Life is too short for bad coffee - The Off Topic thread

the beer revolu

Baby oil is great on chrome, too.

alec76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121254980#Comment_121254980

With window spray you could clean it and “polish”in one go though, not sure if baby oil good for cleaning:)

ps. Where did you get it from ?

the beer revolu

Home coffee machines Ireland.

alec76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121257592#Comment_121257592

What is the first Impressions? Home coffee machines famous for very quick delivery, surely you up and running already ☺️

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121260309#Comment_121260309

Yup. Delivered in 2 days and all queries dealt with promptly and well. Very happy with the service.

So, I'm still getting to grips with the new machine. I'm too mean to waste lots of beans dialling everything in but I'm very close now. I'm hoping for perfect shots today.

It's a beautiful bit of kit. Heavy, well built and great looking. So far, I'm in love.

Heat up time is longer than with the Classic but is still pretty quick.

alec76

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121262611#Comment_121262611

What grinder are you using with this machine?

PID control quite easy to use . Increase temperature for light roast and decrease for medium/dark.

Brewing pressure set to 8.5-9 bar.

You cant do flow profiling with this machine ( you could actually, but have to install something like this :

https://www.bluestarcoffee.eu/Mobile/en/ie/Coffee-Sensor-E61-Flow-Control/m-m-5081.aspx?PartnerID=21&gclid=CjwKCAjwysipBhBXEiwApJOcu5fs_n3YaPWkKdR7AX0_6hF3wZmvzSFVINn2hWzz-qWt4_taMVgUDRoCMeEQAvD_BwE&utm_source=google&utm_medium=shopping&utm_campaign=Ireland

the beer revolu

I've a Rancilio Rocky and am not of the mind to upgrade at the moment. If I ever were to upgrade, I'd want a grinder that weighs the dose.

Pulled a pretty much perfect shot (as far as I'm concerned) today. Glass/cup needs to be warmer now that the coffee isn't coming out too hot, I've found. Also my scales is out of battery.

I'm not terribly interested in adding flow control. We're not coffee hobbyists, really. We only use one particular coffee (old school, Italian dark, chocolatey espresso blend). We just really enjoy our espresso and I was struggling with the temperature of the coffee from the Classic being too hot.

So, the boxes I wanted ticked were: a pid and a 58mm group head. Also taking into account that we've never used the steam wand on the GC, the Puristika seemed made for us. Kinda pricey, mind, but I didn't want to buy a new machine and end up missing the GC which served us so well (and is working again 😂).

So far I'm very happy.

The Nal

Anyone tried this?

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/dec/06/scientists-claim-to-have-discovered-secret-to-perfect-espresso

the beer revolu

That's old news.

adrian522

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121465447#Comment_121465447

No but I will give it a go, Hoffman has a video on it, seems to vary by grinder. He also says to replicate results you need to be giving the beans 3-4 sprays of water not the one that would be sufficient to reduce static etc.

the beer revolu

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121465493#Comment_121465493

Seems some of it was new, apologies. I'd heard of spraying beans with water before.

the beer revolu

An update on the puristika :

I've learned that the Gaggia Classic is a very forgiving machine as regards grind and dose.

I don't really understand why but the ECM is not so forgiving. If your grind and dose aren't pretty much spot on, the shots just aren't great! I started weighing my dose (something I never felt the need to do before) and I picked up a cheap timer for grinding. Now that my dose is consistent, I'm able to get really great espresso shots. Unsurprisingly, it takes much longer than the GC to heat up, so a little patience is required, there.

So, having upped my game, I, now, love this machine.

caviardreams

Anyone tried the hoop? see coffee angel stocking it now. Looks similar to clever dripper

https://coffeeangel.com/products/ceado-hoop-coffee-brewer?_pos=1&_sid=e0017f1b2&_ss=r

Hodors Appletart

I will in me hoop try that

adam240610

Does anyone else have a lucky dip 3fe sub? Got the same coffee today as my second most recent one, which is a bit disappointing, haven't had that happen with any other coffee subs over the years

Hodors Appletart

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121514377#Comment_121514377

one of the reasons I stopped getting subs, the chances of this happening, or ending up with some washed brazilian three months running is too much. Much prefer to just go to my local coffee shop and pick up a couple of bags as required, the usually have fresh bags, from different roasters, regularly.

caviardreams

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121516870#Comment_121516870

Tbf that's never happened me with several roasters. I would be disappointed with that. WCC often go out of their way to give you some of their smaller/exclusive quantities and first dibs on their new beans (they have new stock all the time), as do bear mrkt. Honestly can't remember the last time I got a brazilian bean if ever.

But I totally understand wanting to choose yourself when you need it. It's more flexible too.

Hodors Appletart

I'm also lucky that a coffee shop I visit regularly, often has excellent beans in from all over, not just Ireland, but Germany, Netherlands etc

They operate out of a food/farmer/craft market in Glasnevin and I pop in every saturday and I'd say every 2 or three weeks the selection changes, and there is usually two or three different beans available so what I don't get one week I'll get the next. There's also Driftwood in Finglas and they sell Upside beans so if I'm running short late in the week I head over there and grab a bag of something, usually African, usually natural or honey process. All good.

The very odd time, I might go online and have a look at the likes of B&D, Cloudpicker or whatever and if something looks interesting I'll order it

Hodors Appletart

My wife picked up a Krups machine that does drip and espresso, it needed some cleaning up and a descaling, and there was a part missing from the espresso workings that I was able to order.

Did the first run through of the Drip this morning, used 65g for a litre of water with some Guatemalan coffee I got in Aldi for testing, it was fine, but dark roasts aren't really for me. The mrs liked it, but found it a bit strong so I'll dial back the ratio a bit for the next batch.

The part for the espresso hasn't arrived yet.

cnocbui

I started out tentatively with trying roasting my own green beans and now I have gone full on, with my last two 5 Kg orders being nothing but green beans. I didn't even need to buy any gear because I found my oven does a good enough job for my sensibilities.

Now I get consistently excellent tasting coffee for half the price, though there is some time and a small degree of effort required.

Anyone looking for a reliable quality machine should consider QuickMill. I picked up a year old Pegaso in 2017 and it has reliably made probably about 8760 espressos since and it's showing no signs of declining performance or of getting tired. Even the grinder is still perfoming well, with only perhaps an extra half click extra of adjustment to get the same fineness. I found an interesting overhaul and clean video of one on Youtube by professionals and the internals inspire confidence and getting to the grinder for burr replacement looks to be far easier than I had been imagining, so I no longer have any fear of having to do that little job at some point.

When I got it, it was missing a tiny spring and mushroom headed pin valve that sits in the screw that secures the group head bits. These were easy and cheap to obtain and it's been great since. I wondered why someone was selling such a nice machine after only a year and theorise they lost these parts down the sink doing a clean and didn't realise it, so it dripped a lot and they thought it was defective and so moved it on, to my great benefit.

2011abc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121512905#Comment_121512905

The screwing would definitely put me off