Dialling in espresso

Lance Hedrick's espresso guidance from 2021 to 2025, brought together. Grind is only one of several levers, and much of his advice is about when to leave the grinder alone.

1. Before the first shot

• Weigh everything in grams instead of using the volumetric buttons 1:10.
• Set the dose by headspace rather than by the number on the basket. Overfill, tamp, lock in and remove the portafilter. If the shower screen or its screw leaves a mark, there's too much coffee, so take some out until the puck just clears 4:37 5:09. Underfilled baskets give thinner body, and a small gap gives more texture, but contact with the screen causes channelling 5:08.
• Pick a starting ratio from the roast, about 1:2 (or slightly less) for dark, 1:2.5 for medium and 1:3 and up for light 1:00 3:13. In 2021 Lance Hedrick suggested starting near 1:2.5 for any new coffee and adjusting from there 17:52, and for light roasts on a 9-bar machine he still begins around 1:2.5 3:39. By 2025 his advice was to avoid 1:2 or shorter unless the coffee is dark, with lighter roasts at 1:2.2 or longer 43:28.
• Read the bag. Dense washed heirloom light roasts need more push, meaning finer, a longer ratio such as 1:4 and hotter water, for example 93 to 96 °C 5:35. More soluble varieties, natural or anaerobic processes and darker roasts need less, so use a shorter ratio, cooler water or a coarser grind 6:36 7:06.
• Temperature sits roughly between 90 and 96 °C (195 to 205 °F) 1:32. His 2021 guide put dark at about 195 °F, medium at 200 °F and very light at 205 °F 17:45.

2. Finding the grind range

• Start coarser than you think and work finer. Coarse grinds flow evenly and make the direction obvious, while very fine grinds hide unevenness and invite channelling 17:52 7:14.
• Texture check. Lance Hedrick's cue has changed over time. In 2022 he wanted powdery grounds that hold a fingerprint 4:44, and in 2023 a small peak and a fingerprint without pilling 2:05. By 2025 visible fingerprints meant too fine, and he listened for a gritty sound 6:44. Use it only to get into range 4:13.
• Fix the flow before judging the taste. A very fast, watery shot may simply be ground far too coarse, so get it flowing like honey and then decide between sour and bitter 6:09. The first drops should appear by about 10 to 12 s, and much later means too fine 9:19. If a shot gushes in 10 to 20 s, go a click or two finer 5:05, and if it barely drips, go coarser and purge 3:01.
• Big jumps on fine dials. On a stepless dial with steps of about 2.2 µm, move several numbers at a time 22:37.
• The fixed-gap shortcut (2025). Note where your usual coffee tastes best and pull one shot of each new coffee at that setting. How far off the time is tells you which way to go and how far, and you can reuse settings from similar coffees 10:45 11:16.

3. Adjusting by taste

• Taste framework. Sour means under-extracted, so push it. Bitter, watery and drying means over-extracted, so pull back 4:04. Tasting a shot in thirds shows sour first, then sweet, then watery and drying 13:50 4:41.
• Change the ratio before the grind. For mild sourness, keep the grind and dose and let the shot run longer, for example 20 g in and 55 g out instead of 50 4:34. Increase the yield first, then change the grind 16:28. To preview a longer shot, catch the last few grams in a second cup and stir them in 13:19.
• Yield is the best lever for extraction. A higher temperature also extracts more but tends to bring bitterness 43:28.
• Body vs extraction. Lower ratios are thicker but extract less 13:50 16:30. For more body without sourness, try a deeper bed or a larger basket at a coarser grind 15:51, or add half a gram to the dose 12:18.
• Change one thing at a time and take notes 6:43 20:01.

