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Does anyone have an espresso machine with flow control like the lelit bianca or the mod for the profitec pro 700? Home barista seems to have some people who love the concept, but there doesn't seem to be a ton of information around on them. Is it a useful control?
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Feb 6, 2021 18:11
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hypnophant posted:I have the decent, which can do either flow or pressure profiling, in addition to pretty precise temperature profiling. It's useful in that it gives you direct control over a variable that previously you had to adjust indirectly by grind and dose. It also allows you to change that variable dynamically during the shot, manually in the case of the paddle machines or according to a programmed recipe for the decent and other profiling machines. This can let you imitate lever machine pressure profiles with a pump machine, or target flow to get the most extraction out of light-roasted beans. I think it's fair to say nobody fully understands how all the variables in espresso affect extraction, and even less how extraction, roast, and flavor all interact, so as of now flow control has kind of an experimental feel to it which is why it doesn't seem like the information is all there. Guess I'll give it a shot, be on the cutting edge of coffee  The decent looks neat, but I'm scared off by the tablet, don't trust it to last
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Feb 6, 2021 20:19
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I have eureka mignon specialita and it’s good, but a bit annoying to adjust sometimes. Once it is dialed in it seems quite consistent, but I’m only measuring that by the shots I pull... The adjustment numbers are pretty arbitrary (the knob can rotate around and hit the same number multiple times) and only useful as a reference once you “zero” it in. It doesn’t go from zero to 10 and that’s it, the knob will rotate however much you want so you will zero it manually by spinning the burr by hand (unplugged obviously) while adjusting the knob until the burr stops spinning. It is pretty quiet, when I make espresso it grinds 19g in 8 seconds or so, dont have clumping issues or anything like that. There isn’t much retention, usually get out just about what input in after a clean, < .5G I guess? I’m not sure what the top of the line grinders do here. It can be a bit messy, I bought a ring to go on top of my portafilter to catch more grounds to help with that. It can single dose, but I find it works much better if there are beans in the hopper. Happy to answer any questions, I think the mignon line is pretty similar?
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Mar 16, 2021 22:43
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Rescue Toaster posted:I don't do espresso, just chemex pour over (might get a clever eventually). I could maybe see adjusting it a little finer for aeropress once in a blue moon. So I would be just getting the real basic Mignon Filtro. I’m assuming the filtro has the same interface, I just setup the two shot button to grind the amount I want, you adjust the time in tenths of a second. Once it is set for a bean I don’t touch it, it’s not super easy to get the grind where you want it and I’m not entirely convinced that if you turn it half a click right and then left you end up with the same grind lol
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Mar 17, 2021 00:25
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Imagined posted:How fast do y'all get through coffee? Between my wife and I, with me working from home, we can go through a 12 oz bag of beans every 3-4 days. Good coffee being $10-$17 per bag, that adds up quick! I use a bag every week and a half making two 18gish espressos a day, so your consumption seems about right
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Apr 8, 2021 19:25
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bolind posted:Can anyone provide me with a list of or just pointer to espresso machines with the steam arm on the left hand side? Lelit Bianca has it on the left
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Apr 11, 2021 19:02
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Dren posted:My cafelat robot was supposed to arrive tomorrow so I picked up some of my local shop’s espresso beans, a medium roast ground by the shop. I’ve never had their espresso so I ordered one to go with the beans. It was awful, extremely sour. My robot arrived today instead of tomorrow so I tried it out with the beans I bought and got the same result. So I guess I’m doing it right but the beans are not to my liking. Is there any tweak to the process for getting something less sour? I intend to go get a darker roast as that seems like the quickest fix and the normal thing for espresso. sounds like under extracted so finer grind, lower dose, higher temp?
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Apr 22, 2021 00:39
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Dren posted:I brewed at 98° C, 17g of coffee, 60g of water, pressed at about 9 bars. The water can’t get much hotter and it’s already ground so what would be reasonable to drop the dose to? it probably won't matter, but I think the robot is supposed to be boiling water as the cup you pour into will suck some of the heat out. I'm assuming that's 60g of water in, how much espresso are you pulling?
