Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Has anyone found that sometimes, some beans, even when you grind corse for a pour over, there is enough fine grind in there that settles which "blocks" the extraction that extends the time for all the water to come out to be much longer than another bag (type) of beans.

That last bag of beans I got from Method, there are so much small particles coming out of the grinder it makes V60 taking twice as long. I've tried it with both my Niche and Zassenhaus with grind size in the 1mm size, aka HUGE! But somewhere, somehow there are some small particles coming from the grind.

It makes me think that this bean is not suitable for V60 but espresso only, that i should just grind everything fine for espresso.
 
jpaul said:
yes - that re-asserted the need to check the pressure - back to the blow-torch, for spout removal.
he wasn't aware of the mara s/w problem which impacts steam flow, where it can re-fill the boiler at inopportune moments, giving steam flow variability.
I thought mara could do a profiled pressure pre-infusion, probably better than the sage, maybe I'm confusing their hx and double boiler capabilities.
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The mara does a pre-infusion as default, but its not configurable - He referred to it as a slow build in pressure which isn't really correct. The steam pressure thing is where its trying to avoid the need for a cooling flush, in brew temp priority mode if you pour a shot (without a flush) the machine then boosts the steam pressure afterwards to allow you to steam your milk straight afterwards. If you try and do milk without the shot before hand it takes a little time to get the steam upto pressure (as its holding back to keep the brew temp down). You can change that by turning it to steam priority mode but then you need a cooling flush.

That Elba look nice, like the fact that they've included a e61 gauge and dropped the hot water tap (useless on a home machine tbh, tastes horrible & you have a kettle for that)
 
Siliconslave said:
The steam pressure thing
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https://coffeeforums.co.uk/topic/56880-mara-x-steam-issue/page/7/#comments
that was issue - I'd linked a few months back.


I couldn't see any elba reviews , internal build shots , when I looked yesterday - Ray ?

edit: need to investigate a black residue from my rairly used hot water tap I saw last night,
thought I'd start using it for cup warming.
I'm hoping it is breakdown of rubber on the valve ... can't see what else it would be.
 
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jpaul said:
https://coffeeforums.co.uk/topic/56880-mara-x-steam-issue/page/7/#comments
that was issue - I'd linked a few months back.


I couldn't see any elba reviews , internal build shots , when I looked yesterday - Ray ?

edit: need to investigate a black residue from my rairly used hot water tap I saw last night,
thought I'd start using it for cup warming.
I'm hoping it is breakdown of rubber on the valve ... can't see what else it would be.
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sgkYi3A.jpg


86UGkg0.jpg


I've only found these reviews, completely detachable drip tray, Hoffmann would love that, chunky feet too!


 
Siliconslave said:
apparently the linea mini isn't all that great for the money, better off with a londinium or Decent at that price point :)
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I know someone has a Decent with a Niche...I want to try one but i also don't want the screen. Anything with a screen will look outdated eventually.

The Elba is now on the top of my shortlist.
 
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The bianca is worth looking at if you can stretch to that - dual boiler means no steam silliness, PID so temp control and paddle controlled pressure so you can profile or can set the pressure where you want it :)
 
Raymond Lin said:
I've only found these reviews, completely detachable drip tray, Hoffmann would love that, chunky feet too!
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internally looks well made - solid state relay, insulated boiler, factory seems Poland, so maybe slightly cheaper labour, but I've nothing against their quality.(skoda etc)
elba1 direct from Poland, good deal 600e
 
jpaul said:
internally looks well made - solid state relay, insulated boiler, factory seems Poland, so maybe slightly cheaper labour, but I've nothing against their quality.(skoda etc)
elba1 direct from Poland, good deal 600e
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Whoa....i wonder if that includes or Ex-VAT.

It's not yellow, or wooden handle and missing the gauge on the centre....but it's also half the price!
 
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The Crem One machines look really good, I nearly went for the dual boiler machine but the supplier basically said they couldn't recommend as there isn't enough in circulation to gauge reliability etc. Not that there was anything wrong he just wasn't prepared to go out and recommend one.
 
969 even offer an Elba machine without a steam wand that is even more compact - the Elba Mini. Literally big enough for the E61 and little else.
 
Siliconslave said:
The bianca is worth looking at if you can stretch to that - dual boiler means no steam silliness, PID so temp control and paddle controlled pressure so you can profile or can set the pressure where you want it :)
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£1800 is a bit too much (right now)...plus I think the Elba wins on the colour, features (lack of hot water is a plus), and also cheaper than the Bianca.

I can't see a UK dealer though, someone in NI is a dealer does ship to the UK...
 
Elba1 at that price £1300 , no water/hx/pid is expensive - you get a bezzera bz09 before that.

... cleaned out the grinder/rocky last night, had effectively jammed up with residue stopping ground coffee coming out the exit from grind chamber -
wasn't long before I last did that, so don't know why.
some wooden spatulas would be nice, to scrape/clean chamber, whilst vacuuming - wooden earbuds not very effective.
 
jpaul said:
Elba1 at that price £1300 , no water/hx/pid is expensive - you get a bezzera bz09 before that.

... cleaned out the grinder/rocky last night, had effectively jammed up with residue stopping ground coffee coming out the exit from grind chamber -
wasn't long before I last did that, so don't know why.
some wooden spatulas would be nice, to scrape/clean chamber, whilst vacuuming - wooden earbuds not very effective.
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Yeah, but it's not yellow :p

That Bezzera looks good...much cheaper too!
 
How would one go about descaling the Elba without a water outlet? Usually the water outlet is useful because that feeds from the base of the tank whilst the steam feeds from the top. Without that water outlet would you have to like flip the unit over or something to drain it? :)
 
Dj_Jestar said:
How would one go about descaling the Elba without a water outlet? Usually the water outlet is useful because that feeds from the base of the tank whilst the steam feeds from the top. Without that water outlet would you have to like flip the unit over or something to drain it? :)
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Can you not just put it in the tank and flush it through the group head?
 
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