4. Don't chase rules

• Time is a result, so don't aim for it. 25 to 30 s is only a starting zone 14:26. Shots of 40 to 45 s with a long pre-infusion can be excellent 31:00, and so can 60 to 80 s shots 10:39. Adjust dose, grind and ratio first 17:54.
• 9 bar is not sacred. Pressure that drops as the puck erodes suggests the grind isn't so fine that it channels from the start 20:27. Old or low-CO2 coffee builds less pressure, and grinding to powder just to hit 9 bar hurts the balance 25:29. Pressure depends on the pump's flow and the puck's resistance together, so machines with more flow hold pressure for longer 30:35.
• Coarser often wins. If a shot is muddy, grimy or bitter at a "correct" time, go coarser and win back the extraction with ratio or temperature 10:15. If it runs fast even at the finest setting, stop going finer and try a coarser grind with a bigger dose and basket 29:36.
• Tamping. Tamp level until the coffee stops moving. Tamping harder does nothing, and tamping harder to slow a shot is a myth 12:44 7:46. Uneven flow between two spouts doesn't mean uneven extraction 11:24.

5. By roast

He puts sourness down to the extraction rather than the roast. Brewing a light roast with dark-roast settings under-extracts it 19:31.

6. Turbo and other styles

• Turbo shots come from the work of Cameron, Hendon, Lee and Foster. Grind much coarser and use about 6 bar, roughly 1:3 in 12 to 20 s, no pre-infusion, a basket matched to the dose, and WDT. They look ugly but taste sweet and clear, with less body 21:19. A 6-bar shot out-extracted 9 bar at every grind tested 8:07. Aim for a flow of about 4.5 to 5 g/s 17:45, because past about 20 s unpleasant compounds can creep in 17:15.
• For very light roasts there's the blooming turbo. Open fully for about 3 s, close until the pressure drops to about 2 bar, then reopen to about 5 mL/s, still finishing in under 20 s at 1:3 27:56.
• Espresso styles run from traditional 1:2 shots to allongé (about 1:5), turbo, low-contact and blooming shots, and the best grinder for one may not suit another 5:04.
• Soup shots (2026). Cafés such as Sey (Brooklyn), Big Sur (Shanghai) and Motors (Paris) now serve coarse, high-flow shots at low pressure and long ratios, from 1:2.3 to 1:6 in about 10 to 20 s 0:00. The grind is coarser than for pour-over, so the machine's own flow sets the time and the grind window is huge. Going five clicks coarser can give the same time 4:03 19:39. Pressure barely matters and temperature does, so brew cooler, at 83 to 90 °C 10:00 10:22. Extraction lands low, about 10 to 16%, yet the cups are sweet, clear and not sour, because a coarse, even flow at low pressure avoids the channelling that makes fine shots sour 14:07 22:17. Lance Hedrick cites Dr Samo Smrke's work on fines, which suggests that past about 18% extraction the floral and fruity compounds give way to bitter ones 5:36. There's no crema but plenty of texture, and a paper filter keeps it clean 7:23. Use a puck screen, because a coarse bed under a big headspace channels where the water lands 14:33. Time it to your machine's flow. Run water for 10 s and divide the grams by 10. Under 7 g/s, aim for 11 to 14 s, and over 7 g/s, aim for 9 to 12 s 7:56. The three café recipes are with the espresso recipes.

7. Grinder-related levers

• RDT can raise extraction by cutting clumps, but the right amount depends on the grinder. Start around 5 to 10 µL per gram and test 39:23. See retention, static and RDT.
• Slow feeding makes the grind coarser at a given setting, so you may need to go finer 8:39. See slow feeding and RPM.
• Going from a light roast to a dark one at the same setting runs slower, so go coarser when you switch 22:28.
• Channelling creates bitter pockets in a puck that's otherwise under-extracted, so a bitter, dry shot can still need more extraction. Fix the distribution first 23:52 2:31. Tap the portafilter and use a fine-needle WDT tool 8:08.
• With RPM control, get close with the dial and fine-tune with the RPM 12:41.

Worked examples with stated settings

James Hoffmann's approach

His Understanding Espresso series (2020 and 2021) and his dial-in videos put the emphasis in slightly different places from Lance Hedrick, though the two mostly agree.

