Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Just ordered a Aeropress and some Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama Yellow Bourbon beans from hasbean.

Really hoping to be mind blown compared to my cafetière.

Thoughts?

We bought a Gaggia Classic (RI8161) in October 2014, its been great but just recently seems to be having some issues with regards heating. Sometimes when you turn it on it fails to heat up at all and you have to turn it off and on again. Then it will produce one cup of espresso at a reasonable temperature but the next one will be Luke warm.

Any ideas?

Have you descaled it recently?

its never been descaled, could that be it?

^^What he said.

If not, it could be a damaged heating element.

There definitely something wrong with it, I turned it on this morning and after 45 mins it was still stone cold to the touch. The only way you can get it to heat up is by turning on the steamer switch at which point the showerhead starts to heat up enough to get one brew out of it. Second cup is Luke warm

So a call to Phillips in the morning it is then, pretty disappointed to be honest as its only 6 months old and its not as if it gets a hammering (at max a couple of cups a day, sometimes not even that).

Anyone else have a decent machine but can't be bothered to use it?

So much easier to just grind it and brew rather than faffing about dialing in new beans & warming the machine etc.

Edinho said:

Anyone else have a decent machine but can't be bothered to use it?

So much easier to just grind it and brew rather than faffing about dialing in new beans & warming the machine etc.

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I don't worry a massive amount about dialling in the grinder. If the first lot comes out a bit too coarse then I make a correction and try again the next day Luckily a lot of the stuff I buy from Hasbeans seems to have similar properties when it goes through the grinder.

Like you say, it can be a hassle to get everything right so I try to balance getting things right with the time required.

Well Phillips/Gaggia are collecting ours on Wednesday for replacement/repair. Pretty painless to be honest, they asked if I had spoken to the retailer but as soon as Amazon were mentioned the chap more or less said "well good luck with that after 28 days, we'll sort it from here".

Hopefully it wont be out of action for long as I already miss it lol.

today i'm finally decided to play with my "breur" cold brewer:

60g of coffee, thats quite a bit! Filter ground as suggested. I'm using Hasbean's "Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama Yellow Bourbon Pulped Natural"


In position on the jug


Pre-wet the grinds:


24oz (damn americans) of water and ice


2.5hrs later its still going slowly (pebble watch on there as i was trying to do a timelaps, which failed )

Hurrah! Another Bruer.

I love mine. Sadly, currently in storage until it gets a little warmer or until we move into a bigger place.

How did it turn out eventually?

Flibster said:

Hurrah! Another Bruer.

I love mine. Sadly, currently in storage until it gets a little warmer or until we move into a bigger place.

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Mine lives in the box on top of a kitchen cupboard as theres no space for it anywhere else also until we move to a bigger place and i get a coffee brewing cupboard (and start buying more coffee toys!)

FrenchTart said:

How did it turn out eventually?

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Very nice, finally finished around 4pm - so just shy of 5hours, i may have had the drip set a little slow though.

Only got a chance to try a small glass as i didn't want to over caffeinate late in the day but really sweet and smooth.

I quite fancy playing around with cold-extract coffee sometime. Is there a particularly well-regarded method if you don't have a Bruer?

I did try this method: http://www.americastestkitchenfeed.com/do-it-yourself/2011/08/how-to-make-cold-brew-coffee/ a good while back and it worked pretty well - you do need a filter to get rid of the grounds, but you can pick them up very cheaply from a large supermarket (or get decent ones from a coffee shop)

So, i got my self one of these espresso kettles the other day, only thing is i dont like coffee but im looking for that caffeine fix! regular coffee taste like ashtrays to me so i bet espresso will be even worse. Is coffee similar to beer in the way you think yuk! at first, id rather have some lemonade but as you get used to it you learn to love its sweet sweet nectar?

Espresso kettles?
Moka pot per chance?

If coffee tastes like an ashtray, you're drinking the wrong coffee. Get some good, freshly roasted coffee. I'd personally recommend the Brazil Fazenda Cachoeira da Grama Yellow Bourbon Pulped Natural from Hasbean.

Lol Moka pot, that's it! Sorry when it comes to coffee I really don't know my ass from my elbow I bought a set for xmas, Lavazza I believe. Creme du gusto maybe? This will be my debut into the espresso world.

Kimi said:

Lol Moka pot, that's it! Sorry when it comes to coffee I really don't know my ass from my elbow I bought a set for xmas, Lavazza I believe. Creme du gusto maybe? This will be my debut into the espresso world.

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Jolly good. Well, not quite an espresso, but the Moka Pot makes a good strong coffee that should be lovely, if made correctly. I think it's one of the harder methods to perfect.

Have a watch of this. They also sell a great range of coffee beans that you can use.

So my beans and aeropress had arrived. Guessing the best way isnt to follow the instructions .

Could i be a pain and get some of your recipes? Going with the consensus the inverted method is the best. But what about grams and ml water?

Thanks