Fantastic Coffee!

[djmcmath]

I just produced yet another perfect latte, and had to share it with this crowd. Oh man, it's just perfect!

1 - The grind (and tamp). The grinder is a Solis Maestro Plus that I've tweaked to within an inch of it's life. The grind isn't as perfect as it could be, but doubling the grinder cost for a marginal increase in consistency (like up to a Mazzer Mini, for example) just didn't seem worth it to me. The tamp is controlled by a scale. I just tamp the coffee onto a bathroom scale that sits on the kitchen counter. 30lbs every time yields a 25 second pull, every time.

2 - The brew. The Gaggia Espresso comes with one tiny 100ml boiler. The difficulty is that when you fire off the pump, it pressurizes the boiler with room temperature water from the fill reservoir. That's bad -- the boiler is so small that it cannot maintain the 95C temperature for more than a few seconds into the shot. Pre-mods, I was losing nearly 15C over the course of a 25sec pull. So I added a preheater -- it's a second boiler pulled from an old broken-down machine I got off eBay, plumbed in sequentially between the fill reservoir and the main boiler.
The other brew problem was the thermoswitch. It would cycle the heaters based on temperature -- on at 90C, off at 100C, give or take. That means that you could start pulling a shot at 90C -- which is abyssmally cold, and yields pretty nasty espresso. Alternately, you could pull boiling water through the beans, which results in scalded coffee -- no better! So I added digital controllers (Omega PID controllers, actually) to both boilers in order to maintain proper temperature. Now, I'm maintaining temp inside 1C for the entire pull.
The espresso produced is uniformly dark, produces neat little swirling "monkey-tail" streams during the pull, and I get the full "Guinness" effect for a minute or two afterwards, as the crema settles. The consistency is kind of thick and syrupy, and the flavor is ... well, it tastes just about like the coffee beans smelt, unground. Wow.

3 - The frothing. 2-hole EPNW tip, angled for maximum turbulent flow. I manufactured a brass pipe to run through a throttle valve from the boiler. The piping has to be preheated before I froth actual milk, or else the thermal mass of the big pipe will condense the steam on it's way to the milk, resulting in a watery latte. Eew, nasty. If I do preheat it, though, I get very nice dry steam, and the tip gets excellent turbulence in a 16oz frothing pitcher.
The milk comes out as an almost syrupy. It's thick enough to scoop on a spoon, if you scoop quick, but not thick enough to stand on it's own. It has the flavor of toasted marshmallow.


Ah, I just had to share that with someone. Thanks for listening.

Dan

[Drago]

I switched to tea...much easier

[Rot 911]

You have way too much time on your hands!

[Moses]

Good morning, Captain Tweak!

Great coffee is a beautiful thing. It's all about the bean, baby!

[rcecale]

Your next career? Nuk-u-ler Coffee Grinder!





Randy

[A Quiet Boom]

Hey djm,

While we are on the subject. I've been thinking about building my own machine. I have a machine shop and welding shop at my disposal, I am well versed in Omega controls especially tempurature. My thought was to steal the screen and cup from my POS krups machine and build my own boiler and steamer parts. Ever seen any good plans for a home built machine on the web? I got the idea one morning while drinking yet another $3.40 venti cap from starbuks and browsing a home machinst's forum with a live steam section for model steam engines. I figured if these guys can build working models of trains I ought to be able to machine myself a darn expresso machine. Thoughts?

[Icemaster]

But....

Whos beans are you using?

[StevoRocket]

You really need to get out more - walk, cycle, find a woman, take up origami, Scottish malt whiskey, photography, coffee can give you a heart attack!

Only joking - I think!

[djmcmath]

Randy -- I avoid the Evil Green Mermaid like the plague. $tarbuck$ is to coffee like McDonalds is to hamburgers -- there's a vague resemblance, but not enough to make you want to go back. Ew.

Beans -- My room-mate got me started on Caribou Coffee beans. I've found the Fireside Blend works well for me. CCM (ccmcoffee.com) also does pretty well. I refuse to spend $30/lb on Illy beans. I will not buy from the local grocery store, as I find the beans to be stale before I even open the bag -- yes, you can tell the difference in flavor between fresh and stale beans. No, I don't roast my own, though it's an awesome idea.

Stevo -- yes, I do need to get out more ... to work on my Porsche. (sigh) In all seriousness, I just asked a girl out (at the photography shop, of all places), and was rejected. Thanks for the reminder, you jerk. (TiC, smirk)

Quiet Boom -- I believe it's quite possible to build your own machine from scratch, though it's liable to be just as expensive, if not more so, than buying a good quality machine. You could use an E-61 grouphead and a dual-boiler design, not to mention the fact that you could pick as big of a boiler as money allowed. I designed (didn't build, just designed) a really nice espresso machine based on a '78 VW Vanagon block. Espresso is really quite simple, once you understand the engineering.

Seriously, if you want to build your own, we can go that direction. Steam can be expensive, and so is a pump. If you want really good steam, like Randy points out, nuclear power really is the best answer (joking). E-61 groupheads don't exactly grow on trees either. Neither do solenoid valves. I'd be happy to tell you everything I know on the topic, though -- what knowledge are you looking for?

Dan

[greglepore]

dj-Since we last discussed this, I've moved up to a NS Oscar - man, I gotta love what you've done to that Gaggia.

The Solis is a nice enough grinder, but the plastic burr carriers will eventually wear. Chris's coffee had some returned NS doserless grinders for under 200-these are infinite adjustment large burr machines in a metal case-model is MCF, and it made a huge difference in my coffee.

