Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

[Siliconslave]

woo - espresso machine is back and working, just need to redial the grinder back in - 60 turns back from pourover and its still too fast I wonder if this years the year to swap out the MC2...

 

[Siliconslave]

I keep considering changing my classic but it just keeps making such good drinks, do like the look of that Sage though


fresh redbrick poured directly on top of water through a bottomless PF

 

[Siliconslave]

It's called a Long Black. Espresso shot into cup of (hot) water. A "Short" black is just the espresso shot. Aussie vernacular.

Looks nicely poured! I've been really struggling to get a fine shot pull that doesn't spit all over the place lately

Yer, pouring the espresso into the hot water is technically a long black, regardless of if you do it direct from the machine or from a shot glass or two - it's just an upside down americano and only really makes it looks nicer.

i'd kinda forgotten about my bottomless PF until we had people over and i was making a few drinks back to back, i was presently surprised how cleanly it went

infact it might be time to make un caffé doppio

 

[Siliconslave]

The tamping becomes a bit more awkward with the naked portafilter (cannot rest on spout) and dosing (containing any drips) ?
I need to experiment more ... and ... just crouching down to see how the shot develops

its actually easier, rest the bottom of the PF on your counter top & you've got a stable and flat PF

Dosing is a little more awkward though yes.

Watching the process is great fun though




(looks like i may need to order a replacement seal...)

 

[Siliconslave]

My post went missing at end of thread - any recommendation for where to source a replacement gaggia classic steam valve?

from what your saying i'm not certain its your wand as such but rather something further up the system.

This site: http://www.gaggia-parts.co.uk/ seems to have pretty much everything you could need as well as a good pdf exploded view that may help you work out where the leak is acutally coming from...

 

[Siliconslave]

As longa as you don't mind its shortcomings (basically the difficulty of moving from espresso to pour over) the MC2 is very hard to beat for the price.

Other grinders to look at are the Sage one (may not grind fine enough and is about £200 retail - lakeland seem to have it at £140 at the moment though) and the Baratza Encore which is around £140. Both should be able to handle espresso fine, but may need a bit of faffing with shims to change the bur spacing and thus grind.

 

[Siliconslave]

I've got a hand grinder that i use for pour over, it's usually less work to do that than change the grind profile and back again (i'm not even joking...)

 

[Siliconslave]

In what sense, dialling it in or grounds retention?

simply in terms of effort expelled turning the dial - its probably about the same number of rotations and the grinder is significantly easier to turn

My Dad got himself the Sage grinder and it does seem pretty nice, he doesn't tend to buy great beans though so not had a proper play with it

 

[Siliconslave]

/\/\/\/\/\ Hells teeth, what size is your portafilter, I'd never get that much ground coffee in mine - 18 Grams at a push max. (I usually weigh out 16 Grams)

it does depend slightly on the portafilter & beans though - I had some taylor street beans (not great tbh) that were incredibly dense for some reason, 18g were about half the volume of the redbrick i've got in now :S

 

[Siliconslave]

I have a simple human knockbox, it's pretty big - about 30L, and has the added benefit of taking all the other kitchen rubbish

 

[Siliconslave]

I was being a little facetious - there are obvious advantages to knock boxes:

- No sweaty bins from the hot puck
- No burning your hand as you try and stop it dripping onto the floor
- Easy to collect for compost and other random home projects

 

[Siliconslave]

Aeropress or V60 for 1 cup, Chemex for 2+ imo

indeedy - french press can be very good but you'll get a better result generally from either. As to which out of aeropress or pour over its very much down to preference.

You seem to get different flavour profiles between them, each highlighting certain nuances of the beans or blends.

The aeropress tends to bring much more of the deep rich espresso like flavours with a thicker texture (wot ) and pour over gives a 'cleaner' drink bringing out the slightly lighter subtle fruity notes.

 

[Siliconslave]

I'm feeling horribly torn, on one hand i want to drink more coffee during the day and on the other more than two cups of the usual strength goodness leaves me jittery and feeling off - do I abandon all reason a buy some decaf of just mtfu and drink more espresso...

 

[Siliconslave]

thats certainly a little random - shame its not a nice one there are a load of random things you can do with them though.

I got a few off square mile a couple of years back and stretched one over a frame, not got round to hanging it in the new study yet:

 

[Siliconslave]

just fyi Rave are having a fire sale for 24 hours - FIRESALE20 on checkout. Fudge blend and decaf blend odered

 

[Siliconslave]

Curious to see what you think of the decaf blend, keep meaning to try one.

just got my order through and having my first cup of decaf now - its not great, but also far from dialed in properly. Seems pretty bitter, lacking in any strong mouthfeel and pretty generic 'coffee' flavour - kind of reminds me of a nespresso I'll be trying it properly over the next couple of days, may even break out the filter and see how that works.

 

[Siliconslave]

New artisan coffee shop in guildford discovered Surrey Hill roasters....

Finally - shame i'm not in the area anymore Guildfords been lacking a decent coffee shop for a long long time.

Glutton & Glee wasn't bad, and the australian coffee lady at the market sells some pretty good beans.

 

[Siliconslave]

i'd generally advise against using the single basket - your much better off using the double as it gives you more wiggle room to get the shot right, also who drinks a single shot coffee? really?

You're basically looking for volume and time - get the right volume in the right time and your laughing, not sure what controls the sage gives you but your looking for around 30ml in 25-30 seconds (60ml in a double basket)

You can fine tune this in three main ways:
- the grind
- the pressure, pressure should be about 9bar, but again you can play with this.
- the amount of coffee - your looking for about 18-20g for a double.

essentially your best fixing pressure and weight of coffee at 9bar & 18g then playing with the grind. If you're finding the coffee too strong you can increase the amount and decrease the grind slightly, or just play around generally (there are loads of threads, experiments, blog posts etc about it)

In theory swapping between single and double baskets shouldn't do anything, but in reality i'd be surprised if you got consistent results, MTFU and drink doubles

Black plastic thing in the portafiler (handle) is probably an aerator to agitate the coffee and give a better looking crema, if you can take it out (non-destructively) I would do... its lying to you

 

[Siliconslave]

always surprises me when i've ground - Always weigh the beans before and after grinding (no idea why...) and the difference in volume for grounds between different beans is amazing.

 

[Siliconslave]

not sure what % of Starbucks is espresso (only ever been in to use the facilities - this is like the defamatory thread on Nandos ) but he says
he has had < 10 good cups of coffee in his life (but does not say where) also that they use (I think it was) 80g coffee per litre - brewed which did not seem a lot.

I'm not sure what the <10 good cups of coffee thing says really, that he doesn't like coffee? The his business can't make good coffee (and he doesn't care) or that hes insanely picky (which again doesn't seem to translate to the business?)