What a great video. It really motivated me to spend time dialling in and I finally got to pull a shot which was not ridiculously sour and instead was rich, sweet and complex with a distinct flavor profile. Thanks,
This is a great video. Thanks for showing the "mistakes" or titration process. Really helps to know it's not always sunshine and roses. It takes time, adjustment, care, prep, consistency and when you change beans, do it all over again (almost starting at the beginning).
You just summed up every explanation on the internet, but in the best way ever made. Your demonstrations and speech was the clearest I've ever seen from a barista, keep it up, i loved watching your video!
Thank you, @Flair Espresso and @Lance Hedrick! This has been a wonderful collaboration. It shows not only the final great results but the failures on the path of dialling-in.
Thanks for this! After watching your turbo shot video I settled on 15g in and 30g out in 5s pre-infusion at 3 bars and 25s pull at 7 bars. I get very tasty shots. I will simply try to keep the same grind size and increase the ratio to see how it scores!
this is mind-blowing and after seeing the control, feedback, and flexibility in the flair it's the only way I want to make espresso from now on lol, especially with light roasts.
@Lance Hedrick, the best thing I found for heating chamber is a stainless steel mason jar funnel. Fits a variety of water kettles and the brew chamber fits perfectly snug in the inner hole of the funnel. Then, put a large coffee cup (I use a double wall stainless steel cup) over the heating chamber. It get scalding hot.
Finally a decent explanation of the process in detail. It is a pity that the scales did not show, so it would be visible how the weight changes over time. All my Flair shots are too sour and salty despite the use of an excellent coffee grinder Kinu M47 and preheating in boiling water. I have reviewed dozens of instructions, and nowhere have I seen an emphasis on the need to reduce pressure while maintaining an even flow at 1.5g/sec.
@stetano absolutely a faster shot will make heat higher because there is less time and particles to absorb heat. I enjoy 25s shots, too. Didn't mean for this video to be a dogmatic telling of how to pull espresso, but moreso an offering of how to consider changing your recipe to accomodate your bean. The same process can be used for whatever recipe you'd prefer, like faster shots
@@LanceHedrick hey absolutely I do understand and appreciate your content! since your Turbo shots video changed my approach to shots I will try this one too :D Mine was only a generic suggestion to Anton since he said he gets many sour shots :)
Just got a Flair for Christmas for my first foray into espresso making and jumped right in to trying to pull light roasted Filipino and Ethiopian shots. Needless to say it's been tricky and this video is a huge help with dialing in a good cup.
same here! i came to this same conclusion with a light roasted Ethiopian. it almost felt weird that at 30 sec shots my face melted from that sourness. so i went finer and i could only pull the 1:2 ratio at 50 seconds. the sourness turned down a bit and flavors started to appear. this vid was great validation. i felt a bit stupid for pulling almost a min long shot!
5:23 - that Flair is not fully assembled - the bolt holding the base to the vertical piece wants tightening. I pre-heat my Flair filter unit by pouring boiling water into it in a small Pyrex bowl. I'm not concerned about the few drops that linger when I dump the hot water out. Thanks for the clear, logical explanation of your testing process. Since water can only get so hot, that leaves grind, time, ratio and pressure profile as the variables we can work with. I'm an audio geek. Voice levels at the start of the video are louder than at the end, where the pointless "background" music competes with the voice track. The result is that Lance's voice is harder to hear as the video progresses (as the information becomes more important). If you remix this, please ditch the elevator music in favour of clear, informative speech. Many thanks.
I was frustrated with a light roasted coffee I had gotten in the mail last week, especially considering it was a tiny 10oz bag, so I risked running out of coffee before I had gotten good results from it. No matter what I did, it was salty, sour, and way too acidic. I was so confused that I tried even pulling a ristretto, which was an awful idea that made the coffee taste like salsa instead of berries and chocolate. I stopped after half the bag was gone for fear of running out so I could do some more research before I tried again. And now you guys and Lance have miraculously posted this great video! My questions have been answered, and I know what to do. Time to properly preheat and pull some Lungos!
@@LanceHedrick I literally finally got to try the techniques five minutes ago, and they worked! Love the Americano I'm sipping on right now, thanks to you.
As a home espresso novice myself I highly recommend checking out Lance Hedricks own RUclips channel where he talks about everything you'd ever want to know to make better coffee at home (not just Flair shots). He even covers pour overs too. An absolute gold mine of industry knowledge there
Nice. I’ve been vac sealing and freezing recently. It’s an incredible way to store coffee, and it’s awesome grinding frozen coffee to have that more even particle distribution. 🙋🏻♂️😉🥶
For sure! More even, but just know it also produces more fines. Of course, the finest fines are lessened and the fines overall are more consistent, but more fines nonetheless. That being said, that's a good thing with espresso, for the most part!
What I do is： 1、use less coffee beans, 13 grams or even less, because you need to grind very fine or you will not be able to press it. 2、finer grind, very fine. 3、I put the brew head in the oven and heat it with 110 degree steam. (Water vapor mode) 4、Very long Pre-infusion, 30 seconds-60 seconds of Pre-infusion, all extraction time 2-4 minutes. 5、 increase the ratio, close to lungo, close to 1:3 However, I think the best way is to take the same coffee beans you are going to buy and choose a medium or darker roast. For example, take Ethiopian and roast it to medium or darker, medium dark is better.
Hi! I have a signature classic ! I used to use 15 g ! Got pretty acidic result so I went finer à mentioned in the video! Went much better but quite hard to pulled though! So as you say i might should go less but you can work on your lever technique ! Pull to 9 then release and then pull gently back to 9 and then it flows right (no dripping)
Think outside the box a bit. Coarser grind made water pass more freely, thus increasing extraction. Finer means more extraction, but TOO fine means water can't flow fully through all the beans without channeling and under extracting. Especially on deep beds like the flair pro 2
This works if you think from a pressure profiling standpoint. Lance doesn't just go right to 9 bar from the start. He goes to 3 for 10-12 seconds for a pre-infusion, ramps up to 9 bar for 10 seconds, and then slowly descends. He isn't aiming for consistent 9 bar pressure for a 25-30 second shot. He wants the very hot water to infuse with the beans, not just pass through them, to pull as much from them as possible (pre-infusion is very important here). If you go to fine you're more likely to channel because some parts of the puck will be too hard for the water to go through so it will pick a path with least resistance. So he's saying go a little coarse but control the water contact with the puck through pressure profiling. That's actually one thing that makes manual machines like the flair so cool :)
Just beginning my espresso adventures and I think it will be like I got into wine. I drank a lot of wine, listened to these guys talk about it like it was the ultimate sensory experience. Ya, right. Well I finally understood when I did get the right bottle (Cain Five). Yes, I now understood what wine drinking was about. OMG. So far I haven't hit that sweet spot in coffee but when I do I'll know it and with the help of videos like this it won't be so hit and miss for so long.