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Apr 22, 2021 01:32
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Dren posted:unsure, as i don’t have a scale underneath. how much should i be pulling? taking a look around online it seems like 2.5-3 is fairly popular with pretty long pre-infusion times, I'd search around online to see what recipes people are using w/ their robot
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Apr 22, 2021 01:59
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KinkyJohn posted:Thanks for the in-depth reply. Yes, I'm looking into getting a machine and I'm considering my options as local availability is limited. Right now I'm trying to get a bigger picture of what is possible within a budget of say $600. I'm willing to learn and really do a deep dive into perfecting a cup of espresso. Is this $600 all in (grinder, machine, accessories)? There are manual grinders for espresso, but it seems like a lot of work to me lol
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Apr 23, 2021 15:22
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Gunder posted:Just so you're aware, light roasts are pretty difficult to extract properly without a decent espresso grinder and machine. If you aim to do it properly, you might easily spend over $1000. I have no experience with the Barista Express, but the more expensive Barista Pro definitely can't get hot enough to extract a light roast properly. Medium and darker roasts are much easier to extract, and if you're happy to limit yourself to those options, you can buy much less expensive equipment. I've found light roasts very annoying to get good extraction on, I definitely have to bump the temperature or grind so fine the shot slowly dribbles out. I can get decent coffee, but drat it is hard to dial in sometimes. I also feel like I end up with coffees where I can't possibly pull a good non-sour shot from it. I do end up using all the coffee up before I finish tweaking it though, maybe I really need to boost the temp and grind to the point where its taking forever to pull the shot, idk
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Apr 28, 2021 19:47
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Gunder posted:What sort of basket are you using? Getting a nice VST or IMS basket can allow you to grind a lot finer without choking the shots. I got a vst recently, had a lot better luck with my last light roast. Need to run more through it to see if it helps in the general case though.
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Apr 28, 2021 21:54
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bolind posted:I may or may not just have put down the deposit on a Lagom P64. im jealous it looks super cool, unsure if I could justify $1500 for a grinder, silver or black? lol of course I could
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May 4, 2021 21:46
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I don’t believe that a person who never cleaned the group head descaled the machine
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May 19, 2021 18:57
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ThirstyBuck posted:That nasty group head is probably on me. This is my first machine. I've had it about 1.5 years and I've never had the screen or group head apart (whoops!). The guy I bought it from was pretty knowledgable and had just upgraded to an Appartemento. It wasn't someone flipping a junker that they found in a Goodwill trash bin. What do you do for your water? Have you tested it / softened / treated it before putting it in?
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May 19, 2021 22:43
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Canuck-Errant posted:I've been looking at grinders myself and the Eureka Mignon Specialita seems to be the biggest competition in the general price range. There are also third-party mods for it for single dosing, which the 270 doesn't have. I have the specialita, and while I don’t have any mods, I feel that it works better with more beans in the hopper. The time-based grind is pretty drat consistent day to day so it hasn’t bothered me much and I go through coffee quickly enough that I don’t see a noticeable degradation in quality for the amount of time my beans sit in the hopper. It is fast, I grind 18g in about 8 seconds I think. The dial-in is a bit finicky, it is a tiny knob you turn and it is difficult to get back into a grind setting once you move out of it. If you want to change grinds often I’d steer clear of the specialita. Once you dial in the bean you won’t want to change it. I dont have clumping issues, it’s very pretty, and pretty drat quiet imo. I feel like it is quieter than my old lovely grinder and much faster. Finding your “true zero” is pretty easy if annoying, you rotate the top burr by hand while adjusting the fineness of the ground coffee until the burr stops rotating, then back it off. Unplugged, obviously. The numbers are, essentially, meaningless and only offer a vague guess at what the grounds will be like. I can answer any questions about it if you have any.
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May 25, 2021 15:13
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Dren posted:I got the Eureka Mignon Specialita and the very first espresso I made with it was far, far better than all espressos I have previously made using coffee ground by the shop. It’s pretty quiet too. what color did you get
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May 29, 2021 00:47
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betterinsodapop posted:Seconding this recommendation. I had the previous model of that one, it made good coffee and lasted me almost 10 years before crapping out earlier this year. I think I have a similar model (the coffee basket sits on the carafe during brewing) and my major issue with it is that I can’t fit my hand in the carafe to clean it. I have to use a brush thing (not great for deep cleans) or get my wife to clean it. Otherwise it works great…
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Jul 29, 2021 16:18
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bolind posted:Could I interest you in a very competitively priced tamper, knockbox and distribution tool kit. I was mildly interested until I saw the price, who is buying this??
