Why Does My Espresso Taste Sour?

What to do if your espresso tastes bad.

Links:

Freshly roasted high-quality coffee beans from The Coffeeworks (my website): https://cworks.co.uk (use discount code yt25 for 25% off your first order).
Coffee blog: https://coffeeblog.co.uk
Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/coffeeblogkev

By the way, if you're in the UK or Europe (including Ireland, Germany, France, and most other countries in mainland Europe) see: https://coffeeblog.co.uk/sage-applian...


Current Gear:

Quick note. I'm including all of this info because when I was starting out, I found it really difficult to figure out what gear to use, so I'm hoping if there's anyone looking to set up for YouTube, this might help. If you need more help just email me, kev at coffeeblog.co.uk - if I don't know the answer I'll ask the professionals.

I'm listing the current setup first that the pros are using, and then my original more budget setup.

The pro stuff (new studio setup, with brickovenmedia.co.uk)

Blackmagic Pocket 4K https://amzn.to/3EnYAKJ
Samyang 35 mm T1.5 VDSLR II Manual Focus Video Lens https://amzn.to/3RB4Q4I
VILTROX EF-M2 II Focal Reducer Booster Adapter Auto-Focus 0.71x compatible with Canon EF mount Lens to M43 Cameras https://amzn.to/3e37Qcp
Glide Gear TMP100 Adjustable iPad/Tablet/Smartphone Teleprompter Beam Splitter Glass https://amzn.to/3C7hRgt
Promptsmart Pro https://bit.ly/3CAhXPl (tablet prompter app, includes voice tracking, very good! If you have it more than a couple of metres away from you, just use a lav mic with an extension so it can year you).
Aputure LS COB 300D II LED Continuous Fresnel Light 300D Mark II https://amzn.to/3SVy4ft
Aputure Accent B7C 7W RGBWW LED Smart Bulbs https://amzn.to/3RD0ABu
aputure light dome ii https://amzn.to/3M5XjcY
Sennheiser MKH 60
Sanken Cos 11 Lavalier

If you're interested in any of this gear but you don't want to buy new, check out https://www.mpb.com/en-uk

My budget setup (prior to working with Brickoven):

Canon M6 Mark ii https://amzn.to/3zoczes (quick note, knowing what I now know I wish I'd have gone for the pocket 4k, which you can get used from MPB for a few hundred more.

Blue Ember Mic (used mainly for voiceovers): https://amzn.to/3pT6WR1
RØDE VideoMic Pro: https://amzn.to/3DV7xHg (note, it's good for the £, but with what I now know thanks to the guys at Brickoven, I'd recommend the RØDE NTG4 https://amzn.to/3M8nIXy or RØDE NT5.
Focusrite Scarlett Solo 3rd Gen USB Audio Interface: https://amzn.to/3e3qwFn
Amaran 100D LED Video Light, 130W 5500K (Key light): https://amzn.to/3oQYrqY
Aputure Light Dome SE Softbox: https://amzn.to/3ESdHcJ
Neewer Bi-color 660 LED Video Light and Stand Kit (Fill light): https://amzn.to/35jUtwp
Neewer Portable 56 inch/142 cm Aluminium Camera Tripods (I have a few of these, very good value) https://amzn.to/3pPlCke
Cayer BV30L tripod with fluid head https://amzn.to/3fJdEbr (mega tripod for the money!)

A couple of very quick bits of advice I wish I'd have known prior to setting up:

1: Room treatment is the most important thing where audio is concerned, focus on this first, and gear second. Watch my first videos and cringe at the awful audio. In the new studio we've got really simple but effective audio treatment in the form of big wooden frames with cotton fabric wrapped around them, filled with rockwool. Works VERY well, they would work as wall panels too. We also have heavy-weight (1kg per square metre) wool audio curtains which help to soak up audio.

2: Shotgun mics need to be relatively close. One of the big issues I had early on in addition to poor audio treatment is I thought directional mics would work fine from a few metres away, I was wrong (especially in a room with poor acoustics). Get your mic as close as you can so you don't need to go crazy with the gain, and you won't struggle like I did for months trying to remove awful background noise.

Please note, affiliate links included above.

Timecodes:

0:00: Intro
0:40: What is dialing in?
1:17: What do we mean by "bad" tastes?
1:57: Twiglets?
2:39: Under vs over extraction
2:55: How to identify under and over extraction?
5:16: Choosing the right coffee beans
6:22: How to fix sour shots of espresso
7:39: How to fix bitter shots of espresso
8:15: Outro
8:19: Kev's completely useless info
8:39: Tatty Bye :-)


#espresso #sour #homebarista