel like something has clicked with your videos recently, like you've found your lane - the tone has shifted (in a good way) and I feel like I'm learning a lot. I recently had a conversation with a barista and we got to talking about your videos. He said he'd been doing the shaker method on his own for over a year, and your upload validated his technique. He was smiling ear-to-ear as he said this. It was a great moment of connection - I love this nerdy community! Cheer to future knowledge acquisition
It is insane, how much information you are spreading in extremly good quality videos about coffee! Keep up the good work and thank you for teaching me so much! Can't wait for your full gagggiuino review!
After nearly one year with he Bianca and using pre infusion I thought it’s time to test more faster shots without pre infusion and holy shit. It changed my mind with the Weber unibasket. With a normal basket it was pretty good. But after I changed I wasn’t really happy with my espresso at all using this receipe. Yesterday I grind much coarser and dialed in much faster. And the shot was sooo much better. The Tipp to grind coarser and tamp a little bit „harder“ to grind as coarse as much for a better result is gorgeous! My espresso tastes so much more sweet and clear. Thank you.
Excellent video! I still come back to, why doesn’t someone design a machine screen so puck screens aren’t needed. Seems like puck screens are a bandaid to the workflow, fixing what the machine screen should be doing to begin with.
@LanceHedrick, great video, and I always love you deep dives like this! I think there is a glaring error in the process though, where we need to explore the base principles of fluid dynamics for the problem from a physics standpoint. All of these experiments are awesome and incredible data sources, but in the end, everything you speak of is trying to change a very basic and well understood pressure driven pipe flow problem into a situation where we cause mixing in areas where according to physics we should have no flow and no mixing whatsoever. I would argue on any given setup, getting no extraction in the 1mm ring around the outside of a portafilter is expected, especially on the upper portion of the puck, and we'll steadily increase the extraction towards the center until we reach roughly the 2mm towards the interior, a rough estimate of the 99% of the boundary layer. Now you might ask, what are my credentials for this? I've got a doctorate in Fluid Dynamics doing research specifically into the mixing of different fluids. There are research groups out there doing computational experiments specifically into espresso setups, but I think we could push this much further forward if we try to actually simulate what is happening inside a portafilter. From all of your data gathering we have excellent sources for configuring initial conditions and matching simulations to actual data, and doing some base level modelling shouldn't be too hard, but of course capturing all of the physics at play here will be challenging but we can learn a lot about the potential flow by even ignoring extraction and instead treat the coffee particles as insoluble and investigate the resultant flows from there. If our goal is truly the perfect extraction, I think the only way forward is by throwing out the idea of a legacy espresso machine configuration and to start prototyping entirely new equipment for high pressure coffee extraction. Please reach out if you actually want to chat about this sometime, I happy to forward my e-mail address and we can go from there!
I think it's so useful that you guys are devoting your time to this, you seem to be finding things out that directly contradict previous assumptions or, even more frightening, directly contradicts things that were though to be "fixes" about old espresso making. Humbling video.
Great video Lance. I really like the new video style, particularly the pauses, as they give me time to take in and understand the information presented. In other videos I often find myself losing focus and having to pause or rewind to follow what's being said.
What a time to just be getting into espresso! This channel and your videos have been so informative as I am always trying to understand the "why" in everything that happens. I really appreciate that these are more than the typical "grind finer" (simply put) discussions. Would love to learn more about the dynamics of the faster shot.
Thanks - very informative. Especially to all the folks that measured a lot of coffee shots. I use an SWORKS billet basket now & I've updated my dispersion block & screen - one step at a time really makes improving a shot very satisfying.
I feel like I'm going to need a flowchart of how to set up my Decent profile eventually: - Which dispersion screen do you use? - Do you use a headspace reduction kit? - Do you use a puckscreen? - Which basket do you use? - Light, Medium or Dark roast? - Milk? => Do x.
Thanks for doing this kind of work, I fully appreciate the reasoning behind these kinds of experiments. This kind of work has been going on for a long time, but often behind closed doors inaccessible to most individuals. Your videos no only highlight your work and others, but allow more people to access the information and insights. It's so funny to me how upset people get over this kind of stuff, but at the end of the day, nobody has to incorporate any of it. These kinds of things will ultimately establish the new norms in espresso making, and in the meantime, we can decide to use them or not. I know I've incorporated several of your suggestions and have noticed improvements, and others were too much faff and I decided it wasn't worth it. In the future, I'm sure there will be new technology and devices to further improve and make these various techniques easier/more effective and they will become common place.
I finally made the best shot of espresso after 3 months of having my Breville! A nice medium roast and not a bitter dark, ground right into a dosing ring, no WDT, tamped twice, puck screen on portafilter into a double walled dragon shot glass!