• Order of operations. Fix the dose and the target yield, and use the grind to get the flow roughly right, for example 18 g in and 36 g out in about 30 s. Then fine-tune by taste with yield and dose, and leave temperature until last 5:34 2:14 4:31. Change only one variable that affects flow at a time 10:07.
• Ratio. He works around 1:2 to 1:2.2 and uses yield changes of 2 to 3 g as quick fixes. Going from 36 g to 39 g took one shot from harsh and sour to balanced. Bigger changes dilute the shot, so change the grind or dose instead 6:38 7:39 8:10.
• Dose. Keep it constant while dialling in. The basket sets it, at roughly its rated size 6:35 3:34. Light roasts suit lower doses and dark roasts higher ones, with about 19 g for a medium 5:34 1:43. Changing the dose by half a gram saves coffee compared with a grind change, and more dose slows the shot 7:36 5:23.
• Time is an output. 25 to 30 s is a good window for beginners rather than a rule 0:30 8:34, and hitting the time doesn't mean the shot is right 3:18. With a 9 bar machine and a flow restrictor, the first drops come after about 6 to 8 s 6:32. A long pre-infusion needs a much finer grind to add extraction overall 8:04.
• Temperature. Roughly 85 to 90 °C for dark, 88 to 92 °C for medium and 90 to 95 °C for light. Change it in steps of at least 1 °C, and only after ratio and dose 6:03 6:34. A machine accidentally left at 88 °C was transformed when raised to 93 °C 5:53.
• Channelling. A sudden rise in flow late in the shot while the pressure falls means the puck is channelling. It tastes weak and hollow, with sour acidity and a harsh, bitter finish. Back the grind off slightly and improve the puck prep 2:20 9:06 9:37. If your grinder or prep is holding you back, brewing at a lower pressure (about 6 bar) with a coarser grind is easier 15:40.
• Puck prep. Distribution matters most. Grind into a cup, shake out the clumps and stir from the bottom up with a fine-needle WDT tool, because wedge tools only level the top 3:34 5:04 7:07. Tamp pressure either does the job or it doesn't 16:13. A paper under the puck sped a 28 to 29 s shot up to about 23 s and raised the extraction, so grind finer to make up for it 11:39.
• Purge. After any grind change on a grinder that retains coffee, purge 5 to 10 g before the test shot 10:38.

His worked dial-ins

Bean-to-cup machines

Their brew groups do no real puck prep, so fine grinds channel. Measure the actual dose, set the strength and temperature to maximum and start near 4:1 by weight. Keep the grind no more than one or two steps finer than the factory setting, then add 5 mL per brew until bitterness appears and step back. Dark roasts can work at 3:1 2:01 4:36 6:38 8:08 9:41.

Where he and Hedrick line up

Both treat shot time as an outcome, and both prefer changing the ratio before the grind for small corrections. Both also say that grinding too fine causes channelling, which tastes bitter even though the shot is under-extracted overall 0:30 17:54 7:39 4:34 4:03 22:52.

Daddy Got Coffee's view

His universal method from 2026 1:33:

• Start at 18 g in and 36 to 42 g out (1:2 to 1:2.5) in 25 to 30 s. If the puck shows an imprint of the shower screen, reduce the dose 1:33 3:06.
• The grind gets you into the right area and the ratio fine-tunes it. Chasing taste with the grind alone tends to over-correct. On an Encore ESP Pro, 15 was slightly sour and 14 sweeter, and then extending from 38 g to 49 g balanced it 7:44 4:09 8:46.
• Sour: grind finer or extend the ratio. Bitter: stop earlier or grind coarser 8:46.
• By coffee: dark roasts get tighter ratios or a coarser grind, and light roasts go finer and longer than 1:2.5. Washed coffees go slightly finer or longer than naturals, and decaf goes finer but with a tighter ratio 15:57 17:31 18:03. Very acidic light roasts can work as coarse turbo shots around 1:4 to 1:5 20:06.
• If the results don't follow your grind changes, suspect the puck prep. Distribute with WDT or a blind shaker and tamp level 9:46 10:48.
• Temperature around 90 to 92 °C, erring cooler. Dropping to about 6 bar can reduce channelling 12:51 13:53.
• Burr choice: on a pump machine, SSP HU builds pressure easily, while Cast V3 needs very fine grinding and suits levers 13:52 10:11.

