Here’s our quick-start guide to getting the most out of white knight. Below we cover brewing on both commercial and domestic machinery (scroll to see the Domestic guide)
Commercial Espresso Machine
Dose
- Without knowing your machine, we recommend starting with a 22g dose of coffee
- This procedure is for brewing on a double filter basket
Shot Length and Volumetrics
- If you know how to program volumetrics, set this volume to a brewed beverage weight of 50g
- If you don’t have volumetrics, or don’t know how to program, or don’t want to change the volumetrics, we advise using a scale to get the correct weight out.
- As a general rule, when you see 47g on the scale (if you are brewing a double shot) press stop on the touchpad to stop extraction, the weight will carry over to 50g.
- If you are brewing with one cup on the scale and one off, then stop at 22g.
Shot Time
- The ideal time for white knight brewing is 30-35 seconds
- White Knight is an extremely tolerant coffee and can be brewed as fast as 25 seconds and as slow as 40 seconds
- The key is to find what works best for you
- However we find it simple to target a 33 second pour which sits nicely between our 30-35 second ideal extraction window
- The flavour should be balanced and rich when brewed in our ideal extraction window
If you are new to brewing recipes
- If you are new to weighing in and weighing out, you can read about it here on learning this skill.
- We don’t recommend weighing in and out every shot during the day, but understanding this skill will allow you to check periodically during the day, correct any issues amongst staff and relate to the rest of the coffee industry in a transparent fashion.
Domestic Espresso Machine
Dose
- This procedure is for brewing on a double filter basket. The first step is to use a scale to find out how much coffee your basket will accept.
- Get a set of kitchen scales and place your group handle on it and tare
- Grind and dose coffee into the basket, ensure the basket is full, then scrape the coffee dose flat
- Return the dosed, but not tamped handle, to the scale and read how much coffee was dosed. The number should be somewhere between 18-22g
- The amount you dose is personal. If you want strong coffee, use a larger dose. If you want a milder coffee, use a lower dose.
- On average on a domestic machine a 20g dose will be correct. But we’ve also experienced on some machines, such as the Breville Dual Boiler a 23g dose also works well
Shot Length and Volumetrics
Shot Length
- Regardless of what you choose for your dose, double it to work out your yield (the amount of coffee extracted into the cup)
- For example: 18g dose = 36g yield / 20g dose = 40g yield / 22g dose = 44g yield.
- In all these scenarios the actual strength of the coffee is the same
- However when drinking a milk coffee, it is important to note that if you want it to be stronger the more yield you have in the cup the better, which basically means that if you want a strong cup you need to put a large shot in it.
- Note: you cannot expect a coffee dosed at 18g then drawn out to 44g to be strong and rich, this type of coffee will be thin, watery and even bitter.
Volumetrics
- If you know how to program volumetrics, set the desired volume in the machine system / computer.
- If you don’t have volumetrics, or don’t know how to program, or don’t want to change the volumetrics, we advise using a scale to get the correct weight out and brew using the manual button.
- As a general rule, stop the extraction 3g short of your desired yield and the water will tick over to the correct weight.
- Check your user manual on how to program the dose volumetrics.
- The ideal time for white knight brewing on most domestic setups is 28-32 seconds
- White Knight is an extremely tolerant coffee and can be brewed as fast as 25 seconds and as slow as 40 seconds
- The key is to find what works best for you
If you are new to brewing recipes
- If you are new to weighing in and weighing out, you can read about it here on learning this skill.