Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

[Siliconslave]

blimey, not been back to this thread for ages glad to see its inspired some people to take up decent coffee!

Justin whom?

one of the guys on here... can't remember who now.

are you from HD then? i spoke to someone there before i bought my MC2 - fantastic machine for the money, the only drawback it its so precise on the grid settings you really can't switch between two profiles, still that seems to be the only trade off so not complaining.

quick update on the orange bourbon i got from square mile, its blooming amazing stuff - really not an espresso bean, but it was never ment to be. Its really light and orangey in colour (will need to take some photos...) but gives a lovely smooth naturally sweet coffee, a lovely drink!

Depending on finances i might have to order a zassenhauss and chemex from some work brewing...

 

[Siliconslave]

I was thinking about making my own tamper. Why is the one that comes with the Classic too small?

its one of the great coffee mysteries, pretty much all coffee machines come with god awful tampers, even allot of high end (and i mean much higher than the Gaggias...) have rubbish little plastic things

and Nick thats damn good looking Latte art for a first attempt! i really need to have a go at some point

 

[Siliconslave]

So we can expect a latte art attempt from everyone by sunday??? It's worth it just for the fun of it.. and it's way harder that it looks!

i don't drink milk, and really hate anything in my coffee (bar the occasional whiskey, or sugar if its really bad restaurant stuff).... but i'll give it a go

 

[Siliconslave]

i got one of these a while back:

its basically a jar you can suck all the air out of with the pump, i tend to keep about two weeks worth of coffee in it and the rest in the freezer seems to extend the life of the beans pretty well, only start seriously losing crema after about a month...

 

[Siliconslave]

ingenius idea, but that's a lot of work to seal the coffee after every drink !

its actually not too bad, takes about 30 seconds during which I'm waiting for the machine to warm up etc anyhows so no loss There is some argument suggesting that repeatedly removing the atmosphere from around the coffee is bad for it, as it sucks away all the aroma or something, but then theres an argument against pretty much everything bar home roasting on demand

i do kind of fancy one of these for breaking up a large batch into store-able sections, but its a little on the pricey side and would just clutter up the kitchen

 

[Siliconslave]

its called a Vacuvin 28834 Coffee Saver (google will fine it for you), I've heard similar things about storing in a vacuum, but then i've also heard an equal number of arguements for it and tbh i've not had a problem with this as a method of storage so far

as for storing in nitrogen... i wonder if you could build some funkey system with those sodastream refills....

 

[Siliconslave]

My main problem is that while grinding it is full of static and clings to every surface.

you can get little anti static key ring things to de-static your grinder (and i guess your beans if you wanted)... i picked one up a while back and haven't had a problem since (try googling for anti static keyring)

others have tried earthing their plastics with varied success....

I do love thouse espresso glasses btw - had some tumblers of the same design but they all shattered over a year or so

 

[Siliconslave]

oooh, but where? except the bay.

bah, read the thread its in the first post (happydonkey is where i got mine from)

 

[Siliconslave]

i got the one without the doser (the extra chamber bolted to the front) - from chatting to the guy at HD and some others it seems the doser is pretty inconsistent unless full + theres more nooks and crannies to clear out on it....

I've got it setup at the moment so its pretty much full on one grind but i do a settling tap on the counter and overfill a little with a second hit of the grind button (then turn it off with the power when ready)

 

[Siliconslave]

so basically the doser means you can grind a whole load of coffee up and store it in the tub thing on the front - then you dose it out in controlled amounts by a little switch thing - good in cafes as they can grind a load while serving people and turn around the grinds pretty quickly. Downsides are you have to grind then dose, you have more wastage, the dosing into the portafilter isn't consistent unless the grind chamber is nearly full.

The automatic has a shoot and timer - you push the PF under the shoot and hit a little button which turns the grinder on for a period defined by a mechanical timer - it takes a bit longer to fill the PF, but you have more control over it and theres less to clear out of the grinder, it does make a bit of a mess though...

 

[Siliconslave]

Auto it is !

