Crema Dilemma!!
Hey all! About a week ago, the crema on my shots suddenly and mysteriously disappeared. The shots don't taste wrong, except for the glaring lack of crema, that is. This was after discovering a small rock in my espresso grinder. I examined the burrs, and they look fine. Nothing else has changed (esp. machine, tamp, batch of beans, timing, etc.). I've never encountered this problem, and don't remember any training on the matter. In my experience, you dial in your grind, have fresh tasty beans, tamp consistently, and voila! You have nice shots, and the crema is just there. I'm using a Simonelli Nuovo machine in an office setting. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Al Sterling on
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Jen..... this is a blind stab, but anytime I experience a change in my shots I immediately suspect the coffee. I noted your "......fresh tasty beans..." comment. But of all the variables that could go haywire, the beans are the only thing that, outside of date coding, don't have adjustment knobs. A couple years ago, I wasted one week, yelling at every machine I had, only to find out that what I thought was a good batch of beans, for some reason, possibly wrong date coding, just went flat. I've never repeated that goof. I'm really curious. Please explain what you mean by "......batch of beans?" Are these simply the same beans you've been drawing from all week? And if you figure it out, please share.
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Permalink Reply by Joe Collins on
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Just to add to Al's reply. I would agree that checking the beans may be a good starting point. If its the same bactch you have been using all week, perhaps the beans have fallin over the hill and are no longer fresh enough to pull a good shot with beautiful crema. Or if it is a new batch of beans, perhaps it is a bad batch.
If you have the oppurtunity, try out a different batch of beans and see if you get the same results. If not then you know the problem. If you do however get the same result, check back here and see what other ideas someone may have come up with. Please do let us know what you find out. I am curious as to what the problem is.
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Permalink Reply by Jesse -D-> on
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I would also re inspect the grinder burrs. If they are damaged and you didn't notice then that may be causing an issue. I would remove them from the grinder to check if you are able to.
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Permalink Reply by Bob Von Kaenel on
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I got to work one morning and couldn't get any crema. Checked everything and could not find a problem. Later, we discovered that one of the closers the night before had washed all the portafilters in dish soap. The residue of dish soap was killing the crema. After a good soak in purocaf and a couple of shots drawn to "season" the baskets and PF's everything was fine.
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Permalink Reply by Brandon Malcolm on
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I would most likely blame the beans on this as well. Assuming that your machine is being cleaned properly and often there really aren't many other factors that could cause a lack of crema besides borderline stale coffee. Also, how are you storing your coffee when its not in use? If its sitting in a hopper all night and just being filled when needed that could also be a problem. Another thing to check for is looking at how your coffee comes out of the portafilter at the beginning of your shot. If its really dark and moving quickly then your coffee is definitely stale. Check your roast dates and let us know what you find out!
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Permalink Reply by Alun Evans on
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I guess the assumption would be to tie in the rock with the sudden lack of crema. However in my experience, burrs on a commercial grinder are normally strong enough to withstand a rock or two without affecting the quality of the shot too much. I would agree with Brandon that it is more likely to be that the beans are being left in the hopper overnight. For sure oxiditation of the coffee would seem a more logical reason for loss of crema...
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Permalink Reply by The Village Bean on
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Same sorta thing happened in our shop for an employee that was on duty. She called us at home early one morning and together we tried to trouble shoot what was going on when voila! she found a small rock which completely shut down our Simonelli. She removed the rock and was back in business pronto.
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Yep - I noticed a difference in a recent shipment of our beans. They seemed dry and lacked the clearly visible shiny oils. I called our Roaster who claimed their new dating code was indeed responsible. Interesting huh?
Al Sterling said:Jen..... this is a blind stab, but anytime I experience a change in my shots I immediately suspect the coffee. I noted your "......fresh tasty beans..." comment. But of all the variables that could go haywire, the beans are the only thing that, outside of date coding, don't have adjustment knobs. A couple years ago, I wasted one week, yelling at every machine I had, only to find out that what I thought was a good batch of beans, for some reason, possibly wrong date coding, just went flat. I've never repeated that goof. I'm really curious. Please explain what you mean by "......batch of beans?" Are these simply the same beans you've been drawing from all week? And if you figure it out, please share.
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Permalink Reply by Jennifer Graham on
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Wow!! Thank you all so much for responding! I'm so thankful to be a part of such a caring, supportive, and PASSIONATE bunch. It was the beans after all. That batch was just played out. New beans, and the beautiful crema is back. Also, the hopper advice was much appreciated. I already knew this, but currently don't practice it (shame on ME!). I'm in a very strange situation where I barista every morning in the office of a website development company. (Strange, because I was originally hired by my company, Silver Joe's Coffee Company, to work as an office manager, and due to my previous barista experience, they kind of farmed me out to the website company, which is their partner company!) I'm using 'pro-sumer' equipment, and I leave at 11am every day, and after that, it's DIY coffee drinks for the employees, so long story short, it's not a very controlled environment where I pass the torch off to a fellow barista who'll ensure that proper procedures are followed. Maybe I'll talk to the cleaning crew and see if they can do a few things for me after hours, including emptying the hopper back into the airtight bin. You guys are great! Thanks again.
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Permalink Reply by Eric on
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A few weeks back I had gone into one of my favorite shops, ordered a double, and the crema ended up fading away within a matter of seconds... virtually no crema. Anyway, after a few days of pondering, knowing it wasnt bad beans, I talked some friends and industry peoples, I suggested turning the temperature down on the machine a degree or two it was mentioned to monitor how much they were dosing their shots (ie a consistant weight) and changing these pretty much cured all the ills the espresso was feeling... what ive noticed more often then not when going into coffee shops is that they 1)let the beans sit too long, 2)they dose incorrectly and 3)that the temperature is not tuned on their machines. I thought that it ironic that you had a similar problem, but yeah its good to know all aspects of the coffee and machine... As for the rock in the machine, that is an unfortunate side effect of getting patio dried coffees, and screens not catching them during processing... Hope youre still pullin great shots- Eric Mullins
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