Thanks for all the information and transparency This is my 1 year anniversary having my gaggia classic pro. Been a great learning process and with your help I have never tossed a shot from my machine. I had a Baratza encore espresso but it broke in December. For anyone with a gaggia , buying from local if you have your beans ground. First try and get a sample so you can feel the grind of their “espresso” setting , I’ve always had to go much finer. I’m assuming due to it being 12 bar.
Think even more fundamentally. Channeling and unequal extraction can be completely avoided by having a closed pressure system with a stirrer. - Bernard
Sir, your info is soo important, it helps us home "Barista's" understand the complexities of making a good espresso and why we do what we do, and also why we might want to think about changing things! So thank you for these informative videos. Please keep them coming!
While this is a great video, I want to harp on one note you made prevalent throughout the video: “So we don’t have to think about it as much anymore.” I get what you are saying, BUT that’s the whole point of espresso. You HAVE to put thought into all of the work of making an espresso. We wouldn’t have modern espresso today if we didn’t care about espresso. While, nowadays, there are lots of gadgets that can make espresso much more consistent, not putting thought into what you are doing is the one thing that causes most newbies’ espresso to suck. Honing in technique over having a bunch of gadgets is going to always be infinitely better than anything, and this hobby becomes infinitely more rewarding.
Very odd takeaway, tbh. Never would I think someone would infer me pushing for less through about espresso as a whole. Tbh I'm a bit dumbfounded you could have that as a takeaway lol
The extraction graphs kind off look like the output of a galton board (balls falling through a triangle grid). And if you think about it it might make sense in my simple mind absent of complex fluid dynamics. In a perfect grind, water droplet/molecule hits a boulder and will either pass it left or right (let's keep it conceptually simple in 2d). And it does so all the way down, a shower screen that doesn't go to the edge is just a triangle with a very wide top. It will become much more chaotic with different size particles/gaps and pressure, but in essence the first flow of water through the puck might work somwhat similar, leading to a delayed saturation of the edges, only through pressure overcoming the gravity needed to violate the left/right drop and peek over, but probably only if that path creates less friction or the sum of the paths is less then the pressure of the pump. So essentially creating a square through the showerscreen lessens/solves this phenomenon. I hope you all can follow my reasoning haha
New subscriber here (about 4 videos ago), and dude, your content is incredible and ridiculously high quality. So scientific and fact based. Keep this up my brotha!
Love the nerd level on these, all about the graphs and data gathering. Could all of our testing be going in the wrong direction and a year from now we go hmm we missed all these variables. But that's the beauty of searching for the next level of understanding. Keep up the great work.
Been loving this style of video, they have been so insightful for me. I very much so appreciate the breakdowns of some of these more complicated topics
If a convex tamper made under extraction around the edges worse, I wonder if a concave tamper would help even out the extraction with a traditional basket. Creating a high point at the center of the puck so water is encouraged to flow to the edges first, counteracting the potential unevenness of the shower screen
Robert McKeon Aloe (EspressoFun) has been doing experiments with the dispersion / shower screen and trying to control the flow of water through the puck with custom shaped puck screens etc.
Great video! You actually described a method to take control over spatial variation of coffee extraction. I believe that if coffee brewing technology develops so fast coffee enthusiasts will probably unlock more parameters of this process. I thought about a device that could separate coffee samples by extraction time, as different substances responsible for taste are dissolved in water with different temporal distribution. These temporal solubility distributions are expected to depend on water temperature, water flow rate and particle sizes. There is still plenty of space to dive deeper into this problem. The samples can be additionally analysed by LC-MS (liquid chromatography - mass spectrometry) or GC-MS (gas chromatography - mass spectrometry) or IMS (ion mobility spectromerty) methods in order to conduct pure experimental research.
@@LanceHedrickI need to go back for my PhD?? All jokes aside, love these videos! Its awesome to see how all of the process changes actually affect the outcome.
The kingrinder K4 is a very finicky grinder in regards to the sensory characteristics caused by the coated burrs. Loads of acidity, light roasts are tough to dial in. The espresso range that I've used on a couple of semiautomatic machines was between clicks 58 and 65 .
That setup will get you some very good espresso for the price point. Lance's videos focus more on the small more scientific details of espresso. Also, higher extraction does not necessarily mean a better tasting shot. Flavor is king, if you like your coffee, then you're doing it right. Don't let the perfectionists scare you away from that.
I started on a dedica before getting a flair 58;after about 2 years. Honestly it makes great dark and medium-dark coffee. Just didn't get hot enough for really light roasts
One must put in the work so that the next generation can thrive, or something like that. Innovation is supposed to make things easier and even raise the incentive to get involved in a new hobby. I guess we've come this far so yeah.
Yep, taste is what matters. Following Scott Rao's recommendations for consistent puck preparation combined with paper filters (both above and below the puck) as well as a top metal puck screen for cleanliness has given me the best tasting and repeatable espressos with both lever and E61 pump machines, or, at least, in my personal experience day after day. Lance, thank you for your worthy contributions to my puck preps and for my tasty espressos too.