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Aug 27, 2021 16:03
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Lord Stimperor posted:Anyone else feel that they don't like drinking coffee from a thermos flask? I don't know whether this is just sensory memory associations fooling me or if a thermos can genuinely make the taste experience worse, albeit indirectly. I find any container which inhibits the smell makes coffee a worse experience
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Sep 4, 2021 20:40
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a mysterious cloak posted:Any time I crave espresso and think I want to do it at home, i just come to this thread and realize nope, too much Allow me to change your mind, if you are fine with the cost, like tinkering aspect, and can resist chasing the dragon by upgrading, which probably isn’t necessary unless you can pinpoint some very specific thing you want to fix. My espresso setup has probably the least buyers remorse of any big purchase I’ve ever made. Every morning I wake up and get to pull a tasty shot and adjust my grind to make the next one even better. I don’t care about milk drinks, pretty much just espresso. Different coffees vary in taste wildly in espresso which is super fun combined with a variety subscription. Even after a week I pulled better shots than most coffee places (caffe vita on Fremont Ave in Seattle holds the top spot for me). There is no coffee smell better than freshly pulled espresso and my apartment fills up with it every day. Also the machine is pretty and a nice conversation starter. It’s fun! I swear!
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Sep 10, 2021 20:07
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hypnophant posted:you'll know when you've had too much yeah your heart will flutter with love of coffee
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Oct 18, 2021 22:54
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I wish I could have more espresso in a day without twitching, stupid delicious coffee
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Oct 27, 2021 17:32
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Blackhawk posted:I bought some decaf beans recently so I could play with my PP more without my heart exploding. There are some good quality decafs out there these days that can make a similarly good espresso to regular beans. I don’t want to redial in my beans all the time, my grinders number for what grind I’m at is definitely…. Approximate
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Oct 27, 2021 22:10
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nwin posted:I just timed 17.5g at 40 seconds. I like my electric grinder at 7.7 seconds
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Oct 29, 2021 12:21
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silvergoose posted:someday someone's going to post a "upgrading this....to this" shot but it's just two identical pictures Obviously they upgrade to a vst basket but are making coffee so the portafilter is locked in
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Oct 29, 2021 17:04
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aldantefax posted:Does anybody have thoughts about Slayer as a company or their products? I'm thinking somewhere down the line I'd want to get a single group regular espresso machine for home use and get it plumbed, but I don't know what the actual costs and logistics are like. I like the look of a Slayer though and it's got some neat features. I’ve always seen slayer as a pro machine, but that might just be the cost? The machines look nice 
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Oct 30, 2021 23:31
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charliebravo77 posted:I bought this distributer/tamper and haven't used the razor thing since. https://www.amazon.com/Distributor-MATOW-Portafilter-Adjustable-Professional/dp/B07ZT42HZF/ref=psdc_13397451_t1_B0896Q41R9 echoing the previous: recipe, how long is the pull, what kind of beans are you using, what porta filter? I've found that the amount of coffee in my basket is critical for pulling good shots reasonably. With the same grind size it pulls slower and blondes later with more coffee than less. It makes sense I guess, I just never thought about it and was always slightly underfilling my basket which caused under-extraction and sour shots. I've also bumped my temp every so slightly (1-2C) for lighter roasts to get them to extract reasonably. I've never measured the actual temp of my water coming out of the grouphead, so maybe it is just correct now! Sweeper fucked around with this message at 19:23 on Nov 3, 2021 |
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Nov 3, 2021 19:20
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charliebravo77 posted:
I use both a tiny screw driver for wdt and a spinning distributor with a tap on the counter at the end before tamping. If I don't do all of these steps I get channeling, very annoying I also use the technique where you tamp in a circle around the edges a bit before going down flat, seems to help me get a move even flow through the puck. All of this could be totally psychological and at this point I don't want to mess with my steps as I like my coffee...Does the machine have a preinfusion step? I typically measure from first drop -> end and end up at around 32-35 seconds to get 1:2 out.