I shall order it next week when i have time off, do you send via Courier or Royal Mail ?

i tend to use royal mail personally - but i assume your talking about HD? in which case i can't for the life of me remember

 

[Siliconslave]

but i seem to now have a problem with my pour, it either comes out black for about 10 seconds and then goes weak blond or just does not come out at all and when i remove the filter the pressure has built up and releases with a puff off steam and a splatter..

sounds like your beans are going stale.... your doing the right thing, you should be grinding to stall the machine then backing off a little (grinding a notch courser) until your getting a ~25second : 30ml (or 30ml for a double basket)... If your blonding too soon its generally down to the bean freshness.

 

[Siliconslave]

very odd :S might be worth checking your tamping is constant (try tamping on scales.. sounds silly but you can get a feel for it that way) also check your not getting channeling round the edges of the puck - is your tamper the right size for the PortaFilter? if not try tamping four times in each 'corner' (ie North South East & West)

It can be really frustrating to get bad/good pours... so many things vary (for example your beans go off really quickly in fresh air so your gind should in theory vary at least daily....)

Make sure your cleaning out the filter each time, and ideally dry it with a bit of kitchen towel

I'm going through a pretty bad fase at the moment with by bottomless - getting really bad channeling 6/10 times still not a bad shot just really annoying!

 

[Siliconslave]

So, got paid, grinder time !

Ascaso i-Mini or Iberital MC2?

The Iberital MC2 is £35 cheaper, is the Ascaso £35 more expensive? I am also guessing that they use the burr grind set internally too ?

I've not tried the I-Mini but it does look like a very good machine. Once drawback with the MC2 is that you have a timer on the grinding, its triggered by the button and only turns off if you hit the power switch on the side. It sounds like the I-Mini keeps grinding untill you pull away. Not a big thing but a benefit none the less.

The mini also looks a lot nicer than the Mc2 from the photos...

Both have stepless external adjustment (on the back right of both of them) from what i can see so not great for switching between grind profiles (it would take me about 10min to get a stovetop grind out of my MC2)


all in all there not much in it - if your happy to pay the extra £35 for the looks of the mini i'd go with that

 

[Siliconslave]

I just emailed Steve at Hasbean, with the following reply...

Wow.......brutally honest or what !

blimey, thats amazing honesty! it does have its upsides though, Steve is renowned for being a very nice guy to deal with, this just cements his reputation even more

 

[Siliconslave]

Having to dial it all in again and by the time I do I will need to use another bean as I would have used up the Malabar. I must have drunk about 15 doubles today LOL

once you get it right you should be able to keep a roll going shot to shot by tweaking slightly. You'll get a feel of how much you need to adjust the grind depending on the pour times after a while.

The problem comes when you switch beans or have a bit of a break from the coffee - Had a huge break just after Christmas as was too busy at work to have coffees in the evening, my shots were totally out for ages

Had to spend a half hour faffing and wasting beans to get back in line again!

 

[Siliconslave]

depends how much you want to spend...

<£50 the Zassenhaus seem the best option - you can get older ones cheap on auction sites sometimes, but they are manual

~£60 the Dualit / starbucks one is the best option

~£100 the IC2 from Happy Donkey is very good

over £200 you can start looking at the mazzer mini second hand...

 

[Siliconslave]

I detect a certain level of GAS here (Gear Acquisition Syndrome).

Soon enough you'll all be owning Elektras too.. you know you will .. it's only a matter of time and why fight it!

http://www.adrenalin-junkie.net/pics/coffee/IMG_0517.JPG

damn you - i so want one Luuuuvly maybe if i can find your upgrade weakness i can pinch your Elektra off you....

 

[Siliconslave]

Could not get enough from 1 grind even with the timer set to max. Just found a point where 2 short grinds does the job.

Thats a great mod - may have to give it a go when the misses next finishes a thing of milk, i keep getting grinds everywhere! Can you fit the PF inside when grinding? (i know your using the pot method but i never got along with that one...)

 

[Siliconslave]

Hey guyys,

Ordering my beans preground from Hasbean (Espresso grind), but finding I manage to pour a double via the double basket/ barb in about 10 seconds from button on to button off.

I am tamping it down using a fair bit of force (Not loads though) but cannot seem to get it to pour slower... Surely the grind from Steve can't be that far out can it?

you need to put about 30lb of pressure through the tamper - which is a fare amount (try pushing down on scales to get an idea).

The problem with pre-ground is that you'll get a decent pour for about a day or so after its ground then it'll get worse and worse The only real solution, and the best way to get a much better coffee, is to invest in the grinder!