I went all the way to 14.5g in 42g out. Pulling a 40+ sec shot with a light Guatamala. Talk about weird ratio. But sweet finally. I boil the brew set in a tiny sauce pot that barely fits everything to get it piping hot...
@@LanceHedrick No, not turbo shots. After pre-infusion I ramp up to 7 bar and keep it there until the flow starts to speed up, then decline gradually. Very similar to what you did, but I don't have this higher peak at the start. It feels like the puck is happier this way. :-)
I have very light roast, African naturals mostly. I can take a bit of sour in my coffee taste, but in espresso it really hits you. I mostly have issue what the taste is sour at the start but bitter at the end (in a single slurp). I think I'm going to just aim for a 2.8:1 ratio right from the start, adjust my grind from that. Then if I feel I need to go 'between grind sizes' I'll start messing with the ratio. And the espresso roasts which I sometimes get in my subscription, I'm going to aim 2:1 from the start and adjust grind from there.
I understand that it meets the goal of trying to get the longer ratio in the same time, but wouldn't a finer grind and a longer contact time accomplish a higher extraction?
Not a brush off but we suggest that you watch one of our feature length brewing classes. If you didn't get answers to questions by watching the demos, you'll likely get answers in the follow-on Q&A sessions. ruclips.net/p/PL56JCAfwBiWjHdMdPzdhWmZpaiPJ1Z4R5 tl;dr answer is a mirror
Thx for the video Lance! I was struggling with my light roast which was coming out pretty acidic ! Grinding finer and get much better ! Try to go even finer and got almost no acidity but was a bit hard to pull. Going to work on my leverage or reduce sligthly the dose 🙂
@@LanceHedrick 😓= no money! I'll keep watching your videos in the meantime- I've subscribed- and hope Flair can email me a deal I can't refuse! Thanks again and keep up the awesome content.
Can you explain why a coarser grind results in a less sour coffee? I would think that a coarser grind would cause the sour taste from under-extraction. Whereas going finer would mean a better extraction for lighter roasts?
Yeah, and you'll hear a lot of advise to first get the grind size as good as possible, and then play with the ratio only to get it into 'perfect'. But.. (apparently), normal 58m baskets aren't deep but are wide. These smaller baskets are deeper but narrow. What happens is that the water is hot at the top but cold at the bottom, and you get uneven extraction. Trying to make the water flow a little bit faster through the deep basket will make things more consistent. So coarser. But, you are absolutely right, this will lessen the maximum extraction. So the ratio goes up to extract more. Coarser but longer.
thanks, man. that is very helpful. I have struggled with light roasts and almost abandoned pulling espresso with them. I am going to try again. One question: for milk drinks darker roast or light roasts ?
Personally for milk drinks, if i were to choose a lighter roasted coffee, i'd pick one that gives really low acidity result, and always washed proccess to avoid weird flavors. I believe with a good grinder that can elevate a lighter roast bean, you can make better milk drinks than darker roasts but it's also more difficult. (taste's subjective though) I'd like to read other's thoughts too.
Lots of great information in this video. I normally pre-infuse at 1 bar for only a few seconds (until the first drop hits the cup). What is the reasoning behind the pre-infusion at 3 bars? I'm worried that I might over-extract or create unwanted channeling by increasing the pre-infusion pressure.
I am probably grinding more finely than you. 3 bars is necessary to saturate fully the puck here, which is one of the main reasons to preinfuse. 1 bar will likely work with a coarser grind setting just fine.
Here’s a tip for people who don’t own a very high end electric kettle with temperature control. Do the same as in the video but instead leave the brew chamber uncovered. Some kettles work with a pressure trigger and shut off as soon as a certain pressure is reached, but in my experience this only makes the brew chamber temperatures reach around 80 C. Leaving the chamber uncovered allows steam to pass though the chamber which not only heats it up faster, and relieves the pressure so that the kettle doesn’t shut off.
It takes a few shots from a new coffee before you get it right. The main way to get good shots is to use your flair every single day. Practice makes perfect.
Wonderful video, Lance. It’s a near spring lever profile, especially when the operator gently retards the upward movement a wee bit…. Like one would do on a Bezzera Strega, MCAL. So cool the Flair is sensitive enough to also accomplish this manually. My 58+ arrives next week. This video is a must for all seeking those lower pressure spring lever shots, regardless of roast degree.
very very nice, thank you! ... i'm still a little confused about why you coarsened your grind when it was already too sour. my reflex would have been to go finer to slow the shot, have more contact time, and extraction. is this solely based on the hypothesis of probable channels that would occur if the grind was too fine, and therefore coarsening would reduce the likelihood of channelling? if so, is there a trick to keep in mind to distinguish between the two options or to identify when it's probably channeling which would lead to a different approach than a simply too coarse of a grind that needs to be finer? THANK YOU!
Another point Lance made that his first shot was too long and he therefore would have lost some much needed thermal energy to extract solubles. On how fine to grind, place a mirror below and watch for evenness of the extraction. If you're seeing darker and lighter areas, or worse bare filter, grind finer and/or lower dose
Hey! Going too fine can cause the majority of the puck to be underextracted. When too fine, the water will choose channels through which to go and can leave a lot of the puck under, which will give you a high concentration of acidity. Going coarser allows for a more even extraction a la Hendon's 2020 paper
@@LanceHedrick thanks 🙏 really needed this! I hope this wil improve my shots. The majority of them are sour and can’t seem to fix it. Letting go of 1:2 ratio is needed in a lot of cases, i think.
The more pressure/flow profile that those people been pulling out on manual espresso maker, the more I wonder how to get it done with the semi automatic machine. Definitely it will cost more than 4-5k for the machine alone, which I don't think cafe are serving that type of espresso to us.
