Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Working around the corner from Monmouth Coffee this week in Borough Market and currently sipping on a filter coffee. Absolutely fantastic. Their pastries and cakes look great too and are good value besides the likes of Starbucks.
 
One More Solo said:
Working around the corner from Monmouth Coffee this week in Borough Market and currently sipping on a filter coffee. Absolutely fantastic. Their pastries and cakes look great too and are good value besides the likes of Starbucks.
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good stuff :) - worth paying the Notes coffee cart a visit sometime as well, undercover by the cathedral, right near the steps upto Borough Highstreet.

Know what you mean about Monmouth's pastries though, their little parma ham things are to die for & the brownies, damn :D
 
Coincidentally made my first visit to Monmouth this morning, figured it might be worth taking the stroll from London Bridge train station. Had a flat white and a pastry with custard and fruit, both delicious.

Borough Market as a whole looked great, shame I'm off to trudge around Excel otherwise I would have bought loads there.
 
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Just received my La Marzocco precision 17g basket and 58.35mm heft tamper from MadeByKnock.com

Damn. The basket is lovely thing, but the tamper is even better.

Not cheap, but certainly seems worth it at the moment. It seems a lot more picky about distribution and grind, but it's producing some pretty good shots. Espresso machine is getting some use today. :D

Anyway, PID kit should arrive later this week. Will be documenting the build on that one if anyone's interested.
 
Flibster said:
Just received my La Marzocco precision 17g basket and 58.35mm heft tamper from MadeByKnock.com

Damn. The basket is lovely thing, but the tamper is even better.

Not cheap, but certainly seems worth it at the moment. It seems a lot more picky about distribution and grind, but it's producing some pretty good shots. Espresso machine is getting some use today. :D

Anyway, PID kit should arrive later this week. Will be documenting the build on that one if anyone's interested.
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What machine do you have again? Hearing about a PID build would be really interesting anyhow :)
 
FrenchTart said:
What machine do you have again? Hearing about a PID build would be really interesting anyhow :)
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This will be going in a freshly repaired, rebuilt and cleaned Gaggia Classic.

Recently had the boiler out to try to find the source of a leak, and it turn out that the boiler seal had gone, but for some reason was only leaking intermittantly. 0.03mm skim of the the mating surfaces and a new seal seems to have sorted it now. Also replaced all the other seals while I was at it.

Really should have PIDded it at that point. But wanted to ensure that it was working before messing about with it again. :D

My Rancillio Silvia requires quite a bit of investigation and subsequently a lot of work. I have no idea whats wrong with it, but it will just switch off completely and not work for a couple of days. Then, I'll turn it on one day and all will be fine. I suspect that I'll end up replacing all the wiring in it. *ugh*
 
Awesome. I thought you might be PIDing another machine but if you happen to have the same machine as me then it's even more interesting. I'd quite like to go that route 'some day' myself.

Sounds like a strange issue with the Silvia. Have you tried warming it up? Could be a dry joint like issue (I'm totally guessing here).
 
FrenchTart said:
Awesome. I thought you might be PIDing another machine but if you happen to have the same machine as me then it's even more interesting. I'd quite like to go that route 'some day' myself.
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The Auber PID kit is around $200 plus postage and probably customs charges...
DIY PID kit - ~£50 and some research. ;)

Version I think I'm going to do is going to tie into the steam function as well. Apparently only requires an additional solid state relay.

I currently investigating if I can add a shot timer that starts counting up when you hit the brew button. Not looking easy at the moment. I just want a timer that runs of 240v so I can tap that into the mains feed as well. But have a 240v trigger so I can tap into the brew button. Not looking possible from the timer's I've seen so far. :(

FrenchTart said:
Sounds like a strange issue with the Silvia. Have you tried warming it up? Could be a dry joint like issue (I'm totally guessing here).
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Sometimes it won't happen and it'll stay on for hours. Other times it'll happen almost immediately.