Been doing the heat gun/dog bowl roasting thing with Ethiopian Harrar lately-yummmy.

[djmcmath]

Greg, you did a terrible thing to me. I can't buy coffee at most coffee shops anymore. I'll go out with friends, and we'll stop for coffee, and they won't understand why I'm not buying one. When I do get coffee, I lean over the counter to watch the barista's tamp technique, inspect the pull for time and crema, and comment on the temperature of the pull. I've wandered in to coffee shops just to talk coffee with the barista. "I saw that shot from outside and thought I'd wander in. What do you do to get that kind of crema?"

(sigh) Don't be so kind to the Solis. It's a piece of dog pucky, unworthy of the name "coffee grinder." I broke the plastic internal adjuster doodads and had to drill holes and epoxy in reinforcing pieces of steel to keep it in place. The burrs are tiny, and the static is terrible -- nevermind the leftover coffee and half-ground beans that stay behind in the machine after a grind, but come out next time you use it. The plastic burr carriers are already wearing -- I have to tweak it a little between the first shot and the second every time to make the second come out perfect.

It looks like Chris Coffee is out of $200 used MCF machines; they're listed at the $330 regular price again. I've been keeping my eyes peeled for a deal on a Mazzer Mini or a Rancilio Rocky. If you spot another deal like that, would you mind PMing me? Thanks.

I refuse to roast beans with a heat gun in a dog bowl. Just straight up not gonna do it. I mean, a man's gotta have some dignity!














Ok, so tell me about home-roasting beans. Does it really make that much of a difference? How expensive is it to get started? How much time does it take? Aaagh, noooooo, I'm sliding down the slope!!!

[Victor]

I don't beleive you - your 'merkun and 'merkun's cannot make coffee.

See above logo.

[Victor]

....forgot

- or beer.

[Moses]

Originally posted by Victor
....forgot

- or beer.

Wrong. Twice.


Peets Coffee. Berkeley, California



Anchor Brewing Company. San Francisco, California

[thastings]

Sitting on my porch in central PA., with my 2 labs next to me, on these cool fall mornings, watching the deer feed as the sun come up over the mountains and trees, with my hands wrapped around a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee, the only thing I can think about is standing in the kitchen yanking on handles, compressing coffee grinds...................NOT!!!!!!!!!
Come on guys, if you want to improve the taste of your coffee, find a better location to drink it in.
Having lived thru too many years of trying all of the high dollar fad "coffees", trying to impress the big city wine and cheese crowd, one day, while trying to find a "fad" coffee at a shop in the middle of nowhere, the only beans I could find were mother's old brew of A+P Eight O Clock, at $1.50 a bag. I found that it was pretty good. Of course the fact that I was drinking it over a morning campfire, next to a trout stream may have had something to do with it.
So, the most expensive coffee in the world, when drunk in a Phila. apartment with no view, will never compare in flavor to the cheap stuff at a great location.
That's my 2 cents worth.
Terry

[greglepore]

DJ, you have a pm

[Moses]

Originally posted by thastings
Sitting on my porch in central PA., with my 2 labs next to me, on these cool fall mornings, watching the deer feed as the sun come up over the mountains and trees, with my hands wrapped around a hot cup of freshly brewed coffee, the only thing I can think about is standing in the kitchen yanking on handles, compressing coffee grinds...................NOT!!!!!!!!!
Come on guys, if you want to improve the taste of your coffee, find a better location to drink it in.
Having lived thru too many years of trying all of the high dollar fad "coffees", trying to impress the big city wine and cheese crowd, one day, while trying to find a "fad" coffee at a shop in the middle of nowhere, the only beans I could find were mother's old brew of A+P Eight O Clock, at $1.50 a bag. I found that it was pretty good. Of course the fact that I was drinking it over a morning campfire, next to a trout stream may have had something to do with it.
So, the most expensive coffee in the world, when drunk in a Phila. apartment with no view, will never compare in flavor to the cheap stuff at a great location.
That's my 2 cents worth.
Terry

Agree 100%

[djmcmath]

Well, Terry, there's some wisdom in those words. The distinct flavor of coffee brings back memories. When I was younger, coffee was church -- we always had coffee available between services. Coffee was camping -- cold mornings in front of a hot fire with a thick dark coffee-like fluid.

Now, the flavor of brewed coffee brings me back to the boat -- midwatches in the Maneuvering room, waking up at 0200 to surface the boat, sipping a hot cup of joe between staring out the periscope for hours on end, engineering training in a galley full of nukes who haven't showered for two weeks because the evaporator's down. The flavor of brewed coffee brings back the nervous twitch caused by sleeping in 10 minute shots for weeks on end, surviving on caffeine alone. A latte means I'm back in port -- there's milk, and the beans haven't been soaking in the oily haze of the engine room for 3 months, and the barista is a female.

I'll still drink brewed coffee, if I need to, but it requires a conscious effort not to "put my boat face on."

Dan

[dhoward]

Originally posted by thastings
Snip.....
So, the most expensive coffee in the world, when drunk in a Phila. apartment with no view, will never compare in flavor to the cheap stuff at a great location.
That's my 2 cents worth.
Terry

There's a man who knows coffee.

[tabs]

What we have here gentlemen is a bunch of Coffee Junkies...and who says Coffee isn't addicting....reading the yippity yap cadence of their chatter one gets the feeling that they are on speed or coke...

I have one thing to say having GOOD EQUIPMENT does make a difference...but why mess around with modifying your existing junk...JUST GO OUT AND BUY THE SALVATORE ESPRESSO MACHINE. It's handbuilt using all commercial parts...