You said for lighter roast we need to grind finer than dark roast, and seconds later said because of the depth of the flair pro 2 we need to grind a bit coarse, so what is it?
'a gut feeling' 😉. I think, get your flow to about 1mg/second (or not much slower than that) by dialling in grind, and then dial in ratio for wanted taste. And know that for taller baskets you need lower doses. Another way of looking at it is - I think - that you fix unevenness by going coarser, and then compensate by going longer.
I’ve been using a very similar technique/recipe for lighter roasts, and has taken me a while to get here... This video is incredibly welcome and was just amazing watching you walk/talk through your process. Even with minimal grind size and maxing temp, I can’t get much below 16 in 45 out without being too acidic for me. Could you have also pushed the pre infusion up (what im currently experimenting with) or do you have other suggestions to increase extraction at at lower ratios to increase body?
Yeah! You can definitely push the preinfusion a lot longer, no doubt. Don't worry about time at all. Go really fine, do a long pre infusion (or bloom!), then ramp pressure.
@Lance Hedrick thanks for the video, beside the portability and other features, how does flair 58 compare to pro 2, just in terms of esspresso body and taste ? Does it worth the extra money ? I'm looking forward to upgrade my pro2 to 58 if the difference worth it.
Outstanding video. I have often wondered if a heat gun could be used to greatly increase the brew chamber temp over steams 212 limit. Lance, do you know if this has been tried?
Why don't you just put back the brewing chamber on the kettle to keep it pre warming while prepping the shot. Putting water in the chamber is an extra step and will lose temperature while you prep the shot. It's seems to be counterproductive. I always put it back on the kettle as steam stays at 100C while boiling water will it 90C pretty quickly.
Yes. I will be doing that next video. I realized this after shooting and editing hahaha I usually brew with the flair 58, which has the heating apparatus, so I normally don't think about it
I put my brewing chamber directly in the kettle and use a hook I fabricated to fish it out. Can't get any hotter than that and I pull it out after my puck prep so no sitting around cooling off.
my kettle only generates steam in the last 15 seconds it seems.. if I lieve it on top after that, it cools incredible quickly. I dunk my chamber + piston-piece in the boiler and try to get it out, or I have a basket that I can hang 'in' the boiler. But it heats worse than just dunking it on. I do it sometimes because it's easier to get it out, and when I also want to preheat my basket that way. Anyway, putting it back on top cools with me, putting the preheat cap on and pouring some hot water (after it sat in the steam) keeps it warm, but not as hot as just dunking it in.
I still can't get it right. I preheat as much as I can (3 times with boiling water and once more right before I put the brew water in) and on a comandante I grinded at 6 clicks --> that resulted in a super fast shot without even reaching 5 bars of pressure. I went all the way to 4 and even 3 clicks on the comandante --> that resulted in a 2min long extraction while I stayed around 1min at 9bars and then lowered the pressure slowly. I preinfused like in the video. I also enlarged the ratio to the extreme --> 15.5g in and 50g out The espresso keeps being so sour that I can't even drink it. Can anyone help?
Hey! It's because sour can be from channeling. If the grind size is too fine, then water will find a way to make it through the puck, and those ways are channels. The majority of the puck in this instance can be severely underextracted. So, coarsening will help increase extraction by decreasing channels in some cases
@@LanceHedrick i guess this is because puck in flair is thicker than other machines.. anyway other dial-in vids rarely discuss this even for vids that is specific to flair
Is this doable using the flair signature? I'm just concerned since it can only yield 45 ml - less Maybe lessen my dose instead of 15g to get 1:3 ratio?
After the first shot.. , why have you coarsened the grounds .. you changed 2 variables, i thought you will just increase the ratio which is relevant for me but why coarsening the grounds cuz if it’s super sour i would either increasing the ratio with the same grind setting or grind finer ..
do you think there'll be any difference to the dialing process between being able to grind in intervals of 12.5microns and 22microns? i'm trying to choose between two hand grinders with these step sizes
I was fine until he contradicted himself in the end. In the middle while Lance was adjusting his grind and ratio, he said adjust the grind "coarser" because the shot was sour and under extracted. I would think, you need to go finer grind to extract better. Why coarser? At the end while he was summarizing, he said to go finer that usual for light roasts. Which way is it finer or coarser? edit 5/30/2024: I just watched Lance explain the pressure profiling and I understand why now. ruclips.net/video/rC36en6zo_U/видео.html
I would not prefer to heat up the portafilter basket, as it induces a harsh bad aftertaste to coffee. Having eliminated this part, I was able to get a good shot
@@LanceHedrick I do, I have a explicit steam maker to extremely heat up brew chamber. I used to heat up the portafilter basket also as much as the brewchamber, but everytime I had gotten a really unpleasant aftertaste. After wasting a really nice source of coffee and being upset about it, I found out the source of this defect is heating the portafilter. I have to mention that I might wait 2-3 minute after tamping. But in your video you quickly did tamping and put chamber on it and pulled the shot. That bad aftertaste might have generated in that 2 min waiting time.
I've never noticed a bad aftertaste from that. The same heating happens in most espresso machines and I've not experienced bad aftertastes. Not invalidating your experience, assuredly. Just interested I've not run into that! Thanks for sharing! This could be helpful to others!
isn't it still too wet causing channels or unevenness? Heating seems only like a good thing. Maybe heating it up causing you to go 'a little over', but pulling half a gram or a gram shorter should fix that right up then.
There is no acidic coffee but underextractive technique. The most extraction from Flare: 1. Go as low grinds as flow can allow to achieve 9 bars. Not course as it was suggested here. 2. To maximize the temperature put the chamber assembly together with coffee and the piston to a pot with boiling water for at least 2 min. Piston in the chamber protects from interning the water from below. 3. 1 min of preefusion at 2 Bars. Grinds should be so fine so the water will emerge after. On my La Pevony it's easy - just open the lever, on the Flare you have to maintain that pressure manually. Then follow you extraction profile which is good, though slight increase of pressure and flow gives a bit different results. I don't have sour espressos from light roast. Sometimes grassy notes from under roasted beans.
