Extraction & calibration engine

Dial in a shot, analyse extraction from TDS, and learn each grinder's curve — one workflow in one place. Runs on your device; nothing is uploaded.

An interactive tool in the AlyOps operations suite. It runs entirely in your browser: the figures you enter stay on your device and are not uploaded.

How to use / SOP

Purpose

Go beyond a single directive: read the full extraction picture (ratio, time, and optionally extraction yield from a refractometer) and diagnose specific taste problems.

Standard

SCA gold-cup extraction yield target: 18–22%, calculated as TDS% × (yield/dose).

Steps

  1. Enter dose, yield and time from your shot or brew.
  2. If you have a refractometer reading, enter the TDS% to see extraction yield.
  3. Compare the taste of the cup against the taste-to-fix matrix below.
  4. Make one adjustment (grind, time, temperature or dose), then re-test.

Reading the result

Ratio and time alone tell you if a shot is broadly on-target. TDS and EY tell you the actual extraction strength — two shots can have the same ratio and time but different EY if the grind or distribution differs.

Notes

A refractometer reading is only as good as its calibration — rinse and zero it per the manufacturer's instructions.

Shortcuts

None.

How to use / SOP

Purpose

Build a per-grinder model of how much shot time changes per setting step, so the next grind adjustment is a calculated move, not a guess.

Standard

Nothing is assumed about your grinder. Two shots at two DIFFERENT settings give this grinder's own seconds-per-step, and the third setting is solved from that slope and snapped to a click the dial can actually hold. Below two shots the tool says it cannot answer yet rather than reaching for a figure.

Steps

  1. Create a profile for each grinder: its name, what it grinds, the numbers its dial runs between, which direction is coarser, and how many clicks lie between one whole number and the next.
  2. Pull a shot and log the setting, dose and time — including shots that were off target, which carry as much information as the good ones.
  3. Move the dial and pull a second shot at a DIFFERENT setting. Two shots at one setting measure nothing: the tool needs two points to find this grinder's own seconds-per-step.
  4. Enter your current setting, current time and target time. The tool gives the next setting and the move in clicks, with the arithmetic it used.
  5. Move that many clicks, purge, and re-test. Log the new shot too — from three shots on, the tool fits a line and reports how well it fits.

Reading the result

With two shots the slope is exact arithmetic through two points and no fit quality is claimed. From three the tool fits a line and reports R², and the confidence label rises with the data. If your shots move the opposite way to the dial direction on the profile, no setting is given at all — the direction, a typed setting, or that shot is wrong, and a recommendation through it would be backwards.

Notes

Keep dose consistent while building a grinder profile — dose changes affect shot time independently of grind setting and will distort the fit.

Shortcuts

None.

The reference material this tool draws on is published as prose elsewhere on the site:

Tools