Hi all,
After reading and lurking here for a while, we finally decided to bite the bullet on our first "serious" coffee setup and went with a Rancilio Silvia V3 and Rocky Doser. Firstly wanted to say that we are already very impressed with the espressos this combo is producing, so this post is about tweaking to make things better, rather than "OMG this coffe tastes terrible!" We recently spent some time in the USA, so almost any coffee tastes good atm, and before the Rancilio, well,.. I won't even mention our coffee set up, but suffice to say with two young kids in the house, convenience counts for a lot. My partner and I always drink our shots straight up - espresso/short black (what's the favoured term around here?). I'll have to practice steaming milk before we next have guests!
Here's my workflow at the moment:
1. Turn machine on as soon as I wake up.
2. 15-20 minutes later, while light is off, run water through empty portafilter/double basket in 1-2 sec bursts, pausing in between, until light comes on.
3. Dry and wipe clean the basket/portafilter.
4. Grind until basket is full - slightly mounded using Rocky doser on setting 8.
5. Level the ground coffee evenly across basket, wiping away excess, so it is level with top of basket.
6. Tamp using the dinky little plastic tamper that came with the Silvia.
7. Meanwhile, the Silvia light went off while grinding and tamping and has been off for 15-45 seconds.
8. Extract into two espresso cups. Haven't been measuring, but I think it is close to the 30 mL in 30 seconds mark.
9. Empty grounds from basket, wash clean, run through some more water through machine and portafilter, wipe clean again and switch machine off, leaving clean portafilter attached to the machine.
In general, even though the shots have been good to my taste, the crema is darker and slightly thinner (less volume) than I would expect. Also, this morning I did two doubles and the second one was very dark - my partner commented that it looked like turkish coffee. I'm not sure if this was using too much coffee, tamping too hard, or the machine being too hot for that shot.
One thing I have noticed is that the ground coffee is slightly clumpy when it has come out of the grinder. I also should point out that, typical for this time of year, it is hot and humid here in Brisbane - nearing 30 degrees in our kitchen at breakfast time the other day. Not sure what effect that has on the process.
Any suggestions on things I could improve or experiment with? I guess timing (extraction, temp surf) and measuring (dose) is where I should start. Not sure where to go with the grind - finer, but smaller dose/lighter tamp? I don't know how much of a difference it will make to the shot, but I would like to get a nicer tamper. Is a flat one ok, considering the protruding nut on the Rancilio shower screen?
I realise PIDs are fairly popular, but I can't justify extra expense so soon after machine purchase. Plus, I kind of like the idea of getting to grips with making decent shots the older-fashioned way before getting high-tech.
Thanks for any pointers and looking forward to achieving that god shot any day now!
After reading and lurking here for a while, we finally decided to bite the bullet on our first "serious" coffee setup and went with a Rancilio Silvia V3 and Rocky Doser. Firstly wanted to say that we are already very impressed with the espressos this combo is producing, so this post is about tweaking to make things better, rather than "OMG this coffe tastes terrible!" We recently spent some time in the USA, so almost any coffee tastes good atm, and before the Rancilio, well,.. I won't even mention our coffee set up, but suffice to say with two young kids in the house, convenience counts for a lot. My partner and I always drink our shots straight up - espresso/short black (what's the favoured term around here?). I'll have to practice steaming milk before we next have guests!
Here's my workflow at the moment:
1. Turn machine on as soon as I wake up.
2. 15-20 minutes later, while light is off, run water through empty portafilter/double basket in 1-2 sec bursts, pausing in between, until light comes on.
3. Dry and wipe clean the basket/portafilter.
4. Grind until basket is full - slightly mounded using Rocky doser on setting 8.
5. Level the ground coffee evenly across basket, wiping away excess, so it is level with top of basket.
6. Tamp using the dinky little plastic tamper that came with the Silvia.
7. Meanwhile, the Silvia light went off while grinding and tamping and has been off for 15-45 seconds.
8. Extract into two espresso cups. Haven't been measuring, but I think it is close to the 30 mL in 30 seconds mark.
9. Empty grounds from basket, wash clean, run through some more water through machine and portafilter, wipe clean again and switch machine off, leaving clean portafilter attached to the machine.
In general, even though the shots have been good to my taste, the crema is darker and slightly thinner (less volume) than I would expect. Also, this morning I did two doubles and the second one was very dark - my partner commented that it looked like turkish coffee. I'm not sure if this was using too much coffee, tamping too hard, or the machine being too hot for that shot.
One thing I have noticed is that the ground coffee is slightly clumpy when it has come out of the grinder. I also should point out that, typical for this time of year, it is hot and humid here in Brisbane - nearing 30 degrees in our kitchen at breakfast time the other day. Not sure what effect that has on the process.
Any suggestions on things I could improve or experiment with? I guess timing (extraction, temp surf) and measuring (dose) is where I should start. Not sure where to go with the grind - finer, but smaller dose/lighter tamp? I don't know how much of a difference it will make to the shot, but I would like to get a nicer tamper. Is a flat one ok, considering the protruding nut on the Rancilio shower screen?
I realise PIDs are fairly popular, but I can't justify extra expense so soon after machine purchase. Plus, I kind of like the idea of getting to grips with making decent shots the older-fashioned way before getting high-tech.
Thanks for any pointers and looking forward to achieving that god shot any day now!


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