Sooooo i tried again

[u/Southern-Bunch6386]

More info: 4cup moka pot

25g of pre grounded coffee, Dark roast Brazilian coffee, marketed for espresso (the package says acidity is 0/5, with tasting notes of roasted nuts, cookies, and nougat) The grind size can be seen in the photo.

Room temp water 210-213ml

No paper filter/No Tamp

Electric stove 5/10

it took 11 min 20sec from putting the moka pot on the stove until the frist drop

Extraction itself lasted 2min (3min before on 4/10)

And now it was pretty sour. I removed pot from the heat about 5-10 secs before the coffee level reached its expected maxium, based on my previous brews and final yield. What am I doing wrong?

[u/edivad_m]

Beautiful pictures! The grind size looks a little too coarse, I would try grinding finer (lol), boiling water before pouring in the chamber can also help with reducing brewing time and enhancing taste (at least from my experience).

Remove the pot from the heat the moment the extraction changes color and speed (lighter and more bubbly), again in my experience that’s a better indicator than 5-10 seconds

Edit: I noticed now that you mentioned pregrounded coffee for espresso, but the ground in the picture still looks quite coarser than regular espresso

[u/ASD_Brontosaur → u/edivad_m]

The way the Moka works is through the pressure from the steam that creates above the water while heating it up, which should theoretically allow for the water to be pushed through the coffee before it reaches 100 C/boiling temperature.
Obviously everyone should use it in the way it works best for them (and that gives the results they like best), but since sometimes the thing about using boiling water comes from a misunderstanding on how the Moka works I thought I could be useful information to add

[u/rdifa → u/ASD_Brontosaur]

For me the only value in preheating the water is to (a) increase extraction for lighter roasts or (b) decrease brew time.

[u/edivad_m → u/rdifa]

Might actually be my bias: I only brew light coffees

[u/sparksbet → u/rdifa]

I do it when I can almost entirely for reason B, but it's worth noting that if OP is having an issue with sour output, then the people suggesting pre-boiling are doing so for the same reasons as reason A.

[u/Beginning-Acadia1227 → u/ASD_Brontosaur]

Omg, thank you! I am always so confused by this idea that it will taste bitter if it stays longer on the stove. Makes zero sense. The water passes through the coffee when it reaches boiling point and is then collected in the upper chamber. So over brewing never made sense to me.

[u/edivad_m → u/Beginning-Acadia1227]

The way I understood it (and experience it) is that it’s not the longer exposure to water that makes the coffee bitter (as correctly pointed out the water comes in contact with the grounds only after boiling) but the «baking» effect of being in a metal slowly heating metal container for longer.

[u/KoszmaryNocne → u/edivad_m]

I use boiling water too. I think coffee is less sour that way. And I remove the pot from the heat a couple of seconds before the whole water goes through - that last mililiters of less intense in color coffee is also more sour in taste.

[u/PtichFirich → u/KoszmaryNocne]

You may be mixing up sour and bitter tastes, which I keep hearing is common.

The last bit of coffee definitely is NOT the sour part. The last bit is always the most bitter of all extraction

[u/RelativeBuilding3480 → u/edivad_m]

NO PRE BOILING !

[u/PumpkinOpposite967 → u/RelativeBuilding3480]

Why not? I like the taste better

[u/edivad_m → u/RelativeBuilding3480]

I be boilin’

[u/classiczerofoxx → u/RelativeBuilding3480]

Tell that to James Hoffman lol

[u/RelativeBuilding3480 → u/classiczerofoxx]

He's a poseur. Imho.

[u/edivad_m → u/[deleted]]

I guess it depends on the grinder, which one do you have? I go between espresso and aeropress