Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

[Siliconslave]

you can go down the bean cellar route and store weighed measures of beans into individual containers...


but that may be going overboard

 

[Siliconslave]

or if you have significantly more money than time (but not quite enough to hire a barista full time) https://weberworkshops.com/products/bean-counter

 

[Siliconslave]

You win some, you lose some!

That's interesting - beans do make such a difference, what were you using before?

 

[Siliconslave]

You don't tend to get ceramic burs outside manual grinders, think its to do with the grind speed so don't worry about that.

In all honesty you won't get anything approaching your hand grinder's quality for less than £100 - if your not doing espresso i'd go for a Wilfa Svart (about £105 from the looks of it).

Have a watch of this, in summary - skip the £50 step, save your money and buy something better that'll be good to use and will improve your coffee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVYGxext8XI

 

[Siliconslave]

new or used gaggia? if its used and your handy its worth stripping down for a proper clean out & descale.

New bottomless PF turned up - yay!

 

[Siliconslave]

whose ? - did you have alternatives for handle/angle/opening-size.

its a cheap(ish) one from Edesia Espress as i was getting one of their knockout draws. It fits the 21g ims basket perfectly so was happy, would look a little odd with a smaller basket but thats no bother.

The knockout draw is 14cm wide so it sits nicely under my mignon, smaller draws seem pretty hard to find. Not unwrapped it yet though

 

[Siliconslave]

Anyone got any recommendations? I guess a budget of £200 but not sure on what?

i'd probably say a better grinder and maybe a hand grinder for work if your happy with the aeropress. if you don't have them decent scales are a good investment as well.

 

[Siliconslave]

Was going to use one of the roasters in Bristol that I've liked their coffee before but wasn't sure if there was some hidden gem of a website I've been missing

I'm all for supporting local roasters so grab some of their beans if you like it, there are a huge number of recommendations in the thread as well but part of the joy of coffee is trying all the different flavours. Try lots of different beans, work out what you like from the flavour profiles and then keep trying

I tend to recommend these beans to people to get started:

https://www.origincoffee.co.uk/products/san-fermin
https://shop.squaremilecoffee.com/products/red-brick

Or in terms of roasters i'd go with Origin and Square Mile (from above) or try:

https://ravecoffee.co.uk/
https://www.hasbean.co.uk/
https://www.blackcatcoffee.co.uk/
https://www.steampunkcoffee.co.uk/
https://workshopcoffee.com/

 

[Siliconslave]

Expert in K-Pop!

I'm sure there is one, just no-one is willing to admit it publicly...

More coffee stuff - this time proper geekie:



The MaraX has a serial port that outputs temperature data - serial to usb cable to monitor the temp and a reed switch to monitor the pump activity

 

[Siliconslave]

Definitely get a grinder if you can, it makes a huuuuuge difference

 

[Siliconslave]

knock box and new kitchen for the coffee corner:


excuse the potato cam - horrible light, still its all coming together now.

 

[Siliconslave]

Including a right angled kettle lead (I had lying around, should really come with one) its about 46cm from the back - but thats the case with most e61 machines. If you go for something like the Elizebeth its more like 30cm, but significantly wider.

 

[Siliconslave]

doesn't the grinder get jarred when you use the knock box, the impulse I usually use to get the puck out cleanly, would be sufficient to knock a nail in.

Base of my ims basket is annoying, every couple of days I aclean pf/basket/screens, with the (hand) washing up, but coffee residue on basket base is very adherant ...
maybe some (w/o wood handles) put the ensemble in the dishwasher

Only been using a few days but don't seem to have a problem, the grinder is very heavy, the knock bar is absorbs a lot of the vibration & the draws pulled out so not much movement passed to the section with the grinder on.

I rinse the PF basket through after every shot to get rid of the residue, otherwise you can use Puly Caff to soak it out.

How not to knock out

 

[Siliconslave]

I got a £25 from from edesiaespress and its fine, even the handle is ok. The basket is trash to be fare, but then i'd suggest replacing it anyhow.

 

[Siliconslave]

Mignon isn't a bad grinder i'd keep that initially then look at next steps, as to what you change it to it depends if you want to go down the niche single dose route, or save up for a silly single dose machine.

Personally I'm not convinced by the sage dual boiler - there are reports of it being treated as a 'disposable' item by sage so if it breaks out of warrantee you're out of luck.

 

[Siliconslave]

How do you work with the portafilter being that close to the wall ?

its exactly the right distance to fit it in - makes it easier to align in some respects.

Just saw the James Hoffman video on the new Fellows Ode Grinder...glad I didn't order it, it looks good but doesn't look like the work flow is as easy as the Niche with far more retention not to mention it barely goes fine enough for a single cup V60? That's no good.

not had a chance to watch it yet, but thats a real shame, looks wise its a lovely grinder

 

[Siliconslave]

As DJ said your first problem will be the beans - get something fresh and you'll find that you should be able to choke the machine (or at-least get closer to 1:2) - they may also be denser so you'll be able to get more like 18g into the basket (you are using the 2 cup single walled basket aren't you?)

 

[Siliconslave]

been playing around with monitoring and alerting on temperature using a Pi Zero:

& bit of python gives

and more importanly

 

[Siliconslave]

so next is a temp graph during cooling shot or brewing ?

I'm playing around with a screen to display the brew temp at the moment - i'm actually not too worried about graphing it as the brew temp is pretty stable once warmed up (see previous arguments ) I do want to work out a countdown to coffee arrangement - from cold I know how long its going to be, but it keeps heat well so after lunch its usually about 1/2 the time.

The real purpose of the screen and Pi is two fold - how long until the machines up-to temperature and how automating the timing of the shot. The timer is the next main step...

 

[Siliconslave]

Just saw the James Hoffman video on the new Fellows Ode Grinder...

Finally got round to watching the video - feels like its close but not quite there, still did well on kickstarter but as per the video it felt more of an advertising technique than anything else.

What was more exciting was the lagom p64 and weber EG-1 in the background - looking forward to that review