Kyle Rowsell's view

• Turbo. Go several notches coarser, drop the dose to about 15 to 17 g and aim for about 1:3 in roughly 15 s at a lower pressure 4:48. Turbo gives definition and clarity with less body, while traditional shots keep more texture, suit milk better and may suit darker roasts 5:48. That matches Lance Hedrick's turbo section.
• Method, with Boram Um. Hold everything steady, change one small thing each shot and write it down 4:04. If a shot is too acidic, lengthen the yield, for example from 40 g to about 45 to 46 g on a 20 g dose 4:35. It's the same ratio-first move that Lance Hedrick and Daddy Got Coffee use.
• A profile with falling pressure, at 1:2 or shorter, tames astringent dark roasts and lifts the acidity 3:32. Expect to grind coarser on a manual lever such as a Flair than on a pump machine like his Bianca 8:34.

The Coffee Chronicler's view

• His rule of thumb is a shot of 25 to 35 s 3:00. Medium-dark roasts extract easily, while a basic built-in conical can't properly extract light roasts 10:01. For dark roasts he prefers a grinder with a blended distribution, and saves very uniform grinders for medium and lighter coffees 15:31.
• On hand grinders with coarse espresso steps, like the Timemore C3, lock in the one click that works and fine-tune with the dose or tamp 7:24. On a 1Zpresso K-Ultra or K-Max he starts new beans around 2.5 and goes a little finer with a precision basket 11:31.
• Slowing the burrs to 900 to 1000 rpm from around 1500 turned an astringent shot into a balanced one on one grinder 10:18. He suggests a hand grinder for brewing plus an electric for espresso, to avoid constantly resetting the grind 10:27.

Sprometheus's view

• Method. Change one thing at a time, start with the grind, and taste even the failed shots 8:20 5:36. There's no permanent perfect setting, so keep adjusting through the day 7:18, and landing close to the target time and yield is good enough 2:36.
• Light roasts. Brew hotter with less coffee. He cut his dose from 20 g to 17 g 1:00. If it's sour, grind slightly finer and then raise the yield if it persists. If it's bitter, grind slightly coarser and then cut the yield 5:06. He treats lowering the temperature as a last resort 4:05, unlike European Coffee Trip's barista Alan, who changes the temperature before the grind.
• Body versus clarity at the right time. Finer with less yield gives thicker, sweeter shots with less clarity, and coarser with more yield gives thinner, clearer, more balanced ones 7:50. Tasting different ratios of one coffee, 1:1 was syrupy, 1:2 rounded, and 1:3 to 1:5 aromatic and juicy but watery 4:43.
• Pressure and style. In his pressure test, 7 bar gave the sweetest, cleanest cup, and 4 to 5 bar turned sour and thin 3:36. For punchy light single origins, lower the pressure to 6 to 7 bar and go finer so the time holds 2:01. Bright light roasts also suit a 1:5 allongé 5:10, while a thin, bitter dark coffee improved as a finer 1:1 ristretto 2:32. Unimodal burrs need faster, longer shots, 40 g or more in about 20 s 7:42.
• Prep before grind. Sour, thin, channelled shots often need a firmer tamp or a deeper levelling depth rather than a finer grind 1:42, and a puck screen adds so much resistance that he grinds much coarser 5:37.

