Coffee Appreciation

Like how much longer? I would say that the ceramic V60 gets sufficiently hot during rinsing and keeps that temperature easier than the plastic one. Especially if you rinse with boiling hot water.

I think the point is that the plastic one doesn't need to 'keep' heat as it doesn't absorb much compared to the ceramic one.

Can confirm that the clear plastic V60s craze.

Me too.

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Forum approved hand grinder? For pour-over and aeropress, can't bring myself to go down the home espresso rabbit hole.

I've got £75 to spend at amazon (boo, hiss). Is the porlex mini the obvious choice, or are there cheaper, equally acceptable options (hario skerton for eg)?

I'd go for the Rhinowares personally. Always found the pentagonal bit of the Porlex to be a pain, handle flying off is relatively common (though they may have addressed this issues recently, mine is about 10 years old at this point). Rhino feels much easier to use and has a hex bit, so popping a drill on there is simple if you fancy it. Rhino can't go fine enough for espresso while the Porlex can though. Hario hand grinders generally have the same penta-bit issues as the Porlex, probably the only bit of Hario's range I'd actively disuade people from.

Found an aeropress in the cupboard, was a Christmas gift from my FiL, and i forgot it was in there!
Included was a metal filter (As well as the paper ones)

Are these any good? or should i just stick with what I know?

Also in the bag was a Rhino hand grinder that handily fits inside the aeropress, and has a bit to "attach" so you can grind straight into the aeropress.

Almost looking forward t going back to work now (whenever that may be)

If anyone finds the pentagonal bit on the Porlex a problem, I have a penta-to-hex converter I'm not using.

It's intended for driving it with a drill or electric screwdriver, but you could probably just stick a regular hex ratchet on there.

I’ve lost the handle to my porlex in house move - would this work for that?

Aeropress is dope. Loads of different ways to brew and get some good coffee . Enjoy it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR0EkZtWscc

I just saw this and had a flashback to the time I bought what I thought was a can of coffee from a take away place in a tube station in Tokyo, went to take a nice big swig, thought "this is taking a little long to pour out" then it turned out to be a jelly. A really gross jelly.

I just got the Porlex Tall II to replace my old one, pentabit gone, much sturdier and higher quality burrs too, works really well...

My dad is getting rid of some coffee bits. He’s in Pirbright near Woking and these prices would be for cash on collection. While wearing a mask. Of course.

Sage Barista Express - cleaned and descaled. Has a small dent on the front left side panel - £250

Sage Smart Grinder - £110

Jura ENA8 bean to cup machine in Red - has 18 month warranty, hasn’t been used for two months and was purchased in July. Has a Bluetooth upgrade thing that allows you to ‘order coffee from the app on your phone’ - £500

9Barista Stovetop Espresso Maker - £250 but that’s negotiable

Nothing wrong with any of them, but he went a bit mad and got an endgame espresso setup so these are all surplus to requirements. I’m waiting for photos of the Jura and grinder but here’s the Sage and 9Barista. The baseplate on the 9Barista for induction rings isn’t as clean as it is in this photo. The image of the Jura is a stock image but it’s in like new condition.

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Sorry, busy day + not paying attention to notifications.

It'll allow you to attach something that takes a hex bit instead, but it won't work as a handle in itself.

What was his endgame setup?

The machine more so than grinder but a Lelit Bianca with a Sette 270wi.

Well my Silvia arrived this week, feeling a bit intimidated by it to be honest.
I've spent a few hours with it trying to produce something that remotely resembles espresso with little to no skill, it's a struggle!

I can make an OK milk drink but drinking the espresso straight is unpalatable. Now not so sure this home barista thing is for me...

It's definitely a fair bit of work getting everything dialled in. I imagine the you'll find a ton of info for people starting out with a Silvia that should give you a decent ballpark to start in. From there I'd try to focus only only changing a single variable at a time regarding dose, shot weightand grind size. I'd recommend finding someone else's settings (at least for dose and shot weight and adjust your grind to match), assuming a similar roast level for the coffee. Should be a good starting point!

Yeah, I've been deep into the coffee forums and Youtube trying to find as much info as I can.
I'm using Pact's house espresso blend as a starter, 14g into the basket, using a distributer and then tamping + a little temperature surfing. Can get ~28g out in around 30 seconds but it still tastes awful.
Not sure that my grinder isn't the bottleneck to be honest, I'm as fine as it will go.

I bought it from Bella Barista and turns out they're quite local to me - think I'm going to give them a call and see if they've got any tips/suggestions.

The thing that s often said in this thread is that home espresso making is more of a hobby than a lot of people realise.

How familiar with making espresso are you? It's definitely worth watching some Hoffman videos to help you along. I was happy churning out absolute rubbish from my machine until I started watching his videos and realised what I was doing wrong.

What coffee are you using? Do you have scales?

Weigh the dry coffee you put in, and weigh the espresso you produce. Aim for 1:2 coffee to espresso out. Usually about 18g coffee in to 36 espresso out. It should take about 30 seconds to pour.

This series of videos will give you a lot of information and guidance to get you headed in the right direction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFwJF-_SUr0

pm'd

It's definitely a fair bit of work getting everything dialled in.

I'm struggling a bit with the La Pavoni / Sette Baraza setup at the moment - things are a little inconsistent, even with the same grind & weight.

Obvs I blame the beans and incorrectly aligned chakra.

What size is the basket you're using? I normally dose around 14-15g in my 51mm basket, would expect the Silvia to take around 18g or so, it's 58mm right?

It's a 58mm basket but from reading around, they'll only take around 16g max and there's a lot of debate about whether that's too much.
The Silvia has this large nut feature on the shower screen and there's a lot of discussion around cracks in the puck as a result of large doses pushing against it. At 14g I can already get small indent in the puck from the nut.

Is my lower dose likely to impact my sour / acidic taste?

Have you got a pic of the basket? Trying to gauge the shape or size. Only saying that because I can get up to 20-21g in the 58mm basket in my Classic. 14-16g would look a bit 'lost' in mine.

I'm saying this next bit as a long-term home espresso maker. For me, a lot of the pleasure of home espresso and in milk drinks is finding a way of making it easy and convenient. Sure, you can go the whole nine yards and keep chasing the perfect espresso, but you can get 90% of the results with 10% of the effort if you find the right coffee that works with your water and your machine.

I could filter my water and I could grind my own and dial in each batch and I could upgrade my shower screen and basket and I could invest in a leveller and a blind basket and I could weigh my beans, grounds and water out. But fuck me that's a lot of additional hassle and expense when I just walk up to my machine in the morning, pull a shot using coffee that I know is going to work and froth my milk up and I know exactly how it's going to come out and I get a great cappuccino. Don't get sucked into chasing the perfect shot and everything that's required to do so. You're just going to end up disappointed. You've got a very capable, durable machine there and the best thing you can do is find a happy medium and roll with it and enjoy your coffee.

Sour is under-extracted, right?
Other things being equal, a smaller dose should be less work to extract, so being too small should err in the direction of over-extracted (bitter, rather than sour).

So either the water is mostly bypassing your coffee, or the grind is too coarse ...
Just for comparison, have you tried asking a coffee shop to put a fresh bag of beans through their commercial grinder? Or just order a bag of ground from Pact if you're using them anyway.