I mean, this is a valid technique, sure. But to dismiss coarser grounds is a little myopic. Coarser grounds will have less channeling, can achieve higher extraction, etc. Lower pressure is also more consistent with high extraction. Super fine grounds is great, if you have a great grinder. Cheers
@@LanceHedrick increasing size of grinds is last frontier on light roast dialing. First should be addressed to maximizing the temperature and quality of the pack. Which obviously depends on the quality of the grinder and also packing skills of the barista. Lighter roasts present additional challenges but from the other hand it's hard to over extract them as in darker roasts. So the dialing algorithm should be different too.
Oh I'm quite familiar with dialing in light roasts lol. Going finer can cause more channeling, so it isn't always ideal. Going coarser can allow more even flow through the puck. But, I can see you're set in your mindset, so I won't try to change it haha. If you haven't, though, I'd highly recommend watching my video on turbo shots on my channel or read Hendon's paper on fast shots for a more full understanding on espresso extraction as opposed to the dated, though sometimes proper, "underextracted means I must go finer." Cheers!
@@LanceHedrick @Lance Hedrick that is great paper and great video you made over it. BUT it's about normally roasted coffee - Italian and over. If you applied the same to light and really light roasts like for pour overs - you'll get sour espresso with those "turbo shots". You mentioned "blooming" for lighter roasts, but negative drop in pressure will destroy the consistency of the pack and help to create those channels. That's why keeping pressure during "blooming" or "preinfussion" (call as you wish) stage and it has to be for long time (say 30-60 second) and the temperature has to be as high as possible. That's why you need coffee ground fine enough to stop water from flowing through during that preinfussion stage at low given pressure but saturate the pack evenly. Also another way to reduce the channeling is going for really thin park by reducing the amount of coffee or going for wider baskets. Flare 58 would do much better job than Classic. But also the barista has to be really good to make the pack even and perfectly leveled.
Hey! Many people own the pro 2, and prefer it due to the smaller and deeper basket. It's a personal preference thing. For those people, I wanted to show a good way to produce great espresso! I do love the flair 58 and have a video with it on my channel. 🤣😉
@@LanceHedrick Oh gottcha, and true the pro 2 are in many more kitchens than the 58. Yea Lance I’ve watched ur “daily driver” flair 58 video with the espresso profiler attachment… I think🤞 this is a industry game changer that u can get the 58, profiler attch, and a high end espresso hand grinder for close to $1.1k. 🤯✌🏽
Your videos are so good but what happened to the audio when you turned to pull the shot? Boom mic? Time to invest in a lav, my friend. That aside, every Flair owner should watch this. So many discussions on the FB group page from people pulling sour shots (myself included). Can you comment on single origin vs blended? Several people say that single origin coffee is not great for espresso and blends are the way to go. Fact or fiction?
Great instructional video. Personally, I would just as much like to drink coffee made from under roasted beans as I would like to eat boiled overcooked vegetables.
What a great video. It really motivated me to spend time dialling in and I finally got to pull a shot which was not ridiculously sour and instead was rich, sweet and complex with a distinct flavor profile. Thanks,
This is a great video. Thanks for showing the "mistakes" or titration process. Really helps to know it's not always sunshine and roses. It takes time, adjustment, care, prep, consistency and when you change beans, do it all over again (almost starting at the beginning).
You just summed up every explanation on the internet, but in the best way ever made. Your demonstrations and speech was the clearest I've ever seen from a barista, keep it up, i loved watching your video!
Thank you so much! Means a lot.
Crossover of the century
Hahaha! Thank you!
Thank you, @Flair Espresso and @Lance Hedrick! This has been a wonderful collaboration. It shows not only the final great results but the failures on the path of dialling-in.
Thanks for watching, Maksym!
Thanks for this! After watching your turbo shot video I settled on 15g in and 30g out in 5s pre-infusion at 3 bars and 25s pull at 7 bars. I get very tasty shots. I will simply try to keep the same grind size and increase the ratio to see how it scores!
I loveeee turbo shots. Glad you enjoy them!
this is mind-blowing and after seeing the control, feedback, and flexibility in the flair it's the only way I want to make espresso from now on lol, especially with light roasts.
@Lance Hedrick, the best thing I found for heating chamber is a stainless steel mason jar funnel. Fits a variety of water kettles and the brew chamber fits perfectly snug in the inner hole of the funnel. Then, put a large coffee cup (I use a double wall stainless steel cup) over the heating chamber. It get scalding hot.
It also fits PERFECTLY ontop of the base of a 3 cup moka pot.
Finally a decent explanation of the process in detail. It is a pity that the scales did not show, so it would be visible how the weight changes over time. All my Flair shots are too sour and salty despite the use of an excellent coffee grinder Kinu M47 and preheating in boiling water. I have reviewed dozens of instructions, and nowhere have I seen an emphasis on the need to reduce pressure while maintaining an even flow at 1.5g/sec.
Sorry about the lack of scale shots! Glad you enjoyed it
You need to go much coarser to preserve the heat. Try once to have a 25s shot! It will surprise you!
@stetano absolutely a faster shot will make heat higher because there is less time and particles to absorb heat. I enjoy 25s shots, too. Didn't mean for this video to be a dogmatic telling of how to pull espresso, but moreso an offering of how to consider changing your recipe to accomodate your bean. The same process can be used for whatever recipe you'd prefer, like faster shots
@@LanceHedrick hey absolutely I do understand and appreciate your content! since your Turbo shots video changed my approach to shots I will try this one too :D
Mine was only a generic suggestion to Anton since he said he gets many sour shots :)
Just got a Flair for Christmas for my first foray into espresso making and jumped right in to trying to pull light roasted Filipino and Ethiopian shots. Needless to say it's been tricky and this video is a huge help with dialing in a good cup.
same here! i came to this same conclusion with a light roasted Ethiopian. it almost felt weird that at 30 sec shots my face melted from that sourness. so i went finer and i could only pull the 1:2 ratio at 50 seconds. the sourness turned down a bit and flavors started to appear. this vid was great validation. i felt a bit stupid for pulling almost a min long shot!
I just got the flair signature today, pretty sour shots on a medium/light roast. Im considering changing to dark roast. What are your thoughts?
