Kafatek Monolith

[mrgray]

that ties in fairly well with what denis told me. he advised late august for next order.

i am wondering whether i am being foolish. surely i could adjust my quite wonderful kony to single dose?

landed the monolith flat is going to cost me around 3.7k i think. that's a bunch of money. i do think the grinder is more important than the espresso machine, but i already have a kony-e, which is a very good grinder i think.

but then i try and single dose the kony-e and i immediately come up against a few issues which are:
- sweeping out chute - hate doing it
- without a hopper of beans grind size changes.
- grinds clinging to chute
- tapping and turning on grinder to get retention out - hate it

also, my impression is that it takes the kony a few shots to settle on a newly selected grind size. however this is an impression formed when i still had the grill on the chute. the grill was really backing up the grinds (and was the cause of alot of clumping i was getting). so it may not be a valid point anymore.

i need to be prepared to put my deposit down on this monolith as soon as it becomes available. can anyone provide any advice for me in regard to single dosing the kony-e. i'd be especially interested in hearing from a kony-e user who does single dose on it.

i may also be guilty of trying to get rational about what is to some degree simply an irrational purchase. as in, i really like the monolith flat. i think it looks like the bees knees and based on user impressions, there isn't alot of disappointment around.

[greg-g]

I would expect the next offering within a week or so.
They have shipped about 2/3rd of the current batch.

[mrgray]

wow again! thanks a bunch kwantfm. that just upped the want factor substantially but also made me think "hey, maybe its not one or the other in this world, just have them all!". hydra, cremina, slayer, londinium. and on it goes. wow!

[level3ninja]

Wow.... Those bench pics... If I ever own one of those machines it would be immaculately clean and only have coffee accessories that compliment it kept near it in an orderly and uncluttered fashion. You would have to assume the love for it by the condition it was kept in compared to the house around it. His on the other hand you know they are loved through use! Amazing machines but even better that they are so readily used that they are covered in gear. If my wife ever tells me my coffee machine has gone to a better place that's what I'll imagine, once I regain consciousness.

[kwantfm]

hey kwantfm, i noted from another thread that you've visited the man who makes the grinders! how exciting. is there a thread somewhere here where you elaborate at all? i am keenly awaiting the announcement of the next order. anything monolith related is of interest.

I don't tend to cross post and did write about this visit on another site

http://www.home-barista.com/grinders...it-t42132.html

[mrgray]

hey kwantfm, i noted from another thread that you've visited the man who makes the grinders! how exciting. is there a thread somewhere here where you elaborate at all? i am keenly awaiting the announcement of the next order. anything monolith related is of interest.

[Plestor]

I am fanatical about wanting great shots but it is this number of steps and time that hold me back. My current mythos/lmlm based preshot workflow is dose, verify dose weight, distribute, tamp and even that feels a bit cumbersome

Its actually worse!

I also forgot the purge routine
Tap the entry chute,
purge button,
tap out exit chute,
purge again.

The thing is that these are really short actions. I really don't thinks its too bad.

The time consuming thing in the routine is actually the grind time at 360rpm (VERY SLOW).

800rpm is normalish speeds (10s).

Without testing I'd guess that its ~ 6x slower (proportional to energy /rpm^2) maybe a minute a shot.

Listing out the steps makes everything seem hard /long.




--


Note I can go 98% as good shots with premeasured beans by


Dump bean container (or weight)
Grind
Tap top of grinder to purge
Swirl and Tap to level
Tamp n go.

Maybe 20s including the grind.

[Melbroaster]

Never timed my preshot but maybe 20 seconds?

[Melbroaster]

I am fanatical about wanting great shots but it is this number of steps and time that hold me back. My current mythos/lmlm based preshot workflow is dose, verify dose weight, distribute, tamp and even that feels a bit cumbersome

[Plestor]

@plestor - can you swap from one bean to another without any purging (assuming of course you know what grind setting you want)?

Yes.
I can write down the settings and get bang on shots changing beans and even pulling a filter in between*.

This is a godsend given I'll often have 2-3 bags on the go at a time. *Obviously if you wait days you get bean /environment drift. Nothing significant in 99% of cases.

Routine is as follows
measure 20.0g in ramekin.
Spray (rdt)
Shake
Grind at 360rpm
Tare grinder + collar
Check weight WDT
Side Tap if wdt isn't level enough
OCD v2
Tamp (pullman bigstep)
Pull Clean Maybe ~ 2:30-3 min /shot, but I can halve it when rushing*.

[simonsk8r]

@simonsk8r - yes it does come with the WDT tool however some use it and some don't. i'm not sure though that clumping is indicative of lack of grinder quality. on the bright side the other "intervention" RDT - might not be required. certainly it seems some users have declared their intent not to. i too was surprised though that a new and improved grinder might lead to me doing more "work" than i currently do with the kony-e. then again on the positive side before i started looking at the grinder as an upgrade i didn't know RDT and WDT existed, and WDT has greatly improved my shots since i recently implemented it.

Ah ok right fair enough, I guess it's a method to improve results for many, regardless of grinder. Have never heard of RDT, just looked it up, wwwowza that's bizarre! Will look into that haha thanks

[level3ninja]

Flow rate is different. For true flow rate you need to know the entire amount of water in the entire amount of time, however you probably won't be measuring the puck after you extract to determine the amount of water still in there. To determine flow rate only measuring the liquid in the cup, start timing from when it hits the cup. A normal espresso recipe "Xg in, Xg out in 30s" or whatever, that usually includes the preinfusion, although I'm finding it more common these days to have preinfusion specified as well.

[mrgray]

ok sorry this is off-topic re: the mighty monolith, but it is about coffee so if i might pls be suffered.

@ level3ninja - well that changes things i think. as i have been looking at say a flow rate of 1g per s, but from the time it starts pouring.

i suppose this stuff has been covered hundreds of times in here, but for some reason i find it difficult to find (wrong search terms i suspect). does anyone have a reference for suggested flow rates please? (i realise i really need to talk about ml/s for it to be a "flow rate", however i'm using a scale to weigh the extraction, so i guess it could be expressed in weight per time?)

[level3ninja]

I am used to the time starting from the start of preinfusion, from the time the water is in contact with the puck.

[mrgray]

@simonsk8r - yes it does come with the WDT tool however some use it and some don't. i'm not sure though that clumping is indicative of lack of grinder quality. on the bright side the other "intervention" RDT - might not be required. certainly it seems some users have declared their intent not to. i too was surprised though that a new and improved grinder might lead to me doing more "work" than i currently do with the kony-e. then again on the positive side before i started looking at the grinder as an upgrade i didn't know RDT and WDT existed, and WDT has greatly improved my shots since i recently implemented it.

@magic_matt - timer starting from first flow of coffee came from a decent espresso video i watched the other day. i've just started using an acaia scale and that's how i was timing my shots. is it convention then that timing starts from pre-infusion, or from when full pressure is applied? pls help a noob out.

and @samuellaw178 - he is using the other acaia mode (triangle on square). i haven't used it but it seems to me for this one you manually start the timer. the mode you are talking about is a water droplet and a square. i use that one myself.