HI all. First post after several months lurking here - congrats on an awesome community.
As of the weekend I am the owner of a refurbished Rancilio Silvia and a new Breville Smart Grinder. Happy to say both were purchased from CS sponsors - and Im very happy to have this combo for the price I paid.
Ive ground beans and used a stovetop machine for coffee for as long as i can remember, but until Saturday night had never tried to pull a shot of espresso. Id welcome any tips for how to get some incremental improvement in my output, until I can get to a Barista course in a few weeks. Currently:
Basket - Rancilio 18 gm double basket
Beans - from Forsyth coffee roasted last tuesday
Grinder - set to second finest setting
Dose - a mound higher than the rim of the basket. Using a little under 2 does as delivered by the SG.
Tamping - so that the level is below the top of basket.
It is about 15 - 20 seconds from hitting the button until the shot begins to blonde. Coffee is too bitter and "strong". More worrying is that:
- on some pulls there is actually a little flow of hot water coming out of the group and over the side of the PF handle
- often the flow from the two PF channel is different - eg dark on one side, light on the other, fast on one side / slow on the other
- There is still water on the top of the basket after the pull contents are "soupy"
I roughly get from reading here and elsewhere what Im tying to do. Given the above Id appreciate any tips on which of the variables - dose / tamp / grind I should be tackling first. cheers
As of the weekend I am the owner of a refurbished Rancilio Silvia and a new Breville Smart Grinder. Happy to say both were purchased from CS sponsors - and Im very happy to have this combo for the price I paid.
Ive ground beans and used a stovetop machine for coffee for as long as i can remember, but until Saturday night had never tried to pull a shot of espresso. Id welcome any tips for how to get some incremental improvement in my output, until I can get to a Barista course in a few weeks. Currently:
Basket - Rancilio 18 gm double basket
Beans - from Forsyth coffee roasted last tuesday
Grinder - set to second finest setting
Dose - a mound higher than the rim of the basket. Using a little under 2 does as delivered by the SG.
Tamping - so that the level is below the top of basket.
It is about 15 - 20 seconds from hitting the button until the shot begins to blonde. Coffee is too bitter and "strong". More worrying is that:
- on some pulls there is actually a little flow of hot water coming out of the group and over the side of the PF handle
- often the flow from the two PF channel is different - eg dark on one side, light on the other, fast on one side / slow on the other
- There is still water on the top of the basket after the pull contents are "soupy"
I roughly get from reading here and elsewhere what Im tying to do. Given the above Id appreciate any tips on which of the variables - dose / tamp / grind I should be tackling first. cheers



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