@@andrewsmithty watch the video
5:23 - that Flair is not fully assembled - the bolt holding the base to the vertical piece wants tightening. I pre-heat my Flair filter unit by pouring boiling water into it in a small Pyrex bowl. I'm not concerned about the few drops that linger when I dump the hot water out. Thanks for the clear, logical explanation of your testing process. Since water can only get so hot, that leaves grind, time, ratio and pressure profile as the variables we can work with. I'm an audio geek. Voice levels at the start of the video are louder than at the end, where the pointless "background" music competes with the voice track. The result is that Lance's voice is harder to hear as the video progresses (as the information becomes more important). If you remix this, please ditch the elevator music in favour of clear, informative speech. Many thanks.
I was frustrated with a light roasted coffee I had gotten in the mail last week, especially considering it was a tiny 10oz bag, so I risked running out of coffee before I had gotten good results from it. No matter what I did, it was salty, sour, and way too acidic. I was so confused that I tried even pulling a ristretto, which was an awful idea that made the coffee taste like salsa instead of berries and chocolate. I stopped after half the bag was gone for fear of running out so I could do some more research before I tried again.
And now you guys and Lance have miraculously posted this great video! My questions have been answered, and I know what to do. Time to properly preheat and pull some Lungos!
Fantastic! So glad the video was helpful! Thanks for watching
@@LanceHedrick I literally finally got to try the techniques five minutes ago, and they worked! Love the Americano I'm sipping on right now, thanks to you.
Me too
Woah great video, super helpful! Cool to see lance over here with the flair channel!
Thanks! I love the team at Flair
As a home espresso novice myself I highly recommend checking out Lance Hedricks own RUclips channel where he talks about everything you'd ever want to know to make better coffee at home (not just Flair shots). He even covers pour overs too. An absolute gold mine of industry knowledge there
Thank you, Damien!
@@LanceHedrick Believe me, the gratitude is all mine! I've learned so much from the generosity of knowledge you display on this platform.
Lance ‘rockstar’ Hendrick. 🤟🏻
I, thank you. 🙏
Over here, too! Thank you
Nice.
I’ve been vac sealing and freezing recently. It’s an incredible way to store coffee, and it’s awesome grinding frozen coffee to have that more even particle distribution. 🙋🏻♂️😉🥶
For sure! More even, but just know it also produces more fines. Of course, the finest fines are lessened and the fines overall are more consistent, but more fines nonetheless. That being said, that's a good thing with espresso, for the most part!
What I do is：
1、use less coffee beans, 13 grams or even less, because you need to grind very fine or you will not be able to press it.
2、finer grind, very fine.
3、I put the brew head in the oven and heat it with 110 degree steam. (Water vapor mode)
4、Very long Pre-infusion, 30 seconds-60 seconds of Pre-infusion, all extraction time 2-4 minutes.
5、 increase the ratio, close to lungo, close to 1:3
However, I think the best way is to take the same coffee beans you are going to buy and choose a medium or darker roast.
For example, take Ethiopian and roast it to medium or darker, medium dark is better.
Hi! I have a signature classic ! I used to use 15 g ! Got pretty acidic result so I went finer à mentioned in the video! Went much better but quite hard to pulled though! So as you say i might should go less but you can work on your lever technique ! Pull to 9 then release and then pull gently back to 9 and then it flows right (no dripping)
And, what does it taste like after that 2-4 minute extraction, what's your best coffee bean with the best results in taste?
You blew my mind with it being sour and going coarser. My thought would be to go finer.
I still don't get it lol. Why does that work?
Yeah, under extracted and going coarser??
Think outside the box a bit. Coarser grind made water pass more freely, thus increasing extraction. Finer means more extraction, but TOO fine means water can't flow fully through all the beans without channeling and under extracting. Especially on deep beds like the flair pro 2
This works if you think from a pressure profiling standpoint. Lance doesn't just go right to 9 bar from the start. He goes to 3 for 10-12 seconds for a pre-infusion, ramps up to 9 bar for 10 seconds, and then slowly descends. He isn't aiming for consistent 9 bar pressure for a 25-30 second shot. He wants the very hot water to infuse with the beans, not just pass through them, to pull as much from them as possible (pre-infusion is very important here). If you go to fine you're more likely to channel because some parts of the puck will be too hard for the water to go through so it will pick a path with least resistance. So he's saying go a little coarse but control the water contact with the puck through pressure profiling. That's actually one thing that makes manual machines like the flair so cool :)
Just beginning my espresso adventures and I think it will be like I got into wine. I drank a lot of wine, listened to these guys talk about it like it was the ultimate sensory experience. Ya, right. Well I finally understood when I did get the right bottle (Cain Five). Yes, I now understood what wine drinking was about. OMG. So far I haven't hit that sweet spot in coffee but when I do I'll know it and with the help of videos like this it won't be so hit and miss for so long.
yep, thats how we did it back in the day. we adjust the machine for volume over time.
I went all the way to 14.5g in 42g out. Pulling a 40+ sec shot with a light Guatamala. Talk about weird ratio. But sweet finally. I boil the brew set in a tiny sauce pot that barely fits everything to get it piping hot...
Great video guys! I only use light roasts, and usually go even coarser and pull maximum 7 bar.
Turbo shots! Love it
@@LanceHedrick No, not turbo shots. After pre-infusion I ramp up to 7 bar and keep it there until the flow starts to speed up, then decline gradually. Very similar to what you did, but I don't have this higher peak at the start. It feels like the puck is happier this way. :-)
Oh and my pre-infusion pressure is lower because of this, at 3 bars it would already extract, I'm usually at 1-2 bar for PI.
@@danymeeuwissen5973 what's the brew temp u use for light roast?
@@rossliu6359 as hot as possible, my kettle is set at 98ºC and I boil the brew chamber and portafilter in the kettle.
4:45 grind coarse for narrow/tall portafilters
I have very light roast, African naturals mostly. I can take a bit of sour in my coffee taste, but in espresso it really hits you. I mostly have issue what the taste is sour at the start but bitter at the end (in a single slurp). I think I'm going to just aim for a 2.8:1 ratio right from the start, adjust my grind from that. Then if I feel I need to go 'between grind sizes' I'll start messing with the ratio. And the espresso roasts which I sometimes get in my subscription, I'm going to aim 2:1 from the start and adjust grind from there.
amazing vid! ty
would love to see him playing w turbo shots on the flair
That's probably one of the next videos ;)
this looks really fun- great video. one day i'll have an espresso press!
