THE BREW BENCH / BREW
Dose in. Coffee out.
Set a beverage yield from your dry dose and understand how to use it while dialing in espresso.
Use yield before judging time
The output is the mass of coffee in your cup, not the water used by the machine. Hold the basket-appropriate dose steady, set a starting yield, time from a consistent point and taste. At 18 g in, a 1:2 recipe gives 36 g out; 1:2.5 gives 45 g. A longer yield can extract more while also making the beverage less concentrated.
A number of seconds alone cannot certify extraction. If a shot is both sour and bitter with erratic flow, investigate unevenness before chasing time. Use the complete dial-in workflow and conditional taste troubleshooter.