European Coffee Trip's view

• A professional barista dialling in an unfamiliar Victoria Arduino Eagle One Prima fixes the dose, then moves the grind, ratio and temperature, and accepts roughly 25 to 32 s instead of chasing perfection 13:56. If it's dry or astringent, go slightly coarser and a little shorter. If it's sharp and thin, go finer for texture and sweetness 3:12. A thin washed Ethiopian improved by going a little finer and cutting the yield from 36 g to 30 to 34 g 7:27. He likes a hotter brew, so more comes out in less time 2:40.
• Barista Alan raises the water by 1 to 2 °C (staying within 93 to 97 °C) for sour or salty shots before touching the grind. For light roasts that are astringent despite good prep, he grinds coarser and aims for roughly 1:3 3:09.
• Filter roasts used for espresso want a higher dose and a longer ratio, for example 20 g of coffee to roughly 60 g of espresso 4:07.
• On a Flair Espresso Pro, sour shots need proper preheating and a finer grind. Channelling calls for a consistent grinder, broken-up clumps and a slow pressure ramp 6:08 7:08.
• Dennis Kramar at Rebelbean explains the Mahlkönig E80W Grind by Sync. It moves the burrs based on shot-time feedback and avoids the over-correction a barista might make after one bad shot 5:39 9:19.

Brian Quan's view

• Read the graph, then taste. On a Decent DE1, go finer when the pressure falls short of the target. If it overshoots and few drops appear in pre-infusion, grind coarser, and if the decline arrives too early, go slightly finer 6:09 7:15 10:47. Once the curve fits, tune the temperature, and let taste make the final call 17:04 12:21.
• Light roasts. Blooming profiles with longer ratios of 1:4 to 1:5 calm sourness, and the Rao allongé goes further, to 1:5 to 1:7 1:38 11:15. Dark roasts want a shorter pre-infusion 8:03. Muddy shots call for less pre-infusion, a slightly coarser grind or a cooler, slower flow 8:16. This lines up with Lance Hedrick's advice on longer ratios for light roasts.
• Learn your grinder. Dial in one coffee as an extreme turbo shot and as a traditional shot to see what each gives up, then settle somewhere in between 0:31 3:03.
• On a La Pavoni Europiccola, light roasts work with the dose cut to about 10 g, ground coarser and pulled fast to 1:3 3:35. A turbo shot needs only about 4 to 6 bar and no especially fine grind 6:05.

Bluebird Coffee Roastery's view

• Recipe before grind (the Under Extracted series). Settle the dose and yield, and so the ratio, before touching the grinder, and treat time as a window rather than a target. A classic shot sits roughly between 1:2 and 1:3, and taste has the last word 5:08 2:33 4:00. Match the dose to the basket. Too little and the water drops straight through, and too much makes distribution, tamping and flow suffer. The café up-doses a 21 g basket for sweetness and room to run longer 6:38 8:11. On a hopper grinder, set its dose until it delivers the target weight before judging the grind 5:30.
• A worked dial-in. With a soluble medium blend at 1:2 and the pressure held at 9 bar, a fast first shot went finer, overshot to about 32 s, and came back one step to land in a 26 to 28 s window 7:31 13:37. Sour means under-extracted and harsh and bitter means over-extracted, and the aim is sweetness balanced against acidity 8:02. Lighter roasts usually want a longer ratio than that 1:2 4:30.
• Bar habits. Bright washed Kenyans and high-end light coffees go to 1:2.5 to 1:3 to round off the acidity 4:04 9:01 3:31. Heavily processed or funky coffees are pulled fast, long and a little cooler to stay clean 3:35 5:06. In one test at about 1:2 to 1:2.2, a coarser, faster shot gave higher strength and extraction than a slow one, which went against what they expected 8:34. Naturals have a more broken-down cell structure, so they extract more readily than clean washed coffees 7:43.
• Grinder limits. Cheap stepped grinders often have espresso steps too coarse to dial in with, which the Encore ESP's fine lower range solves 1:34. Built-in grinders that can't go fine enough rule out some light roasts 9:03. Their habit of longer ratios agrees with Lance Hedrick's advice for light roasts.

Summarised in our own words from the creators' videos, with every point linked to the moment it comes from. Notchbook isn't affiliated with or endorsed by any of these creators, so please watch the originals for full context. Sources

Notchbook is a free app that remembers the grind setting that worked for each coffee, grinder, brew method and filter paper, and keeps a journal of every brew. Get it free on Google Play. The iPhone app is coming soon. More about Notchbook.