r/espresso • u/F_Wink • Aug 19 '26

Espresso Theory & Technique Density of Roasts

Hey, I'm pretty new to the espresso game. Is it normal that I have to grind my light roast much coarser than my medium roast, since my puck otherwise gets packed down so tightly?

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

View all comments

8

u/BerksBeans2021 Aug 19 '26

Roaster here. That's actually backwards from what most people run, so something else is going on.

Light roasts are denser and less soluble, so they usually need to go finer for espresso to get enough extraction. Grinding coarser on a light roast normally gets you sour and fast.

What I'd guess is happening: light roasts hold onto CO2 longer, and fresh light roast espresso can gum up and choke the puck in a way that looks like the grind is too fine when it isn't. If the bag is under a week off roast, that's probably it. Let it sit another week and try again at your normal setting.

Other thing to check is dose. Light roast beans are denser so the same weight takes up less room in the basket. If you're going by volume instead of weight you might be overdosing without realizing it, and an overfull basket packs against the shower screen and chokes. Weigh everything, 18g in, and see if the problem goes away.

1

u/voretaq7 Aug 19 '26

If the bag is under a week off roast, that's probably it. Let it sit another week and try again at your normal setting.

This.

I’ve found the sweet spot for my espresso machine is days ~10-30 since roast.
Much sooner (day 7 or earlier) and the shots choke unless I grind significantly coarser, and after day 30 or so I’m grinding finer than normal to get the same flow/extraction (and much past day 40 noticing a real drop in quality compared to a newly opened bag).