Dialing in
& troubleshooting
The skill that changes your daily cup: a repeatable method for turning a mediocre brew into a good one, using the compass and one variable at a time.
The compass, applied
Every dial-in comes back to one question: is the cup sour (under-extracted) or bitter/harsh (over-extracted)? Sour → grind finer. Bitter → grind coarser. Balanced → stop. Almost everything else is refinement.
A cup can be both sour and bitter at once — the signature of uneven extraction, usually a poor grinder or (in pour-over) channeling, or (in espresso) bad puck prep. When you can’t dial it out with grind, the problem is evenness, not amount.
A repeatable method
Set a baseline recipe
Pick a starting ratio (e.g. 1:16 filter) and a middle grind. Write it down. Dialing in requires a fixed starting point.
Change one variable
Adjust grind only, in clear steps. Never move two things at once or you won’t know what worked.
Taste and name the fault
Sour or bitter? Move grind accordingly and re-brew.
Record the winner
When it’s balanced, write the recipe down. Reproducibility is the whole point (Session 20).
Run a full dial-in
Brew your baseline
Note ratio, grind, taste.
Apply the compass twice
Two correction rounds, grind only, tasting each.
Log the recipe
Save the balanced recipe so tomorrow’s cup starts from a win, not a guess.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- Sour cup — what do you change?
- Bitter cup — what do you change?
- Why change one variable at a time?
- What does "sour AND bitter at once" mean?
- What’s the single best home upgrade?
Pour-over &
filter technique
The clean, articulate side of coffee, and the manual craft most rewarding to learn. Bloom, pour, bed — the moves that make filter reproducible.
How filter works, and how to do it well
Filter is percolation — water passing through a bed of grounds — or immersion. Click through the technique that makes it even:
Brew a deliberate pour-over
Bloom
Wet the grounds with ~2x their weight in water; wait 30–45 s and watch them swell.
Pour in stages
Add water in steady, controlled pours, keeping the bed even; avoid gouging the center.
Read the bed
A flat, even spent bed = even extraction; a crater or slope = channeling. Adjust your pour next time.
Taste against the compass
Sour → grind finer; bitter → coarser. Same compass, now with pour control layered on.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- How does pour-over extract?
- What is the bloom for?
- What is channeling and how do you spot it?
- Contrast French press with paper pour-over.
- Why is immersion more forgiving?
Espresso
technique
The unforgiving one — and the reason brewing earned its expanded weight. Pressure, a fine puck, and seconds that magnify every error into the cup.
What makes espresso hard
Espresso is a different discipline: ~9 bar of pressure through a fine, compacted puck in under 30 seconds. Click through what that demands:
You still need this session: it’s why café espresso varies so much, why baristas obsess over grind and prep, and why a moka pot or AeroPress "espresso-style" brew isn’t the same drink. Understanding the shot makes you a sharper judge even if you never pull one.
Dial a shot (or diagnose one)
Weigh in and out
Start ~18 g in, aim ~36 g out in ~25–30 s. Weigh both — espresso is dialed by weight and time.
Read the flow
Gushing and fast → sour, under-extracted → grind finer. Dripping and slow → bitter, over-extracted → grind coarser.
Check puck prep
Simultaneously sour and bitter, or a squirting shot? Suspect uneven distribution/tamp — channeling, not grind.
Questions
Flashcards
Lock it in
From memory:
- Define espresso by pressure, grind, time.
- Give a common dose/ratio/time starting point.
- Why does puck prep matter?
- Fast gushing shot — what and why?
- Why does espresso deserve its own session?