Coffee Appreciation

Perfect, thank you! What's involved in the homemade distribution tool?

I found these helped a lot when I started:

• Some way of measuring grouphead temp is essential. I pull at ~92c on my 51mm group, I think mid-high 80s is recommended on 49mm groups. Sticker, probe, how long can your hand touch it, whatever - consistent temp is a key variable.
  
• Log every shot you pull to work out what's going on and why a shot ended up good/bad. The more variables recorded the better.
  
• Put a weighing scale underneath your machine to get a feel for proper piston pressure. I think 14kg on the scale is equal to 9bar. I tend to pull around 6bar with a decline.
  
• I've ended up liking long, passive preinfusions. Try them, you might like it. Aside from flavour, it also lets the puck saturate enough to get a longer shot.
  

I was thinking about some way of tracking temperature. A few YouTube videos I've watched have used a sticker which seems like the easiest/cheapest option. Maybe I'll go for that.
I think realistically I'm likely to stick to filter most days. At 6am when I'm only half awake, trying to sort the dog and cat out and get ready for work I can't see myself having the patience or attention span to make decent espresso. I'm looking forward to messing about at weekends and when working from home though.

Acupuncture needles in a wine cork

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Pull up the lever and fill espresso cup with hot water

This is the single biggest by thing that needs doing, I reckon. If you forget it, you are not going to pull a good shot.

I tend to leave it alone for a few minutes after that so that it heats through (although I haven't yet actally measured the group head temperature).

Pre-infusion tends to depend on how old the beans are (for me, at least, as I buy by the kilo, and don't change grind as they age). I follow the wait-til-it-drips stage, as long as I'm not distracted by kids.

If you pull too hard steam will escape from boiler / grouphead join.

Wrapping the group inlet thermal buffer with plenty of PTFE tape fixes this.

You might also try custom cutting a gasket, but meh.

Haha, that's great. I may well steal the design!

I stole it too

Is it a pre or post millennium? Absolute fantastic machines.

Little upgrades worth considering are pressure gauge and single hole tip if you take milk. Don't even bother trying to steam milk with the standard 3 hole tip! I have a spare single hole tip if you need one.

Post! Good tips, thanks. Would a pressure gauge serve a similar purpose to a thermometer, in terms of knowing when the machine is ready to pull a shot? Or would it be worth having both?
The single hole tip is really handy, I'll definitely be steaming milk for my partner and guests (once I'm proficient enough not to embarrass myself anyway). I'll send you a DM!

They're kind of independent whereby the group head will eventually overheat if being left on for a while (not recommended) even if the pressure remains consistent (0.8 bar ish is seen as optimum).

Deffo agree with pulling a mug of water to heat the portafilter, group and the mug!

Also give the steam wand a blast before pulling any water as false pressure can build up too!

Good info! I'll look in to it and figure out what's going to suit my needs. I'm off work with a cold today, looking forward to knocking out a load of espresso I'll barely be able to taste.

I think it’s all been covered, but here is my ritual.
Pull shot of water,
Fill portafilter with coffee,
Don’t worry about those needle things, sorry,
Shake porterfilter about and knock on the side of knock box, level coffee,
Tamp lightly,
Pull lever up and let the coffee take on water, count to ten once coffee starts to drip,
Pull lever down until you feel pressure, lift lever back up, pull lever down, top to bottoming out should be 30sec.
Throw the first litre down the sink, but it gets better.

Thanks, will try and work that in to my technique.
I just used it for the second time, much, much better than yesterday but still no crema and a bit sour. I think I just need to practice and get consistent enough with the basics to understand how changing each variable affects the end result. I might try some different beans at some point. The Yellow Bourbon Colombian stuff I have at the moment is great for filter but maybe not so great for espresso?

Baby's first crema. That's the first shot I've pulled that has actually been enjoyable. I'm having fun knocking out some very sour crap though. I found a pressure gauge in a box full of random gubbins that came with the machine so will install that this afternoon.

