I first made contact with Rick Bond (aka site sponsor the Coffee Machinist) in early January. I was pretty intrigued by his Linea Mini modifications. A Slayer style pre-brew or preinfusion has always been of interest to me... I like the texture of ristretto shots (I'm a dinosaur I know) and felt that longer shots with that sort of texture as well as the potential for more tasty shots because of the ability to grind finer with that style of pre-brew would be a great combination. It was really good working with Rick as I had many other custom features that I wanted. I like my steam wand to the left, so Rick managed to reroute all of the tubing, I really wanted a shot timer (I'd been spoilt by my last machine, a Profitec Pro 700), and I wanted to be able to reduce pre-brew flow rate to something like 1.5 grams per second which was achieved by fitting a smaller diameter 0.6mm gicleur. The shot timer in particular is a work of art, having been beautifully integrated into the paddle housing.
I've only had the machine for a couple of days but it's clear that it's a really capable machine. Commercial strength steaming is an eye opener having come from three prosumer machines. I'll need to improve my steaming capabilities to handle a full 2 bar of steam pressure (milk was literally being blown out of my small milk jug) and so have dialled pressure down to 1.6 bar. I spent about an hour and a half checking brew temperature with my Scace and the integrated group head is extremely temperature stable.
Other things that delight about this machine/setup:
- The Linea Mini looks really amazing in the flesh (much better than photos)... the stainless panelling is thicker and more robust than I had expected;
- The drip tray has a little funnel extending out of the back middle which makes it really easy to empty;
- La Marzocco spouted portafilters are deep enough to accommodate triple baskets;
- The paddle is super solid and feels wonderful - I understand that Rick does work on the paddle as consensus suggests that LM sends Linea Minis out with paddles that are much to stiff.
Things that are not delightful:
- The little wheel that drives the potentiometer/PID for control of the brew temp is way off... I found that it suggests that brew temp is a full four degrees celsius less than what the Scace is measuring. The only upside is that it is consistently four degrees off so once one is aware it's fine... however if I didn't have a Scace I'd feel very confused;
- The steam and hot water knobs have LM fleur de lys symbols on them, but they are not aligned vertical when the knobs are in their off positions.
Currently I'm running pre-brew at 2 bar for 20 seconds, with first drops of espresso hitting the cup at about 18 seconds followed by 22 seconds of 9 bar extraction. Brew ratio is 1:1. Extractions are very clean and tasty with grind only slightly finer than what I had been using on the Profitec.
All in all, this has been a great purchase. Rick's done a great job.
I've only had the machine for a couple of days but it's clear that it's a really capable machine. Commercial strength steaming is an eye opener having come from three prosumer machines. I'll need to improve my steaming capabilities to handle a full 2 bar of steam pressure (milk was literally being blown out of my small milk jug) and so have dialled pressure down to 1.6 bar. I spent about an hour and a half checking brew temperature with my Scace and the integrated group head is extremely temperature stable.
Other things that delight about this machine/setup:
- The Linea Mini looks really amazing in the flesh (much better than photos)... the stainless panelling is thicker and more robust than I had expected;
- The drip tray has a little funnel extending out of the back middle which makes it really easy to empty;
- La Marzocco spouted portafilters are deep enough to accommodate triple baskets;
- The paddle is super solid and feels wonderful - I understand that Rick does work on the paddle as consensus suggests that LM sends Linea Minis out with paddles that are much to stiff.
Things that are not delightful:
- The little wheel that drives the potentiometer/PID for control of the brew temp is way off... I found that it suggests that brew temp is a full four degrees celsius less than what the Scace is measuring. The only upside is that it is consistently four degrees off so once one is aware it's fine... however if I didn't have a Scace I'd feel very confused;
- The steam and hot water knobs have LM fleur de lys symbols on them, but they are not aligned vertical when the knobs are in their off positions.
Currently I'm running pre-brew at 2 bar for 20 seconds, with first drops of espresso hitting the cup at about 18 seconds followed by 22 seconds of 9 bar extraction. Brew ratio is 1:1. Extractions are very clean and tasty with grind only slightly finer than what I had been using on the Profitec.
All in all, this has been a great purchase. Rick's done a great job.


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