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Newbie trying to produce a drinkable long black

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  • #16
    No worries, Paul. Was just making sure....we do get a few chaps say 'yeh, absolutely fresh, bought it from Woolies last week'. You can tell your Mrs that it's raining in Perth and the cricket might be disrupted anyway.

    Seeing as you've got a camera, wouldn't hurt to take a photo of your ground coffee scattered on a piece of white paper and also pinched between two fingertips (to see how it cakes).

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    • #17
      Latest update:

      Have produced two sets of long blacks (one pair longer than the other). Both poor but drinkable. Would send back at a coffee shop. Crema is weak and disappears while carrying cups from machine to (testy) wife.

      This is all getting too frustrating and my wife is very unhappy at the expense (approaching $6000 if you include grinder) for such a miserable result. Not looking good for Christmas. Woe is me.....

      I think I urgently need to arrange for some private barrista training tomorrow.

      Can anyone suggest a person or company I can contact in Sydney (especially North Shore)? Don’t need to be taught about anything other than making decent espresso and long blacks. We can learn about milk frothing etc when we go to the already booked and paid course in late January.

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      • #18
        Newbie trying to produce a drinkable long black

        Hi Paul

        You never know your luck... One of the site sponsors might be free to help over the next few days. Jet Black espresso is over your way. Di Bartoli are just across the bridge and down a bit 🤣. Paying these people money in exchange for help is also good at this busy time of year.

        Or perhaps the place where you purchased the machine from?

        You could just take your portafilter, grinder and beans with you.

        If you work with someone and have those dialled in right then you should be good to go at home too. (Assuming your machine is ok). But that would be a good start.

        Can you take a video of what’s happening? Post here via YouTube?

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        • #19
          Matt

          What an excellent suggestion. I will take grinder etc to the place I bought my equipment and they should be able to get me on track pretty quickly. Now I can get some sleep. Yippee!

          In the unlikely event it fails I’ll post a video (but it may well take the form of an online suicide). Just kidding.

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          • #20
            Hi Paul,

            Happy to hear you are making progress in the right direction, easy mistake to make when you are first starting out.

            I'd be quite surprised if making very small changes in grind make such a dramatic change in the volume of coffee produced. I think you hit the nail on the head about not having the right dose of ground coffee in the basket. This is something that you need to learn to get consistent pours. If you get a consistent (and correct) dose of coffee, then the grind is your main other variable (providing fresh beans are used of course).

            Try looking up the '5c piece' test for a good guide on proper dosing levels. I've not used your machine or grinder before, but maybe as a rough guide fill your portafilter level to the rim with coffee beans and this should be a ball park guide to how much coffee you need. Weighing the beans used for each shot could also help with consistency once you get the hang of dosing.

            Also as level3ninja mentioned earlier 40ml is a little low for a double standard espresso shot, I'd aim for between 50-60ml over the 25-30 seconds.

            Hope thats not all too confusing, again training is money well spent (especially when you've got top shelf equipment that should be able to output coffee as good as most cafes!)

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            • #21
              Hi Paul...

              I am very soon to be in exactly the same boat as you in that after a goof few months the kitchen is finally finished, plumbers coming tomorrow to plumb everything in and then I will be trying out the machine - an Alex Leva and Eureka Atom in my case.

              I will be keen to hear how you went with the training as I plan to do exactly the same next year.

              Will post some pics of the new set up in the next day or so.

              Good luck with it all.

              Alastair

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              • #22
                Update #2

                Following advice I took my grinder back to the shop this morning along with my coffee. Received warm welcome and they had no issues with dialing in my grinder. As it happens I had the grind setting right. I was just underdosing. My grind time was 6.9 secs but it needed to be 8.3 secs.

                I have been out all day so have only just had a chance to try it out at home. I cannot claim total success but I did at least produce two recognizable long blacks. With more practice I am optimistic my shots will steadily improve.

                Thanks again to everyone for your advice and support. It is a delight to have good people like you take an interest and offer help to a stranger.

                Merry Christmas.
                Paul

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                • #23
                  Nice thread and some good troubleshooting going on. Here's a bunch of geekery I've come across recently which helps me make sense of the whole dialling in thing (a work in progress to be sure.)
                  Commercial link removed as per the Site Posting Policy
                  Happy brewing, I'm sure you'll have it down pat in no time.
                  Last edited by Javaphile; 20 December 2017, 11:43 AM. Reason: Commercial link(s) removed

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                  • #24
                    Hi Paul

                    Very Glad to hear you got things sorted out. Sometimes a bit of face to face support can help get things sorted out.

                    Hopefully you're getting some more enjoyable and consistent shots.

                    Noticed the link to this gross sounding video didn't work... "three legs on your espresso stool"... doesn't sound good. But it may help.
                    :-)

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                    • #25
                      Just one other thing. Sorry if this is obvious, but are you tasting the straight espresso shots from your machine?

                      This is a critical part of dialing everything in. You can’t make a good long black without a good espresso shot!

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