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  • #31
    Re: Did I do well?

    Originally posted by 5F69626D78637E0C0 link=1260867503/28#28 date=1261514992
    Dosing till overflowing, no settling tap and wipe with straight edge till level. Tamp, still too much coffee, locks in but coffee puck gets destroyed by shower screen when locked in.

    Any tips appreciated
    What works for me is to measure each grind by volume and grind only that amount of beans. It comes out in a regular conical shape in the basket. Tap on bench to settle and tamp.

    If you must overfill, or are making a quanitity of coffees at once, then instead of a straight edge use a curved bit of card (or thumb) to take out excess coffee.

    Generally you want just enough coffee that a 5 cent piece on top of the puck only gently indents when the group handle is locked in. This gives some room for expansion.

    Greg

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    • #32
      Re: Did I do well?

      Originally posted by 784E454A5F44592B0 link=1260867503/28#28 date=1261514992
      I really do need to go back to coffee school

      I am having real trouble with dosing. Have read through the tips linked to above, but they just dont seem to be working for me.

      Have tried -

      Dosing the basket to overflowing and tapping to collapse, refill, wipe with straight edge and tamp. Far too much coffee, fails to lock in at all.

      then

      Dosing till overflowing, no settling tap and wipe with straight edge till level. Tamp, still too much coffee, locks in but coffee puck gets destroyed by shower screen when locked in.

      Any tips appreciated

      Cheers

      Sen

      When that has happened to me, I have found that it is because the grind is too coarse. That makes it too difficult to tamp down to the correct level to fit under the shower screen.

      So, I would go finer and take it from there.

      Also, although you are not tapping, you may need to ensure that you are not compressing at the same time as levelling.

      Hope that helps.
      Marie

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      • #33
        Re: Did I do well?

        The curved edge suggestion helped a bit. Dont have any more funds to buy dosing tools, but have a curved knife that will suffice for now. Still need to break my habit of dose, tap, dose, flatten and tamp though as there was still fractionally too much in the basket (impression of the shower screen before pulling the shot).

        On the plus side of the equation, there is a significant flavour difference between this and the 6910. Where the 6910 can be a little sour / bright in the shots it pulls (talking milk drinks only), the expobar is definitely more rounded, smoother / refined if that makes sense.

        Still getting the big bubbles, there just isnt enough time to correct mistakes with Bumblebee like there was with the 6910. Im guessing a jug of milk for a latte (200 or so mls of milk) is taking 30ish seconds and the 2 hole tip (with holes propelling front / back) is tough to get right.

        Arghhhhh, I thought I was good at making coffee, still, will get there again

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        • #34
          Re: Did I do well?



          Hi Senator,

          Im not sure if this will help but you try dose ( until you can fill no more) then tap twice on the bench, level off the extra with you index finger so it looks fairly flat. Tamp and then insert into group head. I know the one at work works well using this technique. Although i have to alter this technique for my 6910. :P

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          • #35
            Re: Did I do well?

            This might be trickier than what I first thought.

            I am currently using my sunbeam tamper with the new machine. It is quite a good fit, very little space around the edge. The problem seems to be that the tamper is hitting the side of the basket where it tapers in, but the coffee level is still too high. Is this an unusual problem?

            I cant see where a fitted tamper would necessarily be any better, unless I maybe went down to a 57mm one rather than a 58mm one, where even though there would be 1mm or so around the outside of the tamper, it would be able to get deeper into the basket.

            The basket seems about the same size as my sunbeam basket (have interchanged them to see if this helps, but the same thing happens, tamper bottoms out).

            New basket (Synesso one?) and / or marginally smaller tamper to get the dose a fraction lower? Only seems to be 1 or 2mm at the most.

            Cheers

            Sen

            Comment


            • #36
              Re: Did I do well?

              Originally posted by 4F79727D68736E1C0 link=1260867503/34#34 date=1261704789
              New basket (Synesso one?)
              IIRC Greg said the sides of the Synesso baskets are straight.

              This means youll be able to dose to any depth you want.

              Comment


              • #37
                Re: Did I do well?

                Definitely sounds like a Tamper/Basket mismatch thing happening there Sen.... :P

                Synesso baskets are pretty good though and providing your Tamper fits OK, you should be home and hosed. Alternatively, you could try taking your basket(s) with you to a local specialist dealer and see if you can find a Tamper that fits the baskets you already have.... At least that would get you going mate

                Mal.

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                • #38
                  Re: Did I do well?

                  Just a little addition.

                  We have a commercial Expobar.  I dont know if your great little machine has similar quirks, but when first getting comfortable with our machine we found that it was really hard to perfect a shot with the single group handle, you could not get away with overfilling, either the handle just would not go in or if you did manage to get it into the machine the machine ceases the water flow and the button flashes.  Thru trial and error we found that you really had to dose quite low (leveling off and tamping was way too much for our single group handle).  

                  On the other hand the double was much easier to learn on and more forgiving.  Using the method above that you described of filling with grinds and then scraping to level off (making sure you are consistent by trying not to compress or shake down the grinds during this process) seemed to work well with our machine and may be the way to go with your double.  Again though we did find that you had to be careful with overdosing.

                  Once you have consistent dosing on the double, then you can start mucking around with the grind or tamping (once you get your tamper sorted).  Then try going back to the single once you have sorted out the grind on the double and then experiment with dosages and/or tamp pressure.

                  This may help?

                  Denhamia

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Re: Did I do well?

                    We also run an Expobar Silvestre (Spanish for really small boiler). We too had issues between the large & small baskets. It was never a problem on the Wega which I have used for the last five years, you dosed correctly & you got your shot. My response has been to grind & dose for the double basket then muck around with basket sizes for the single. I suspect it is an issue with shower screen height although logically it shouldnt be.

                    I know of no other machines but Expobars with similar quirks. I was conducting some training recently on an Expobar Megacrem (where do they get the names?) same issue. Before that demoed on a Boema Maestro (!) & it sung like a bird (great steam arms).

                    We have got ours tamed at present but it still extremely dose sensitive.

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Re: Did I do well?

                      Originally posted by 577960704A5D7A606670150 link=1260867503/38#38 date=1261899774
                      I know of no other machines but Expobars with similar quirks.
                      Its not the machine, its the basket.

                      Although I use the double basket on my Expobar 99% of the time, once Id learned to understand the behaviour of the single basket, it did not take much to adjust the grind or dose to suit.

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                      • #41
                        Re: Did I do well?

                        Have a new "proper" tamper now



                        Is quite weighty at around 440gr plus beautiful Rimu wood handle, cetainly looks the goods compared to the Sunbeam one.

                        Seems a much better tamp / level now with the handle locking in without disturbing the puck at all

                        Now just the milk to work on..........

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