Coffee Appreciation

Just another two cents into the Acaia recommendations. I've had a pearl for 6ish years, and I really like it (Full disclosure, I didn't pay for it but was given it at an event I worked, I would defo buy a replacement if it died though!) I use it pretty much every day for brewing filter, baking and general kitchen use. I'm clumsy as hell, so I think it's done a killer job surviving this long! I don't use any of the app connectivity, so probably wasted on me. Do enjoy the timer though, it's much easier than digging my phone out and keeping the screen alive to show the timer. I have used it for weighing portafilters, and it's totally fine for that, I just find it's a bit slow to tare for my liking. But that's also usually making espresso at events or in a commercial situation, so not really home use! I'm used to ohaus scientific scales with the "no touchy" tare at work as well, so I'm defo ruined for all other scales!

Cool, I was thinking of getting one of these. How long did postage take from USA?

Turns out they ship direct from China. Took 14 days.

Also I imagine those trays do a fine job of preventing the inner workings getting covered in espresso for all those people who can't tamp properly and have it spraying everywhere ;)

There’s a set of those in the shop. Never had to swear at them.

Did the IMS shower screen and comp basket upgrade for my Gaggia Classic and pleasantly surprised by the immediate improvements. Slippery slope approaching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJvatGfD9Pg

Have you ever taken yours apart for an overhaul? I recommend it...

Only the group head bit really. Do you mean getting at the boiler?

Yeah... The flow in mine would slow down to a crawl every month, descaling wasn't improving the situation much... Once I took it apart and cleaned everything up all the upgrades really came into their own...

Bit confronting at first but it was pretty easy... The plastic around the switches cracked when I tried to get them out, that was the only casualty, the rest was simple enough and very satisfying once all done...

Just had the first brew of the Ethiopian stuff from @StevePeel - daaaaayum, lovely stuff.

Yeah... The flow in mine would slow down to a crawl every month, descaling wasn't improving the situation much... Once I took it apart and cleaned everything up all the upgrades really came into their own...

Thinking about the flow bit you mentioned, how do you descale yours? I put the descaler in the water tank, put all the removable group head bits in the bottom of the tank and insert the tank in the machine under the group head so that it basically circulates when it pumps. The idea being it runs plenty of fresh descaler through the pump and circulates through the boiler. It usually pumps quite a lot of loose debris into the bottom of the tank which would otherwise get stuck behind the shower screen. I don't do it all the time, but the OPV also gets scaled up on mine (and it stops regulating the pressure), so I sometimes do a few forced pumps with the blind basket in to push fresh descaler through the valve.

Same here, descaler dissolved into 1.5 litres of water, run through a cold machine for fifteen seconds then switched off and left to sit for fifteen minutes before flushing it all out again and rinsing through with another tank of clean water...

I'll take the shower screen out every time I descale and the plate comes out once every six months, they'll go into a bowl of vinegar while the machine's getting sorted out...

How are you getting on with the Peak Water @jdp? Can you taste the difference?

https://twitter.com/firsthippy/status/1263107265822932995

Weyyyyyyyyy! Congratulations 🥳

So I fixed this eventually. New gasket didn't make a difference so I tried descaling again (only descaled a couple months ago but figured it was worth a try). Backflushed with descaler solution then cafiza and it works fine again. I figure there was a flake of scale that found its way into the solenoid or something but I'm not sure. It works as it should again without having to dismantle it further so I'm happy.

Nice one, glad they got there so soon 👍

I was slightly sad it wasn't beer but then remembered what I'd ordered. :) Thanks for the coffee too mate!

Only tried it twice so far. Can taste a difference to both tap and bottled water. Far better than tap obviously but not bottled yet. It lacks a bit of body and the brightness of bottled water but I guess I still need to play with the settings and maybe change my volume of water to coffee ratios.

Great size too, very nice...

Nice, glad to hear there is a difference. Keep us updated.

Which coffee did you order from Plot in the end?

I would like to try this mesh AeroPress filter too. But seems like they don’t ship outside of Japan. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/coffeesakura/stainless-steel-filter-13m-for-aeropress-coffee-ma

Columbian Cold fermented Pink Bourbon and Guatamala Finca La Senda. TBH I could have bought at least another 2 different bags easily but I feel I should keep buying from cafes/roasters local to me so restrainted myself a bit.
I've not tried them yet; probably at the weekend as I just open a bag of Ethiopian Melesa Wolde .

Columbian Colombian Cold fermented Pink Bourbon

Sweet. I’m yet to open a bag of that one, hope it’s as tasty as it sounds.