If you haven’t, Can you demo the light roasts with all this info translated on a gs3 manual paddle? Your explanation techniques are excellent
Its interesting. I have been trying to get shots that are not sour, and I keep trying to go finer, but maybe I should actually go coarser.
So, I'm curious. If there is sourness in the cup, why coarsen the grind? Wouldn't a finer grind produce a higher extraction and less sourness?
I understand that it meets the goal of trying to get the longer ratio in the same time, but wouldn't a finer grind and a longer contact time accomplish a higher extraction?
As Lance explains here, too fine a grind can actually force channels to form causing uneven extraction of the coffee bed as a whole
@@FlairEspresso gotcha! So how can one know if the grind is too fine? Are there any cues other than a taste of over and underextraction in the cup?
Not a brush off but we suggest that you watch one of our feature length brewing classes. If you didn't get answers to questions by watching the demos, you'll likely get answers in the follow-on Q&A sessions. ruclips.net/p/PL56JCAfwBiWjHdMdPzdhWmZpaiPJ1Z4R5
tl;dr answer is a mirror
@@FlairEspresso thank you! I'll go check it out!
Thx for the video Lance! I was struggling with my light roast which was coming out pretty acidic ! Grinding finer and get much better ! Try to go even finer and got almost no acidity but was a bit hard to pull. Going to work on my leverage or reduce sligthly the dose 🙂
Really detailed and useful video. All I need now is a Flair 😓
Get one! Super fun
@@LanceHedrick 😓= no money! I'll keep watching your videos in the meantime- I've subscribed- and hope Flair can email me a deal I can't refuse! Thanks again and keep up the awesome content.
Can you explain why a coarser grind results in a less sour coffee? I would think that a coarser grind would cause the sour taste from under-extraction. Whereas going finer would mean a better extraction for lighter roasts?
Yeah, and you'll hear a lot of advise to first get the grind size as good as possible, and then play with the ratio only to get it into 'perfect'. But.. (apparently), normal 58m baskets aren't deep but are wide. These smaller baskets are deeper but narrow. What happens is that the water is hot at the top but cold at the bottom, and you get uneven extraction. Trying to make the water flow a little bit faster through the deep basket will make things more consistent. So coarser. But, you are absolutely right, this will lessen the maximum extraction. So the ratio goes up to extract more. Coarser but longer.
At least, that is how my head explains it to myself :)
Why did he ground the bean coarser to counteract the sourness from the underedtraction? I thought you would want to grind finer?
1:16 "TOO PUSH!" 😂
thanks, man. that is very helpful. I have struggled with light roasts and almost abandoned pulling espresso with them. I am going to try again. One question: for milk drinks darker roast or light roasts ?
Personally for milk drinks, if i were to choose a lighter roasted coffee, i'd pick one that gives really low acidity result, and always washed proccess to avoid weird flavors. I believe with a good grinder that can elevate a lighter roast bean, you can make better milk drinks than darker roasts but it's also more difficult. (taste's subjective though)
I'd like to read other's thoughts too.
I like lighter roasts and darker roasts for milk. I just always recommend more truncated shots when adding milk!
Lots of great information in this video. I normally pre-infuse at 1 bar for only a few seconds (until the first drop hits the cup). What is the reasoning behind the pre-infusion at 3 bars? I'm worried that I might over-extract or create unwanted channeling by increasing the pre-infusion pressure.
I am probably grinding more finely than you. 3 bars is necessary to saturate fully the puck here, which is one of the main reasons to preinfuse. 1 bar will likely work with a coarser grind setting just fine.
Here’s a tip for people who don’t own a very high end electric kettle with temperature control. Do the same as in the video but instead leave the brew chamber uncovered. Some kettles work with a pressure trigger and shut off as soon as a certain pressure is reached, but in my experience this only makes the brew chamber temperatures reach around 80 C. Leaving the chamber uncovered allows steam to pass though the chamber which not only heats it up faster, and relieves the pressure so that the kettle doesn’t shut off.
Thanks for sharing this valuable tip 👍
Great tip! Thank you
Please do more for different roasted beans. Thank you! Learning a lot especially on flow profiling
Dark road coming next
It takes a few shots from a new coffee before you get it right. The main way to get good shots is to use your flair every single day. Practice makes perfect.
Hey Lance great video!
Thank you, Anna!
Wonderful video, Lance. It’s a near spring lever profile, especially when the operator gently retards the upward movement a wee bit…. Like one would do on a Bezzera Strega, MCAL. So cool the Flair is sensitive enough to also accomplish this manually. My 58+ arrives next week. This video is a must for all seeking those lower pressure spring lever shots, regardless of roast degree.
very very nice, thank you! ... i'm still a little confused about why you coarsened your grind when it was already too sour. my reflex would have been to go finer to slow the shot, have more contact time, and extraction. is this solely based on the hypothesis of probable channels that would occur if the grind was too fine, and therefore coarsening would reduce the likelihood of channelling? if so, is there a trick to keep in mind to distinguish between the two options or to identify when it's probably channeling which would lead to a different approach than a simply too coarse of a grind that needs to be finer? THANK YOU!
Another point Lance made that his first shot was too long and he therefore would have lost some much needed thermal energy to extract solubles. On how fine to grind, place a mirror below and watch for evenness of the extraction. If you're seeing darker and lighter areas, or worse bare filter, grind finer and/or lower dose
Hey! Going too fine can cause the majority of the puck to be underextracted. When too fine, the water will choose channels through which to go and can leave a lot of the puck under, which will give you a high concentration of acidity. Going coarser allows for a more even extraction a la Hendon's 2020 paper
thanks! … i guess that’s why you just might need to “compensate” by lengthening the shot to still extract more from a coarser grind?
@@LanceHedrick thanks 🙏 really needed this! I hope this wil improve my shots. The majority of them are sour and can’t seem to fix it. Letting go of 1:2 ratio is needed in a lot of cases, i think.
@@LanceHedrickDoes this go also with medium to darker roasts?
The more pressure/flow profile that those people been pulling out on manual espresso maker, the more I wonder how to get it done with the semi automatic machine. Definitely it will cost more than 4-5k for the machine alone, which I don't think cafe are serving that type of espresso to us.