Awesome. Yes it is definitely different to implement modern methods and tools. With my 18-20g Sworks high flow billet basket, paper filter on the bottom and puck screen on top, I do 5 seconds of 1 bar, and then quickly ramp up to 6 bar for 9 seconds turbo shot with 40-45g out. It's kind of wild basically pulling a shot in 9 seconds. Found that going over, such as 12+ seconds, gets overextracted flavors in the cup with this setup.
Holy smokes! Outstanding job of presenting complex information and making it understandable and useful. Thank you! My Patreon money is going to good use.
Most pump machines are built to flow water out of the boiler through a tube with an inner diameter of about... 6mm (about 1/4"), so about 1/10th the width of the puck and trying to disperse that more-or-less evenly across about 10x the diameter. And since that water is typically entering the brew group at the center, with that also being the only point of entry, obviously you're going to get the best dispersion - and extraction yield - at the center rather than toward the edge.
Wait so am I understanding correctly that “slow flow” that creates channels is basically pre infusion? So pre infusion is actually working against better extraction by creating more channels?
In the portafilter basket, why not progressively increase the hole size as you move to the edge? This could put a little more resistance nearer the centre of the puck once the puck is saturated and the pressure has nearly peaked. I think of it as: the puck is a variable resistor (it's resistance is a function of many things, including time, and it's harder to control), and the basket is a fixed resistor (because it's steel). The fixed resistor is much easier to adjust (in manufacturing).
If the edge under extraction is due to the shower screen, wouldn't it make more sense that edge under extraction would be worse with the higher extracting wider-hole-spread type baskets? I don't think that's the case though. I found tapered / rounded edge baskets usually have more apparent under extraction around the edges (based on just how the puck looks after extraction).
You know, having basket sides that had slightly less resistance would help with the edge extraction I think. Part of the issue is that water is taking that path of least resistance, and water in the center can go in any direction, but as it gets closer to the basket wall which is providing 100% resistance, the water opts to travel down or more towards the center once again. Imagine a basket with standard sized holes on the bottom (idr if .3mm or .03mm lol) but then 1/3rd size holes on the sides. Some water would make it out of the sides but most of it would make it out of the bottom still. It would mostly just encourage edge extraction as getting through the puck and the bottom of the portafilter would still be the optimal path, but more of the water would be encouraged to go to the edges.
I can see in the very near future the established espresso equipment is definitely going to go through a metamorphosis... FOR THE BETTER... Kickstarter is going to be kickstarted into a new era of one very important change for espresso brewing... Just one small tweak to what is already existing .... This will be the game changer for espresso lovers. I believe I already know what change needs to be made..
Hey Lance, first off, thank you so much for your investment into this craft. It really helps those of us who don't have the time to nerd out on this stuff. I'm no expert, but I am trying to pull the best possible shot with the equipment I own: Breville Barista Express Normcore WDT/Tamper I feel as though even with my measurements being spot on (and that's something you mentioned in this video), I'm still missing out on a better quality shot. I suppose I could try a screen, and potentially even mature to a bottomless portafilter to better identify any issues with preparation. However, there are so many tools available to us. With my equipment, is there a portafilter, basket, screen setup you'd recommend?
Funny you post this the morning after I preordered a sworks standard flow billet basket. Should I have gone for the high flow one? Also, do you have an opinion on the Breville Dual Boiler shower screen? I haven’t upgraded it because I see people have issues with the screw on the upgraded ones.
Teflon dispersion blocks? What about PFAS (forever chemicals)? I know less about coffee gear than outdoor gear, but as of January 1, 2025, several states will have regulations that will prevent businesses from selling products using PFAS (e.g. traditional goretex). Curious to see if or how the espresso "gear" industry is impacted.
So maybe the next innovation in puck screens and/or shower screens and/or baskets needs to be a bias of higher flow to the outside of the puck. Kind of like how the NextLevel Pulsar has smaller holes in the centre of the shower screen vs the holes on the outside.
Amazing content (as always) - one piece of feedback though: feel it would really help to have a summary with on screen text at the end since you‘re going quite deep
This makes me think total shot volume will need a revisit. If we're overextracting the center and underextracting the edges it might even out but I'd bet that a lower volume in total would be needed for proper extraction if we are getting even flow through the whole puck.
my espresso DID suck till someone told me to not be such a slave to the 30 second shot, now it may not be ready for raw drinking (I'm not sure I'll like any espresso that way though) but it's so much better after your video made me try a coarser grind after trying too hard to hit the shot time, I do need a new puck screen though the one I was using didn't work well and made things worse.
Hi Lance, Great video! Watching that, I had a thought of trying pre-weting the puck prior to locking to the machine. In other words, do the prep, spray some water on the puck and lock it. This way water coming from the shower screen will spread out on the surface more evenly due to Hydrogen bonds. What do you think? Does it make any sense?
