Siliconslave's how to make espresso thread

Siliconslave said:
I can imagine its just luck, if you hit that point right between the two theres not all that much you can do, beyond over/under dosing...
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Yeah. When I read Going to Cali's post originally I assumed that he was playing with dosage but it sounds like he isn't. Dosage is a great way to work around grind problems I find - especially when I've been lazy about adjusting my MC2.
 
So would you suggest changing the dose on the finer grind? Perhaps to 16g? It's the only variable left that I can really control...

Also, with regards to basket. I'm considering a vst and lopping off the bottom of my porta filter. Is there any issue using a dose of 16g in a 20g basket?
 
Just got back from my blind coffee tasting at Mancoco. Absolutely brilliant. Stuart (the owner) talked me through the coffees and is a really down to earth guy. I picked up 500g of one of the coffees I liked (I'm kind of wired so my memory isn't functioning so well at the moment:p ) and got a nice discount for dealing with him face to face rather than online.

He's very receptive to the whole idea of taster sessions and picking beans up directly from the place. The ones I picked up were roasted earlier today as an idea of how fresh things are :) (I'll be waiting until tomorrow to try them properly)

Give him a try *pimps* http://mancoco.co.uk/
 
FrenchTart said:
Just got back from my blind coffee tasting at Mancoco. Absolutely brilliant. Stuart (the owner) talked me through the coffees and is a really down to earth guy. I picked up 500g of one of the coffees I liked (I'm kind of wired so my memory isn't functioning so well at the moment:p ) and got a nice discount for dealing with him face to face rather than online.

He's very receptive to the whole idea of taster sessions and picking beans up directly from the place. The ones I picked up were roasted earlier today as an idea of how fresh things are :) (I'll be waiting until tomorrow to try them properly)

Give him a try *pimps* http://mancoco.co.uk/
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That sounds really good, but unfortunately it's a little far from London for me.
 
Going to Cali said:
So would you suggest changing the dose on the finer grind? Perhaps to 16g? It's the only variable left that I can really control...
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This is what I'd try, changing the dose slightly.

Going to Cali said:
Also, with regards to basket. I'm considering a vst and lopping off the bottom of my porta filter. Is there any issue using a dose of 16g in a 20g basket?
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I wouldn't have thought so, but how big is the gap to the top of the porta filter with a 16g dose after tamping? You should know fairly quickly if you watch the extraction and then of course taste it.
 
molinari said:
That sounds really good, but unfortunately it's a little far from London for me.
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I don't know..these lazy southerners... :p

To be honest I was surprised to find a roastery so close to me in Manchester. It was a nice surprise though as I am tired of paying delivery charges for Hasbean and the like (which I don't blame them for but my wallet still doesn't like it).
 
Well my Iberital MC2 arrived yesterday and I've had quite a lot of espresso since lol :)

Whilst I was ordering the noir/black version of the grinder from Happy Donkey, I also ordered some Brazillian coffee from them and I'm quite enjoying that too :D

I did a few test grinds to compare to the pre-ground stuff I had from the shop since I wanted something finer. At the moment I'm just kinda guessing how much coffee to use in order to get it tamped down just right so it's still a learning process! Guess I need some scales or something?
 
Phal said:
Well my Iberital MC2 arrived yesterday and I've had quite a lot of espresso since lol :)

Whilst I was ordering the noir/black version of the grinder from Happy Donkey, I also ordered some Brazillian coffee from them and I'm quite enjoying that too :D

I did a few test grinds to compare to the pre-ground stuff I had from the shop since I wanted something finer. At the moment I'm just kinda guessing how much coffee to use in order to get it tamped down just right so it's still a learning process! Guess I need some scales or something?
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It's probably worth using some scales for a bit at least until you get a feel for how much coffee is the correct amount. I don't bother with scales any more and I can usually judge well enough the amount of coffee for it not to be a massive factor in the quality of the espresso I produce.
 
FrenchTart said:
Supposedly decent coffee beans for £1:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/han...or-1-00-inc-free-delivery-pact-coffee-1714177

It works a little like Graze box. I've signed up for the first cheapo bag and if it's decent I may stick with it. Most likely I'll go back to one of my local roasters though :)
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That deal says that future bags are £6.95 which would make them more expensive than HasBean (including the shipping) for me.
Interestingly though, they are roasted in Wimbledon, London, which is about a mile from me. I wonder if they allow visitors?
 
molinari said:
That deal says that future bags are £6.95 which would make them more expensive than HasBean (including the shipping) for me.
Interestingly though, they are roasted in Wimbledon, London, which is about a mile from me. I wonder if they allow visitors?
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Yeah... Slightly more expensive than Hasbean and less freshly roasted so I guess that's not too tempting - The postage side of things is one of the reasons I stopped using Hasbean and I'm sure the total cost will be a reason why I don't continue with this beyond the first cheap bag.

Probably worth contacting them /re visitors. I've had another reply from a local roaster here in Manchester so I may try them out quite soon myself.
 
Got some a week or so back, the espresso blend I had didn't seem bad, not great but we were having it in a clever dripper without much chance of dialing it in...

For the (full price) money It's on the edge of being worth a punt, but for £1 its a bargain :) (the £1 code is #joyofsix its not a referral btw)
 
Siliconslave said:
Got some a week or so back, the espresso blend I had didn't seem bad, not great but we were having it in a clever dripper without much chance of dialing it in...

For the (full price) money It's on the edge of being worth a punt, but for £1 its a bargain :) (the £1 code is #joyofsix its not a referral btw)
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Mine has just arrived so I may give it a try tonight. Kind of want to use up my other coffee beans first though :S

For £1 even if they're not great it's probably worth it. I will reserve judgement on whether or not £7 is worth it :p
 
Right chaps. I'm getting seriously fed up of hand grinding my beans now! I know everyone is going to jump in and recommend the Iberital but I'm afraid its just too big for my kitchen :( Bearing in mind I'm just using an Aeropress (and will be indefinitely due to lack of space :( ), are there any other relatively decent electric grinders that will serve me well enough for an Aeropress?
 
If the Iberital MC2 is too large, there is a couple of possibilities off the top of my head.

Baratza Encore - very basic burr grinder
Sage Smart Grinder - Techno-grinder

But, neither are particularly small.
 
My MC2 grinder is still pretty new so I'm still getting used to it but it's amusing how much difference a change of beans makes to the grinding.

I started off with some beans I ordered from Happy Donkey along with the grinder. I ordered a few bags of their fairly standard Brazilian and it was alright. The position I had the timer set to meant I needed to do two lots of grinding to get 18-20g out.

Last week I tried some new stuff from a local place in Brighton from Red Roaster. I really like their house blend so I bought some. The same timer on my grinder gets 18-19g out of one interval with this new coffee that I needed two intervals for with the Happy Donkey stuff.

Weirdness :D it also seems to come out finer so I had to wind back the knob a few turns!
 
I've never really got along with the timer thing on the MC2 tbh. To get the right grind and amount for different beans its just another thing to mess with - i tend to do a time and a half, switching off manually when it looks about right in the basket.

Batch to batch the beans can have a huge difference, it takes me about a fortnight to get through a bag of beans during which time i'll adjust the mc2 maybe 5 complete turns to keep things aligned. Just changed to a new batch this morning and turned back maybe 15 turns and its still pouring far too fast :(
 
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