What I'll end up doing is completely removing it from the casing and setting it up on a insulated test bench and run it out of the case and check everything. That may have to wait now as my parents have just stuffed my christmas present idea for them *they've gone and bought a bean2cup machine - they were going to get the Silvia and the MC5 for Chrimbo* so I've now got an MC5 to locate in the kitchen somewhere. That'll make the other half happy.... :eek:
 
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Well I've had my new Gaggia Classic for just over 24hrs so far! I was previously using my housemates cheapish £80 something Delonghi machine and this new one seems to make the coffee stronger with the same amount of grounds which seems odd :P
 
Flibster said:
The Auber PID kit is around $200 plus postage and probably customs charges...
DIY PID kit - ~£50 and some research. ;)

Version I think I'm going to do is going to tie into the steam function as well. Apparently only requires an additional solid state relay.

I currently investigating if I can add a shot timer that starts counting up when you hit the brew button. Not looking easy at the moment. I just want a timer that runs of 240v so I can tap that into the mains feed as well. But have a 240v trigger so I can tap into the brew button. Not looking possible from the timer's I've seen so far. :(
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I really want to hear how this goes and also all the places you get your parts from. I won't completely copy what you do verbatim, honest (note: this is a lie) :D

I'd quite like to have something to set a timer for a shot from the other way round - e.g. set it for 22, 23, 25, etc seconds and the machine is only on for that amount of time. Then I can adjust my grind and tamp to produce the correct amount of espresso in this time.

Flibster said:
Sometimes it won't happen and it'll stay on for hours. Other times it'll happen almost immediately.

What I'll end up doing is completely removing it from the casing and setting it up on a insulated test bench and run it out of the case and check everything. That may have to wait now as my parents have just stuffed my christmas present idea for them *they've gone and bought a bean2cup machine - they were going to get the Silvia and the MC5 for Chrimbo* so I've now got an MC5 to locate in the kitchen somewhere. That'll make the other half happy.... :eek:
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Ah, the joy of having been single for almost a year is that I'm starting to fill up my place with tons of shiny gadgets :p

Phal said:
Well I've had my new Gaggia Classic for just over 24hrs so far! I was previously using my housemates cheapish £80 something Delonghi machine and this new one seems to make the coffee stronger with the same amount of grounds which seems odd :P
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Good work on the Gaggia Classic :) It was a big upgrade for me from the Viva I used to use (and then, briefly, a mocha pot /gag). What grounds are you using? You should probably try to get a decent grinder to get the most from your machine. You may also want to look into the pressure mod (easy to do and someone on here can provide you with the bits you need for free as long as you are willing to then send them on to someone else needing them afterwards) and at the same time purchasing a new basket. All of these will improve your coffee to no end :)
 
FrenchTart said:
I really want to hear how this goes and also all the places you get your parts from. I won't completely copy what you do verbatim, honest (note: this is a lie) :D
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I'll be going step by step - photos, cable measurements and the lot. Hopefully anyway.

FrenchTart said:
I'd quite like to have something to set a timer for a shot from the other way round - e.g. set it for 22, 23, 25, etc seconds and the machine is only on for that amount of time. Then I can adjust my grind and tamp to produce the correct amount of espresso in this time.
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That is actually easier to do I think.

FrenchTart said:
Ah, the joy of having been single for almost a year is that I'm starting to fill up my place with tons of shiny gadgets :p
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Kitchen is far too small for what I want in there. I've even had to put my Chemex into storage... :( I didn't use it that often as it's just me that drinks coffee now, but still..... :(
 
FrenchTart said:
Good work on the Gaggia Classic :) It was a big upgrade for me from the Viva I used to use (and then, briefly, a mocha pot /gag). What grounds are you using? You should probably try to get a decent grinder to get the most from your machine. You may also want to look into the pressure mod (easy to do and someone on here can provide you with the bits you need for free as long as you are willing to then send them on to someone else needing them afterwards) and at the same time purchasing a new basket. All of these will improve your coffee to no end :)
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Just random pre-ground espresso stuff from Tesco for the mo. Got some random brand I can't remember and some Lavazza stuff too. Still getting used to this new machine but I might look to upgrade bits when I get bored :P