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On the Europiccola chat, finally got my new element (& pressurestat pipe) delivered. Fitted it this morning and all is well.

Reminder to all other Europiccola owners, if you're doing any servicing that requires emptying the boiler. Remember to fill it again afterwards or make it very clear that it's empty! The elements don't like running when dry funnily enough.

Fairly sure the element is salvageable as it still heats, it just the boiler chamber very quickly (much quicker than the water) before tripping the fuse. Think it's an issue with the sealing where the element goes through the base. Where the small white collars are in the attached photo.

Question for anyone who's worked on these machines, around the boiler base. What's your method for removing and reinstalling the boiler fixing ring? I replaced the gaskets on my boiler a few months back and it was easiest just to cut off the top one which allowed me to unscrew the fixing ring pretty easily. When reinstalling, I made use of the fact that I could tighten the allen bolts on the boiler base itself in a way that I'd be tightening the boiler ring also. I'm guessing this isn't the best method (not sure how much torque you'd need to apply before stripping the threads for the allen bolt). I've seen people using an oil filter removal tool (see here: https://www.home-barista.com/repairs/restoration-early-olympia-cremina-k-cremoni-t76355.html), and of course you could buy a pretty expensive tool for the job (https://www.espressocare.com/products/item/la-pavoni-boiler-flange-removal-tool).

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much better than yesterday but still no crema and a bit sour

This is the bit that I found most tricky to get used to, but (and I know this is a difficult thing to quantify without literally putting the machine on a scale when using it) how much effort are you pushing down on the lever with?

In my experience, I get shots like that when I haven't ground fine enough (or dosed enough) and as a result there's not much pressure actually going through the puck.

Obviously it's tricky to gauge that as it's not like a pump driven machine where you can just read the pressure.

I found a pressure gauge in a box full of random gubbins that came with the machine so will install that this afternoon.

Apologies if I'm stating the obvious here, but the pressure gauge (if similar to the ones fitted to the Professional Europiccolas) will give you boiler pressure, not the pressure of the water going through the puck. There's a pressure stat in the base that controls the boiler pressure (and is changeable as standard). They're set to 0.8 bar out of the box as stated above (as far as I'm aware), not sure what the configurable range is though.

I use an oil filter wrench and a big bar.

I've also seen pics of at least one of those expensive tools snapped. I'd be gutted if I spent that money on a single-use tool that didn't help.

Ah cool, do you screw in the allen bolts a bit and use those? Or just straight onto the sides of the fixing ring itself where the allen bolts go in (as per attached image, as I couldn't figure out a concise way to word it)?

Also (apologies for the pestering btw), but how do you keep the boiler in place? The best (looking) method I've seen was using a wooden post with holes drilled in it to allow the grouphead bolts to go through, then just clamp the post in place. (will try to find a photo here)

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Yeah, straight on the edges of the fixing ring as per the pic.

That method you mentioned sounds good for holding it in place. I think I just used a wooden... stick? dowel? where the grouphead joins the boiler. It might have been a chopped down broom handle once.

I will absolutely say my method is probably not the technically best. It did work though.

Awesome, thanks for the info! I did the same thing just jamming a stick in the grouphead hole. Not exactly professional level, but gets the job done.

I have absolutely no idea how much pressure I'm putting through it to be honest. I might pop some scales under it at some point to get a rough idea. And yeah, I realised since posting that it was a boiler pressure gauge. Not sure how useful it actually is seeing as it's got an indicator that it's up to pressure anyway. I'm probably missing something though. I am an absolute beginner though so please do state the obvious!

I've been playing around with different grinds, I think going as fine as I can is yielding the best results so far. Much less sourness anyway.

Another vote for oil filter wrench for tightening the fixing ring. Probably the worst job you can do on a Europiccola/Pro 😣

I need to tighten mine up and have done for at least a year.

I watched a video where they used a piece of angle iron, attached the boiler to it through some holes they drilled (no group head attached) then clamped the angle iron into a vice. If that makes sense. Seemed like a decent method