Hi all,

I'd like to share my good results of making home espresso.


Any comments are very welcome.

Nice setup. Wish the Crossland CC1 had been available when I bought my first machine.

You should be able to find a timer setting for the Vario that gives you very close to the desired dose weight without all the pulsing. When I used my Vario for espresso, it was usually within a couple of tenths of a gram, off by.5g at most. If it doses too little you should be able to correct with one quick pulse. If too much, spoon out the excess.

You need to work on your distribution. You're getting a halo extraction, which is when the coffee emerges around the edges of the basket before you see it coming through the center area. This means there are voids around the edges or you didn't tamp evenly. This will cause the coffee around the edges to extract more than the coffee in the center. Make sure the grounds are very evenly distributed in the basket (look up WDT on this site) and/or try a N-E-W-S or nutating tamp (also described on this site.)

The cup is way too big for a double espresso. The coffee will cool faster in the larger cup. Try using a pre-warmed demitasse cup.

Hello,

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, I use WDT, stir for about 10 sec by needle.
I used 17.1 g for this extraction for 14 hours "old" roasted SO beans


I might increase dose to 18g to get coffee even in the bucket.
Anything else I can adjust?

Peppersass wrote:The cup is way too big for a double espresso. The coffee will cool faster in the larger cup. Try using a pre-warmed demitasse cup.

Sorry to get OT, but I really prefer a small cappa cup for my shots. I like that it cools the shot a little. I also find that I can swirl the shot a bit before I drink to mix the crema in. I just seem to enjoy my shots much more when pulled into a small cappa cup - preferably the 5oz ones from intelli.

cheers

mikek753 wrote:Anything else I can adjust?

I've got the exact same setup! Sounds like we've got the same pre-infusion/wait time going too (I also have a tendency to get doughnut extractions).

I just spent the morning with the CC1 and the awesome staff at Fratello Coffee. They wanted to check it out, I wanted to learn some skills, so it was pretty win-win.

We hooked up a scace to measure the temperature, and found there was a rather large 10 degree difference between the real and displayed temperature. Calgary's at a pretty high elevation, so this makes sense, and the Fratello guys said they have to adjust all their machines. Fortunately, the CC1 makes it really easy to correct for this - parameter P9 in setup allows you to set the temperature offset. We set mine to -10, and all is well now. If you have access to an accurate temperature measurement system, this might be worth doing, though you probably won't have the same problem in San Jose.

Otherwise, I learned some tricks to even out my distribution and tamp, and generally had a good time. I highly recommend getting lessons from a friendly roaster near you

mikek753 wrote:I used 17.1 g for this extraction for 14 hours "old" roasted SO beans

Generally speaking, the coffee needs to "rest" for longer than 14 hours after roast. This is to ensure that most of the CO2 outgasses from the beans. If there's too much CO2 in the beans, it'll bubble ("bloom") out of the grounds during extraction and prevent contact between the water and grounds. The result is under-extracted, sour tasting coffee. Aside from under-extraction, which can be caused by a number of things, signs that the coffee hasn't rested long enough are excessive amounts of crema (looks like you have quite bit there) and/or lots of large bubbles in the crema.

The rest time varies a lot depending on the coffee and roast level, but usually the beans need to rest 3-7 days. Some coffees pull OK after a day or two, while others can need as much as 10 days or two weeks to fully outgas. If you have freshly roasted beans, and you're in a hurry, you can grind them, put the grinds in a plastic bag, squeeze out the air, seal the bag and let it sit for a couple of hours.

Hello,

Thank you everyone for the reply.
I agree with everything you said.
However, I use this large glass cap to validate volume by 2 oz black mark and later it's used for latte / cappuccino 6 oz mark.
I use it as I'm new to proper espresso making - 2 months only. I started roasting beans and upgraded grinder.
Before for 10 years I used Saeco with pressured PF (~$150 model) and Capresso grinder and roasted by Costco beans.
Yes, with new setup I got big jump in quality, but it takes more skills to match this setup as well

This time - 17.5 g 204F 2 pre, 4 delay. beans roasted about 36 hours ago


I lowered 1 micro adj Vario to get more flow / volume.
However, I got channeling - a little, but anyway got it.

Thank you for your comments.

very nice videos! I can't wait to get a naked PF for my CC1. I use a Preciso grinder, and mostly have been using 3 seconds pre-infuse, 2 seconds dwell, and a 30-35 second pull for a double, with a dosage of my own blend at about 22g. for a ~ 3.5oz double.

hello ampguy,

I'd like to see your videos when you get bottomless PF
What I can't sort out yet is how much to put coffee to bucket.
Based on pure numbers is has to be just 16g, while 18g max
as less coffee I put 16 or 17g as more channeling I get, so my max is 18g to get 2oz
I see you put 22g, is it beans or coffee?
in my case 22g will not fit in the bucket, but will life much easy to make it even in the bucket

hi all,

No, I can't make every shot as perfect shot ...


it started almost Ok, but later burst some channeling
Need to work more
Any tips?
Thanks