Pre-infusion and extraction
The beauty of using a manual lever is that you are in complete control of the
extraction, you can vary the pressure and flow as you see fit. One of the most
important stages of the extraction process is the pre-infusion stage; this is
when the coffee first meets the hot water under gentle pressure and flow.
This causes the coffee to swell and is believed to set the foundations for a
more consistent and even extraction.
After locking in the prepared PF with the hot water, let the lever arms fall
gently down under their own weight – I like to keep my fingers under the arms
so that although I am letting them fall by themselves, I am in control as well.
Next push the lever arms down slowly and gently, do not release the
pressure. Slowly hold this until you start to see coffee beads appear at the
bottom of the basket – assuming you are using the BPF. Depending upon
your grind setting I would aim to Pre-Infuse until I see beads of coffee for
around 5-10 seconds. Then I would press the lever arms down.
So it would be something like this:
Lock in PF and let the arms fall - 2 seconds
Press gently and pre-infuse until coffee appears 5-10 seconds
Hold this position – optional
Extract by pushing lever arms down – >15 seconds
Advanced Heat Management
The water temperature is a very important factor in producing good coffee.
As was stated previously, if you put boiling hot water (99.5 deg c) from the
kettle into the room temperature prepared basket, it will immediately drop by
around 4 deg c. Which will put you in the right area for making espresso.
The coffee itself, the basket, and the piston will all combine to remove heat
from the brewing water, and so you can experiment with ways to raise the
temperature of the water. Some ways are:
• Pull a dummy shot with no coffee in the basket
• Pull a dummy shot with old coffee/spent puck in the basket
• Pre-heat the basket and PF in a cup of hot water for 10-20 seconds
before adding the coffee
• Use the BPF rather than with the spouts on which will help mostly with
raising the coffee in the cup temperature
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