Can we increase contact time by lowering the pressure? Or we have to keep it as 9 bar
How do you decide which variable to adjust first?
after you filled it for pre-heat should've put it back on the kettle for extra oomph. during that time, heat was dissipating.
So if the shot is sour "acidic" shouldn't we go finer not coarser?
Thank you!
You said for lighter roast we need to grind finer than dark roast, and seconds later said because of the depth of the flair pro 2 we need to grind a bit coarse, so what is it?
'a gut feeling' 😉. I think, get your flow to about 1mg/second (or not much slower than that) by dialling in grind, and then dial in ratio for wanted taste. And know that for taller baskets you need lower doses. Another way of looking at it is - I think - that you fix unevenness by going coarser, and then compensate by going longer.
I’ve been using a very similar technique/recipe for lighter roasts, and has taken me a while to get here... This video is incredibly welcome and was just amazing watching you walk/talk through your process.
Even with minimal grind size and maxing temp, I can’t get much below 16 in 45 out without being too acidic for me. Could you have also pushed the pre infusion up (what im currently experimenting with) or do you have other suggestions to increase extraction at at lower ratios to increase body?
Yeah! You can definitely push the preinfusion a lot longer, no doubt. Don't worry about time at all. Go really fine, do a long pre infusion (or bloom!), then ramp pressure.
@@LanceHedrick 🙏
is it true that the spout on flair pro 2 cannot stick easily? cause mine is so hard to stick and almost damage my portafilter....
flairespresso.com/contact
Is there a way to purchase only the plastic bottom piece of the kalita? I'm having a hard time finding something to put over my kettle
Do you know if the decent scale works with the smart espresso profiler app?
It does
@Lance Hedrick thanks for the video, beside the portability and other features, how does flair 58 compare to pro 2, just in terms of esspresso body and taste ? Does it worth the extra money ? I'm looking forward to upgrade my pro2 to 58 if the difference worth it.
So, under extracted yet coarsing the grind. Wait wait wait.... I'm going to run down to my flair downstairs now ;).
Can anyone recommend me an affordable scale that fits in the base of this? My scale doesn't fit at all
Outstanding video. I have often wondered if a heat gun could be used to greatly increase the brew chamber temp over steams 212 limit. Lance, do you know if this has been tried?
I have never used a heat gun, so can't speak to it specifically, but give it a go and report back!
Does the dispersion screen go flat side up or down?
Lance is the best coffee teacher.
Thanks, Dakota!
thank you for sharing your knowledge with us!
Why don't you just put back the brewing chamber on the kettle to keep it pre warming while prepping the shot. Putting water in the chamber is an extra step and will lose temperature while you prep the shot. It's seems to be counterproductive. I always put it back on the kettle as steam stays at 100C while boiling water will it 90C pretty quickly.
Yes. I will be doing that next video. I realized this after shooting and editing hahaha
I usually brew with the flair 58, which has the heating apparatus, so I normally don't think about it
I put my brewing chamber directly in the kettle and use a hook I fabricated to fish it out. Can't get any hotter than that and I pull it out after my puck prep so no sitting around cooling off.
my kettle only generates steam in the last 15 seconds it seems.. if I lieve it on top after that, it cools incredible quickly. I dunk my chamber + piston-piece in the boiler and try to get it out, or I have a basket that I can hang 'in' the boiler. But it heats worse than just dunking it on. I do it sometimes because it's easier to get it out, and when I also want to preheat my basket that way. Anyway, putting it back on top cools with me, putting the preheat cap on and pouring some hot water (after it sat in the steam) keeps it warm, but not as hot as just dunking it in.
Is the official flair bluetooth? I can't find much info on it
No
How does this translate over to f58 using a wider basket? Would you also recommend 1.5 gram per second flow?
Hey! I have a video on my channel on the flair 58 with a shot example. Feel free to give it a watch!
@@LanceHedrick definitely will ty!
Just curious how many microns is that for the grind? Just for a ball park idea as I use hand grinder
ooooooo that's a good question. I'd say the burr spacing in microns would be around 375 microns
I still can't get it right. I preheat as much as I can (3 times with boiling water and once more right before I put the brew water in) and on a comandante I grinded at 6 clicks --> that resulted in a super fast shot without even reaching 5 bars of pressure. I went all the way to 4 and even 3 clicks on the comandante --> that resulted in a 2min long extraction while I stayed around 1min at 9bars and then lowered the pressure slowly.
I preinfused like in the video.
I also enlarged the ratio to the extreme --> 15.5g in and 50g out
The espresso keeps being so sour that I can't even drink it. Can anyone help?
Maybe try going on the coarser side and use very low pressure after you hit 9 bars so you can prolong the pull
@9:46 espresso taste sour then coarsen the grind.. this will confuse people lol
Hey! It's because sour can be from channeling. If the grind size is too fine, then water will find a way to make it through the puck, and those ways are channels. The majority of the puck in this instance can be severely underextracted. So, coarsening will help increase extraction by decreasing channels in some cases
@@LanceHedrick i guess this is because puck in flair is thicker than other machines.. anyway other dial-in vids rarely discuss this even for vids that is specific to flair
Discussed in every class in this playlist ruclips.net/p/PL56JCAfwBiWjHdMdPzdhWmZpaiPJ1Z4R5
Is this doable using the flair signature? I'm just concerned since it can only yield 45 ml - less
Maybe lessen my dose instead of 15g to get 1:3 ratio?
Definitely doable. Try 14g first as yield goes up as dose goes down
15g should work fine, from my experience. It'll dictate what kind of roast you can hope to use.
After the first shot.. , why have you coarsened the grounds .. you changed 2 variables, i thought you will just increase the ratio which is relevant for me but why coarsening the grounds cuz if it’s super sour i would either increasing the ratio with the same grind setting or grind finer ..
do you think there'll be any difference to the dialing process between being able to grind in intervals of 12.5microns and 22microns? i'm trying to choose between two hand grinders with these step sizes
I was fine until he contradicted himself in the end. In the middle while Lance was adjusting his grind and ratio, he said adjust the grind "coarser" because the shot was sour and under extracted. I would think, you need to go finer grind to extract better. Why coarser? At the end while he was summarizing, he said to go finer that usual for light roasts. Which way is it finer or coarser?
edit 5/30/2024: I just watched Lance explain the pressure profiling and I understand why now.
ruclips.net/video/rC36en6zo_U/видео.html
LOL, I’m a darkly roasted bean…”take my solubles” please.
