some vids. sorry about the quality. working on getting a vid camera.. my cam has no sound and only does 30secs at a time.

shot of tamped basket. not too much head space, i dont think.



1: distribution



2: first part of pour. cam started as soon as machine started, so pour started right around 10 secs.


3: end of pour

looks good.. taste bad??


temperature too high maybe? flush more.

i think trying to over flush too cool might give you some insight.

jon

LeoZ wrote: the setting is down to where it sounds like the burrs rub, and i spoke to chriscoffee about it. they said as long as its not overly loud, its ok that they rub a bit when the grinder is empty, as the burrs expand when the beans get into them.

Their answer just doesn't make any sense to me. Burrs rubbing together can't be good, especially when there are so many other grinders out there with a lot of headroom for espresso. Strike while the iron is hot -- get a new grinder!!!

And definitely try a longer flush.

LeoZ wrote:some vids. sorry about the quality. working on getting a vid camera.. my cam has no sound and only does 30secs at a time.

shot of tamped basket. not too much head space, i dont think.

Look's about right but impossible to tell for sure from a picture. How's the puck after the shot?

1: distribution

Looks like a modified Stockfleth's Chicago Chop build technique. Should work, actually very similar to my technique.

2: first part of pour. 3: end of pour

What was the actual shot volume pulled? Shot looked right decent.

However, I agree should not require having grinder set to zero point to grind for a shot! Having to grind much finer setting than previous one indication of worn burrs but you haven't had the QM that long I wouldn't think. I know with Rocky one indication time for another burr replacement is needing to be down to +2 or even +1 for a ristretto pull compared to new Rocky burrs +5 to +7 for ristretto, +10 range standard shot. Has the required degree of fineness setting substantially changed since you first got the QM? I would expect the QM burrs to need replacing more often than Rocky since they're smaller, I go 75 to 100# with Rocky to maintain really good grind quality and range.

miKe mcKoffee wrote:What was the actual shot volume pulled? Shot looked right decent.

However, I agree should not require having grinder set to zero point to grind for a shot! Having to grind much finer setting than previous one indication of worn burrs but you haven't had the QM that long I wouldn't think. I know with Rocky one indication time for another burr replacement is needing to be down to +2 or even +1 for a ristretto pull compared to new Rocky burrs +5 to +7 for ristretto, +10 range standard shot. Has the required degree of fineness setting substantially changed since you first got the QM? I would expect the QM burrs to need replacing more often than Rocky since they're smaller, I go 75 to 100# with Rocky to maintain really good grind quality and range.

shot volume was 1.5-1.75oz. as far as taste, the shot came out perfect.. caffe fresco black hand blend.. yum i think it also helped that its raining today, more humidity, so i was able to get away with not going too fine.

problem is i set the grinder even more fine before i recorded the above to slow the shot down. my tranq was the same as your rocky, +6-+7 for espresso. prob was each step gave me around 3-4 sec differences b/t pulls, i thought that was too long. the QM is a great little grinder, very clean, easy to make minute adjustments, but i dont want to destroy it in the process. im going to try to record a grinding with sound and talk to chriscoffee about it.


anyway, and to answer a question from Dan - the reason i started the thread was b/c i thought the HX machine, in theory, was causing the sporadic behavior b/t pulls. after all this, perhaps its not really the machine.. sheesh :/

thx for the help.. this has been a fun thread!

This reminds me of my early days of trying to get by with a Capresso Infinity, of all things. I know the QM is a MUCH better grinder than that, but your symptoms are similar: sometimes a great shot, when everything aligns; and sometimes just plain awful. Simply, when the grinder can't grind fine enough, or consistently enough, you will have shots that are all over the place in quality.

Order a new grinder (Mazzer or Macap, any flavor). Worst case is that it makes no difference, and you send it back. Best case, it makes ALL the difference (which I bet it will!) and you sell your QM and recoup some of your expense. Then you can share with us your comparative experiences and we'll all benefit from your experimentation!

LeoZ wrote:1: distribution
2: first part of pour.
3: end of pour

Looked good to me, though the level was pretty high in the basket. Did you weigh the coffee? I ask because the tap tap shake shake thing can lead to dosages all over the map, usually on the too high side.

Hi Leo,

If both of those videos were of the same shot, it looks to me like you had a 40 second extraction that kinda choked at the beginning and sped up at the end. This starting slow and speeding up thing is consistent with the giottos that I've seen here. It might be worthwhile keeping your dose as high as you can and grinding a little coarser, going for a shot that's on the faster side of the spectrum and cutting that short. That should give you a cleaner flavour. You might want to try that with a few different flush lengths, as well. If you are using the standard giotto basket, getting a bigger basket will help to alleviate the flow going from choke to gush. It's all in Jim's espresso guide!

Just my $0.02,

Luca

luca wrote:Hi Leo,

This starting slow and speeding up thing is consistent with the giottos that I've seen here.
Luca

Hey Luca,
Yes, except on ideal days, my machine always does this.. weird! i wonder why. dont know that its bad.. but, like you said, it sometimes forces me to cut a pull a bit short.

it was about 35 secs total. sorry the vid was hard to tell. i dont think the time was too bad for that shot. ill try to get another vid up soon and see what happens.

luca wrote:If you are using the standard giotto basket, getting a bigger basket will help to alleviate the flow going from choke to gush.

Good catch! I had forgotten about the smaller stock Giotto basket:


Giotto stock basket (left) and ubiquitous 18 gram Faema-style basket (right)

It is a true 14 gram basket. The one on the right will give a larger margin of error.