Coffee Appreciation

You do need a correct size tamper with the classic and I can confirm a 58mm one is a little too small. I’ve never replaced it with a 58.357 or whatever it is though. You can actually get pretty good results with the small plastic one if you carefully tamp round and round. It’s not difficult.

Two mods I’ve done. Rancilio Silvia steam wand is a must for milk and it’s an easy swap. I’ve also reduced the pressure in mine to ~10 Bar using the OPV.

OPV valve is a little redundant huh.

My Wilfa classic's drip stop mechanism has broken slightly. Liquid now can't be stopped dripping which makes for pretty messy coffee if I'm in a rush.

Is this a common thing? Is it easy to fix? I emailed the place I got it a couple of weeks ago but they've not got back to me.

Anyone interested in a Rhino for 25€? Including postage from Germany.
I bought it off @mustardbeak around 3 years ago and have it surplus now since I upgraded. I lost the adapter for the aeropress but who uses an aeropress anyway.

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Thanks all for your advice so far. My Classic arrived today and I've just flushed it through and then made my first espresso with it; this is where more advice would be great!

Using the standard pressurized basket and 'standard' ground coffee (3 rounded teaspoons gently tamped), the flow was WAY quicker than I expected (15secs max to fill a small cup), and when I took the portafilter out, the coffee was saturated to the point where there was a good mm deep of water in the basket on top of the puck.

Am I doing something wrong or have my expectations been set too high (courtesy of James Hoffman) until I have a non-pressurized basket, hand grinder and beans?

Ideally you'd be able to tell us how much weighed coffee you used?

I don't know how much control there is on a Classic, but a few things you can do to increase shot time:

Tamp harder. A firmer, more compacted puck is harder for water to penetrate.

Increase dose. The more coffee, the harder the water has to work to get through.

Increase pre-infusion time. When you pre-infuse for longer, the puck becomes more saturated with water, hence the rest of your water has to work harder to get through.

But yes, you're gonna have far, far, far better results with a non-pressurized basket, grinder and good beans.

I knew the weight question would come up! Unfortuntely no, given it was my first shot with this machine I followed the instructions to the letter and 2 heaped teaspoons was the dose recommended per shot. I'd assume the dose was in the region of 15 - 20g.

How would one go about pre-infusing on a machine like the classic? From what I can tell it's either pushing water through or it's not. Is it like a quick blast of water into the puck and then stopping for a while before recommencing?

I have a grinder en route and will be getting a non-pressurized filter shortly! In the meantime though I'll try to up the dose and increase the tamp as well as pre-infusing. I'm only drinking it in milk for the timebeing anyway until my ground supplies are used up.

Yeah, tbh I don't have any experience with automatic machines (I have only used manual machines) so am not sure. Less of a quick blast and just a gentle flow of water into the puck before the machine ramps up the pressure with the remaining water.

Best to control one variable at a time. So, using your same measurement as last time, increase pressure with the tamp. If it still flows too fast, that's when you'd up the dosage as well.

EDIT: preinfuse is possible if you mess around with the steam wand. Probably avoid for now...

How would one go about pre-infusing on a machine like the classic? From what I can tell it's either pushing water through or it's not. Is it like a quick blast of water into the puck and then stopping for a while before recommencing?

Never bothered trying to do any sort of pre-infusion on the Classic (it wasn't really a commonly done thing back in 2010 or so when I had mine), you could do as you suggest with a quick blast of water, let it soak, then pull the shot properly. But to be honest you'll likely just be throwing in another difficult to control variable with no real noticeable positive impact.

Regarding shot timings, you're aiming for around 26-30 second extraction time (just a ball-park figure, finer adjustments should be made on taste). Your options to increase extraction time are increase the dose and grind finer (though obviously if the coffee's pre-ground this isn't an option).

Definitely pick up a set of scales, nothing fancy required. Something like this will do the trick (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ascher-Portable-Digital-Back-lit-Weighing/dp/B01FQHE25U). Measuring by volume will be pretty inaccurate, and pretty much useless when you start adjusting grind size.

