After getting my Linea Mini, I went to a local coffee shop and roaster to get my first beans. Lineage being close, and knowing what their coffee taste like, figured it would be a good start to learn how to dial in coffee. I also got the chance to ask them about their brewing parameters: 18.5g in, 40.0g out, 207 degrees in about 30 seconds - assumed 9 bar pressure. If I brewed it half decent, it should taste similar the coffee shop since that's the bean they use. When I got there, to my dismay, they didn't have the 431 beans. A guy behind the counter generously provided me some beans from their shop's large bag and put it in a paper cup. It ended up being enough for a few double shots. A couple days later I was able to drop by and get a full bag.
The first few shots were pretty awful. It was either too sour, too bitter or somehow both sour and bitter. With the sour and bitter, I was feeling a bit of defeat. To say the least, I was getting really discouraged. Perhaps this was a lot trickier than I anticipated. After trying different in/out volumes, and time, I decided to lower the temperature to 203. Using a 17g basket, with a 40g output in about 28 seconds, I finally was able to get a balanced cup. Not perfect, but easily drinkable. Repeating the same parameters, I was able to get a great cup 60% of the time. Not sure why the taste was inconsistent when I used the same parameters and technique. I suspect I am not tamping quite right and there is inconsistency. Still a lot to learn!
Overall the coffee beans tasted great and Lineage providing some beans to experiment with was great service. I look forward to trying some of their other beans in the future.
