Pulling Your First Great Shot on Series 1

There are a lot of variables at play, small adjustments can make a big difference, and it often takes a few rounds to really get things going in the right direction.

The good news is, you’re not on your own — we are here to help you get your Series 1 pulling great shots. In general, a solid espresso shot will take somewhere between 25 and 45 seconds to pull, and will be roughly a 1:2 ratio of coffee (in grams) to espresso (in milliliters). Keep in mind these are just rough ranges — different roast types or coffees have different profiles, and a little variation on any variable is common. 

To begin getting you dialed in, let’s discuss a few important variables:

Your coffee

Good coffee always starts with good beans. Make note of the roast date on your coffee. Older coffees will be much more difficult to nail a shot time for, so try to pull a shot with a coffee that’s less than 2-3 weeks old if you haven’t already.

The best place to get this is from a local coffee shop or roaster. If you’re buying coffee at the grocery store, make sure you check the roast date (not a “best by” date!). It can be tough to find more recent roast dates there; we recommend visiting your favorite local coffee shop and they will almost certainly have more recently roasted options for you. If you prefer, we’d be happy to even recommend roasters in your area. Another option for you are the Espresso Picks on our coffee marketplace. We selected these coffees specifically for pulling a great shot for a first-timer on Series 1, and the coffee is roasted to order, so we know it will be fresh for you! Plus, we’ve created custom profiles for each, to make dialing in Series 1 even easier.

One more important note about coffee beans: dark, decaf, and older beans will pull faster shots, so those will need to be ground even finer than fresh, lighter roasts.

What specific coffee are you pulling shots with right now? Knowing the brand/roaster and the roast level would be helpful.

Your grind

After great beans comes the grind. First things first, you need a grinder capable of grinding finely enough for espresso. If you’re not sure if yours is, we can help with that – just let us know what you are using. In our Fellow line-up, Opus can grind for espresso, and Ode cannot. 

In general, espresso settings will be the finest available setting on your grinder. If you’re not already grinding in that finest range, I’d recommend trying that as one of the first changes. Espresso needs super fine grinds, so don’t be afraid to go to the finest option, even if it’s outside of your grinder’s “recommended” range for espresso. Remember the general rule of thumb: if the shot is too fast, grind finer. If the shot is too slow or “choking” (no espresso coming out at all), grind a bit coarser. 

Remember to weigh your beans before and after grinding! Most profiles will want 18 grams of whole beans in. Most grinders have some amount of retention (basically grinds that stay in the grinder instead of coming out the chute), so it’s important to measure that you still have 18 grams after grinding. Under-dosing (using less than 18 grams) can cause your shots to run fast.

What grinder are you using?

What grind settings have you tried on it?

Profiles

Series 1 comes with a number of built-in espresso recipes or “profiles.” The simplest ones are Light, Medium, and Dark Roast. For the purposes of getting dialed in, we recommend just choosing the profile that matches the coffee beans you are using. 

• Fellow Medium Roast: 18 grams in → 36 grams out (most common, and the default profile on your Series 1)
• Fellow Light Roast: 18 grams in → 45 grams out
• Fellow Dark Roast: 18 grams in → 27 grams out

Any of these profiles, when using fresh coffee and grinding correctly, should result in a shot that is roughly 25 to 45 seconds. 

Pressure

Typical pressure to make great espresso is 9 bars. To hit the right time on your shots, you need to create resistance in the puck, so the shot takes long enough to pull and there is enough time for the right flavors to develop and the coffee to properly extract. You can create this resistance through all the things we’ve been covering: fresh, quality coffee beans; the right dose (typically 18 grams), and a fine grind that water has a harder time passing through. When these are all truly in place, it should be enough to hit 9 bars of pressure on your Series 1. You can see the bars of pressure your machine is reaching on the circular gauge on the screen while pulling the shot.

If you are not hitting 9 bars in our Light, Medium, or Dark profiles, there is not enough resistance in the puck. Two things you can try:

• Using the double-walled basket. This will create extra pressure if the grind is still too coarse, and should help you get within range.
• Updosing slightly. Our baskets on Series 1 are 18 gram baskets, but they can accommodate ~19 grams of most coffees and still leave enough headspace above the puck

Dosing: volumetric vs. by weight

Now that we have fresh coffee, a fine enough grind, our profile selected, the right dose and target weight for that profile, and the right basket in place, the last thing to look at is your Series 1’s settings. (Remember when we said there are a lot of variables going on??)

Out of the box, Series 1 uses what’s called “volumetric dosing.” (This is under Settings > Customization > Brew Stop > Volume.) This means that the machine estimates the volume of the shot using the flow of the water, not by measuring time during extraction or by weighing the shot. This approach is convenient, but can require some fine tuning and calibration. We have step-by-step instructions on how to calibrate your volumetric dosing here. In short, you will pull a manual shot using the fresh coffee, fine grinds, and basket you have selected up until this point. This is to make sure all those elements are indeed dialed in, and you can get a great manual shot. Next, you’ll pull a shot with volumetric dosing, and use the difference between the two to calibrate the machine. All of this is explained step by step here: Volumetric Dosing on Series 1.

If you prefer to get the exact target weight of your espresso in each shot, we recommend switching on to manual controls, where you will use a scale to measure the weight of your espresso shot, and start and stop your shots by pressing the Brew button on the machine when your target weight is reached. You can turn this on by going to Settings > Customization > Brew Stop > Off. This will be the most reliable way to ensure you get exactly the volume you want out of the machine for every shot!

Experimentation

We just covered a lot, so thank you for reading this far! We have agents available by phone if you are interested in geeking out about this together and learning more. Remember that getting great espresso takes trial and error, and there are a lot of variables to play with. The good news is, once you get the basics down, dialing in different coffees or experimenting with new techniques and shot profiles will become way easier, and more fun! Our team is always here to help you out along the way.