I'd recommend against increasing tamping pressure, in my experience it'll lead to an increased chance of channelling. Not sure how far along on your espresso journey you are, but channelling is when you get small cracks in the espresso puck where water can find an easy route though.

On that note, while I'd generally advise against buying all the upgrades right away until you know exactly what it is that you want, but I would recommend a bottomless/naked portafilter. It's a great tool to see what you're doing wrong with your shots (and it looks damn cool).

OK, good to know RE the channeling. I'm far enough to have binge-watched everything James Hoffman has ever done so I have my head around the lingo for the most part, but not far enough to have made anything remotely decent myself.

I did know about the timings, which is why I was so surprised that my first shot with the classic (albeit with ground coffee and a pressurized filter) was over with in less than 15 secs. I'll start with an increased dose and test that in the morning and go from there. Thanks!

*Edit - VST basket now ordered, don't tell the wife...

Just getting through my first few shots of this and throughly enjoying. They deliver by bike too!

one of these will help with consistency too. it's not a must-have but it makes my life 10x easier having one imo.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Coffee-Tamper-Supplies-Silicone-Stainless/dp/B07ZM25728/ref=sr_1_8?crid=38V11G4P817G2&dchild=1&keywords=coffee+distributor+58mm&qid=1610635836&sprefix=coffee+distr%2Caps%2C148&sr=8-8

you stick it in the portafilter after you've ground the coffee and give it a few spins to even everything out before giving a cursory tamp and quarter-turn to polish the top of the grounds.

I've had a classic for a few years and love it for the price. Some recommendations:

Now:

1. Scales: cheap drug dealer scales will do (forum recommendation!)
   
2. Properly fitting tamper (58.4mm)
   
   

Future stuff if you want to get more involved (though you can get decent coffee with just the above):

1. Precision shower screen (I've got one from IMS)
   
2. Brass shower-plate holder
   
3. VST basket (done!)
   
4. Naked portafilter
   
5. Distribution tool
   
6. OPV modification
   
7. Pressure gauge
   
8. Auber PID (get pre-infuse then too)
   
   

EDIT: a half-decent burr grinder should probably to top of the "future" list

Perfect, I already have a 58.4 tamper on order to fit the VST basket so that should help. Scales will be next.

Bought some beans from my local roastery today and ground them using the Porlex and ended up pulling my first semi-decent shot which I was pretty proud of. A touch sour (under extracted I presume) at the bottom of the cup but the first 2/3rds was perfectly pleasant.

The downside of experimenting with a new machine is that by 1030 I'd had 3 cups of coffee, all near enough double shots!

give it a stir / swirl helps mix the shot in so you don't get the flavour profile changing as you drink too

Stir/swirl
Tsk, what would Hoffmann say.

Sounds like you're on the right track at least! I remember going round to a friend's house to get their new Classic dialled in and had a similar lack of attention on the amount of coffee I was consuming. Got to sleep around 4/5am as far as I recall...

Has it arrived yet? Did you go for the thermal or glass carafe?

There's 30% off everything at Dark Arts for the next 30 minutes

code: 303030

#fml

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if you sign up to their mailing list there is usually a 10-25% off code about once a week (usually for more than 30 mins!)

So after waiting and waiting , we went for a Moccamaster 'select' . Its due tomorrow and I'm genuinely very excited to see if its all its stacked up to be. Any tips welcome from users .

On a side note, don't use Java Hub for anything. Read the reviews and take note of the shit ones, there are many , as we were shafted by them and its taken my card provider to become involved to secure a refund.

Ace, ta.

Feel like I've had a bit of a breakthrough with the Gaggia Factory lever- resetting to the top after building some pressure and preinfusion seems to be working a treat to keep the puck level, get a nice even extraction and actually get over a 1.8:1 ratio. Kinda like the 'Fellini' people refer to (which I've had a terrible experience with) but more subtle. Not sure what's going on to cause it all but I'm not complaining one bit. Getting some ridiculously fruity tastes out of some natural Sumartra beans now I can finally get the ratio up a bit higher and finally stopped donutting every shot.

Go on then... have a naked pf shot

15g in.

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