The basket that came with this machine was the newer style with the plastic bit under it. According to the leaflets that's a newer style but then again newer is a relative term when they've been selling the same machine for years :P

Feels like this basket holds less than the previous cheap Delonghi thing and yet everything tastes stronger! Not sure if that's normal lol
 
Phal said:
Just random pre-ground espresso stuff from Tesco for the mo. Got some random brand I can't remember and some Lavazza stuff too. Still getting used to this new machine but I might look to upgrade bits when I get bored :P

The basket that came with this machine was the newer style with the plastic bit under it. According to the leaflets that's a newer style but then again newer is a relative term when they've been selling the same machine for years :P

Feels like this basket holds less than the previous cheap Delonghi thing and yet everything tastes stronger! Not sure if that's normal lol
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So your pre-ground stuff from a store will basically be ground too coarsely, meaning your the shot will go through too quickly (I'm guessing to make your shots it's taking less than 23-26 seconds from when you hit the 'go' button?). This usually means that you'll get off flavours - often sour tasting, sometimes overly bitter, sometimes just generally watery. With better ground coffee you'll get a more reliable (and much nicer!) end result.

The basket that comes with the machine has the plastic bit at the bottom because of two things. 1) The basket has only one tiny hole at the bottom of it. This makes it compatible with pods, which is a bit pointless for such a pro coffee machine. 2) The default setting on new gaggia classics is for 15 bars of pressure. For an optimal coffee you want more like 11 bars of pressure (and a basket that is suitable for this pressure). This is why combining a new 'standard' basket (without the plastic bit) and performing the pressure mod is a good thing.

I don't mean to sound preachy but once you've got over the initial "wow" of the new coffee machine I really recommend you look into all of the above. You don't need to completely geek out to find out enough information to push your coffee drinking to the next level and lots of people here can offer great advice (much more detailed than I can also) :)
 
just popped by workshop coffee this afternoon and wow, very impressed with cult of done, really nice, sweet, rich coffee with a crazy aromas of Jasmine washing through. Lovely & highly recommended (and always good when the till jockey starts talking about when the coffee was roasted and when its going to be at its best :) )
 
Does anyone know of anywhere in Manchester that sells decent coffee? I've got out of the habit of ordering from Hasbean as the shipping costs just feel like they're too much money for what I'm getting out of it. Somewhere I can cycle to to pick up a bag or two of freshly roasted would be amazing.

edit: I just let me google that for you'd myself and found this: http://mancoco.co.uk/ I might check it out.
 
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Siliconslave said:
just popped by workshop coffee this afternoon and wow, very impressed with cult of done, really nice, sweet, rich coffee with a crazy aromas of Jasmine washing through. Lovely & highly recommended (and always good when the till jockey starts talking about when the coffee was roasted and when its going to be at its best :) )
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Just seen that there is one a couple of minutes from my office at Bond Street. I usually visit Taylor St Baristas but I may have to pop there tomorrow to check it out.
 
FrenchTart said:
So your pre-ground stuff from a store will basically be ground too coarsely, meaning your the shot will go through too quickly (I'm guessing to make your shots it's taking less than 23-26 seconds from when you hit the 'go' button?). This usually means that you'll get off flavours - often sour tasting, sometimes overly bitter, sometimes just generally watery. With better ground coffee you'll get a more reliable (and much nicer!) end result.
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Well it's not regular ground if that's what you mean, it's definitely much finer than the regular coffee I've got and says it's suitable for stovetops and espresso machines.

Oddly enough, I reduced the amount of coffee I used this morning to see if balanced out a bit and it seems a bit weak so maybe it was all just in my head anyway? lol
 
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