I would not prefer to heat up the portafilter basket, as it induces a harsh bad aftertaste to coffee. Having eliminated this part, I was able to get a good shot
Interesting! I have not experienced this. I like to heat everything as much as possible since metal tends to suck the heat. I'll look for this!
@@LanceHedrick I do, I have a explicit steam maker to extremely heat up brew chamber. I used to heat up the portafilter basket also as much as the brewchamber, but everytime I had gotten a really unpleasant aftertaste. After wasting a really nice source of coffee and being upset about it, I found out the source of this defect is heating the portafilter. I have to mention that I might wait 2-3 minute after tamping. But in your video you quickly did tamping and put chamber on it and pulled the shot. That bad aftertaste might have generated in that 2 min waiting time.
I've never noticed a bad aftertaste from that. The same heating happens in most espresso machines and I've not experienced bad aftertastes. Not invalidating your experience, assuredly. Just interested I've not run into that! Thanks for sharing! This could be helpful to others!
isn't it still too wet causing channels or unevenness? Heating seems only like a good thing. Maybe heating it up causing you to go 'a little over', but pulling half a gram or a gram shorter should fix that right up then.
What scale did you say get ???
Acaia Lunar
Great!!
There is no acidic coffee but underextractive technique.
The most extraction from Flare:
1. Go as low grinds as flow can allow to achieve 9 bars. Not course as it was suggested here.
2. To maximize the temperature put the chamber assembly together with coffee and the piston to a pot with boiling water for at least 2 min. Piston in the chamber protects from interning the water from below.
3. 1 min of preefusion at 2 Bars. Grinds should be so fine so the water will emerge after. On my La Pevony it's easy - just open the lever, on the Flare you have to maintain that pressure manually.
Then follow you extraction profile which is good, though slight increase of pressure and flow gives a bit different results.
I don't have sour espressos from light roast. Sometimes grassy notes from under roasted beans.
I mean, this is a valid technique, sure. But to dismiss coarser grounds is a little myopic. Coarser grounds will have less channeling, can achieve higher extraction, etc. Lower pressure is also more consistent with high extraction. Super fine grounds is great, if you have a great grinder.
Cheers
@@LanceHedrick increasing size of grinds is last frontier on light roast dialing. First should be addressed to maximizing the temperature and quality of the pack. Which obviously depends on the quality of the grinder and also packing skills of the barista. Lighter roasts present additional challenges but from the other hand it's hard to over extract them as in darker roasts. So the dialing algorithm should be different too.
Oh I'm quite familiar with dialing in light roasts lol. Going finer can cause more channeling, so it isn't always ideal. Going coarser can allow more even flow through the puck. But, I can see you're set in your mindset, so I won't try to change it haha. If you haven't, though, I'd highly recommend watching my video on turbo shots on my channel or read Hendon's paper on fast shots for a more full understanding on espresso extraction as opposed to the dated, though sometimes proper, "underextracted means I must go finer." Cheers!
@@LanceHedrick @Lance Hedrick that is great paper and great video you made over it. BUT it's about normally roasted coffee - Italian and over. If you applied the same to light and really light roasts like for pour overs - you'll get sour espresso with those "turbo shots". You mentioned "blooming" for lighter roasts, but negative drop in pressure will destroy the consistency of the pack and help to create those channels. That's why keeping pressure during "blooming" or "preinfussion" (call as you wish) stage and it has to be for long time (say 30-60 second) and the temperature has to be as high as possible. That's why you need coffee ground fine enough to stop water from flowing through during that preinfussion stage at low given pressure but saturate the pack evenly.
Also another way to reduce the channeling is going for really thin park by reducing the amount of coffee or going for wider baskets. Flare 58 would do much better job than Classic. But also the barista has to be really good to make the pack even and perfectly leveled.
@@vladbalo7160 hi sir, if doing blooming/ long infusion(40s-1min) , what's yr recommend initial. brew temp for light roast??
We all know light roast is for pour over 😄👌
Hahaha!
I use 18g of coffee and get around 60g of espresso in 25-35sec but you guys get around 30g of espresso? Why this happen? Any tips for me?
he used 16 - 16.5 to 40 - 45 gr
Just stop pulling when you reached your target ratio
@@hushy9695 I think he's saying he has pulled 60g of liquid by 30-35s. That means his flow rate is too high. He needs to grind finer/tamp harder.
You need to grind finer/tamp harder to slow your flow rate
@@danielcohn6884 Ohh you are right, I didn't read it properly before reply.
he doesnt look as much like a hipster yet. i like it
I mean instead of dumping the water down the sink, just pour it back in the kettle to get heated up again 🤷♂️.
Hey man y don’t u slow ur roll and just use the 58 next to u.. ur moving so fast in fear of “loss of heat” in the chamber…
Maybe he wants to help the thousands of people who don't have a 58?
@@mack6861 ur right Mack… if only Tim Cook talked more about the new Capabilities on the iPhone max this year instead of the iPhone12
@@punitdave7034 sorry chief, not tracking with you on the iPhone comparison
Hey! Many people own the pro 2, and prefer it due to the smaller and deeper basket. It's a personal preference thing. For those people, I wanted to show a good way to produce great espresso!
I do love the flair 58 and have a video with it on my channel. 🤣😉
@@LanceHedrick Oh gottcha, and true the pro 2 are in many more kitchens than the 58. Yea Lance I’ve watched ur “daily driver” flair 58 video with the espresso profiler attachment… I think🤞 this is a industry game changer that u can get the 58, profiler attch, and a high end espresso hand grinder for close to $1.1k. 🤯✌🏽
Your videos are so good but what happened to the audio when you turned to pull the shot? Boom mic? Time to invest in a lav, my friend.
That aside, every Flair owner should watch this. So many discussions on the FB group page from people pulling sour shots (myself included).
Can you comment on single origin vs blended? Several people say that single origin coffee is not great for espresso and blends are the way to go. Fact or fiction?
Great instructional video.
Personally, I would just as much like to drink coffee made from under roasted beans as I would like to eat boiled overcooked vegetables.
Anyone else with OCD want to clean the fingerprints off the fridge?!? 😅