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Nov 3, 2021 19:26
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I thought the distributor/tamper was helping on consistency in tamping. Why is it a bad move? Not being belligerent, just trying to understand what is happening.
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charliebravo77 posted:OK I think we're getting somewhere now. Finer grind, WDT, distribute, tamp. Pressure is good and way less of a sour profile. 21 seconds after pre-infusion for the shot. Only 33g out but I can adjust that with the machine. Still get the tart fruity note which now does seem more like cherry than raspberry. One notch finer and/or slightly longer shot time. I’d try grinding finer and extend the time the pull takes, if that doesn’t seem to be helping maybe bump the amount to 19.5g or something
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Nov 3, 2021 20:05
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Redialing in the mignon would likely be difficult because the little screw is very sensitive and, from my experience, is more a guide than a precise instrument. Once I’m settled I usually make very small tweaks as the beans age (sometimes none, depends on bean). I would not switch between grinds with my mignon specialita
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Nov 10, 2021 21:27
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I got my 48oz of “free” German coffee from that “giveaway,” what should I do with it? Pulling espresso with the way the beans smell.. oof Cold brew? Baking? Freeze for future emergencies?
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Nov 11, 2021 21:30
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Gunder posted:I love my Fellow Stagg EKG, but it is expensive. Also have one in black and I love it, very useful for getting warm water for baking as well
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Dec 11, 2021 20:54
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Brut posted:Ah so just grinding time? I don't mind that, I can stand there mindlessly spinning the thing for a minute or two, as long as I don't need to frequently fiddle with the settings or something like that. It’s pretty annoying to grind for a minute imo, for comparison my grinder kicks out espresso grind in 8 seconds. I could just be impatient when it comes to my coffee though
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Jan 25, 2022 20:03
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qutius posted:Well the upgrade phase went pretty well... I found replacing the portafilter that came with my Bianca with a vst let me extract light roasts more consistently, also bumped the temp a bit I feel the steam wand works okay, sputters a little bit for me I’m unsure why Great machine you’re gonna love it imo
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Feb 16, 2022 23:00
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ChickenWing posted:Need an assist on my coffee game, goons. I’d say beans are the easiest upgrade (and cheapest). How much do you want to spend? How fiddly can your process be? Do you care about tweaking it? A new drip machine is pretty easy and will get you good coffee for minimal effort. Personally I wouldn’t go wild on a grinder if you want mostly drip
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Mar 13, 2022 16:27
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Democratic Pirate posted:Whenever I think I’m a snob about coffee for having good beans, a grinder, and a clever maker in the office vs the keurigs my coworkers prefer, Scott Rao comes along and does a Q&A Instagram session to remind me just how much further one can go. Reading this thread doesn’t do that for you? I like the look of synesso, prettier than the decent which… isn’t the most important thing, but it’s nice having pretty things on the counter
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Apr 9, 2022 19:23
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Looking for some suggestions on how to fix this. I’ve wasted so much drat good coffee and I feel like I’m going insane. Every once in a while I’ll get some beans (I use trade, so new coffee regularly) which I cannot dial in on my grinder / machine. Never chokes, go coarse, fine, lots of coffee, minimal coffee, I’ve never figured it out. I generally just mess around with it until I’m out of beans and the next bag comes in and everything works reasonably once more. Very confusing and frustrating! So maybe chalk it up to annoying beans?
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May 2, 2022 13:39
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bizwank posted:So many great colors to choose from too midnight blue looks great in person, got one for my mom and she loves it except she is doing this insanely annoying (which she got from her sister) thing where she puts cinnamon on the coffee bed so I have to get up before her to make sure my coffee isn't gross
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Jul 13, 2022 22:27
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ulvir posted:I've been using the scale that came with the wilfa uniform, but I'm getting a bit sick of having to use my phone at the same time just to have a timer, so I'm in the market for a new scale now. I have the cheaper timemore scale and it works well, but I don’t use its timer functionality. The times I’ve started it by accident it definitely counted seconds though…
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Sep 4, 2022 12:14
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