Best techniques for La Pavoni Europiccola

[alsk]

got my self the simple pavoni lever machine (Europiccola) and I was hoping to get some insights for the best techniques to get a shot with nice and sustainable crema.

BTW do I use the double portafilter or the single ?

[Mark08859]

The baskets on a Pavoni run a bit small regarding the grams of coffee they can hold. Most owners use the double basket only. Slightly overfill with a good tamp (and fresh, just ground coffee, of course). Raise the lever slowly so the incoming air doesn't crack the puck. A single pull of the pump gets you a nice ristretto. That should get you started.

[mogogear]

You won't want to hear this just yet, $$$$$, but if you don't have a decent grinder- your shots will be never taste very good no matter how hard your work. So.... what do you have?

Decent could be as simple as a old hand crank KYM or Zazzenhaus grinder- ebay= $60 or a Mazzer mini= $400+

No whirly jobs, no Krups flat burr grinder etc- consistent and an ability to produce a grind fine enough to slow your shot down to a 25-30 second effort for a 3/4 -1 oz of results. The grinder in many / most equipment groups is the most important piece.

Your turn....

[alsk]

a good burr grinder - now i'm trying to do the tradeoff between fine/coarse grinding and the temping i found out that the best crema comes when it's very hard to lower the lever - but i'm afraid that it's not so good for the machine

[Fullsack]

This procedure worked well for me. A single basket, single shot gives you more shots per day before reaching your caffeine limit.

http://www.home-barista.com/forum...revised-t2548.html

[Fullsack]

a good burr grinder - now i'm trying to do the tradeoff between fine/coarse grinding and the temping i found out that the best crema comes when it's very hard to lower the lever - but i'm afraid that it's not so good for the machine

Forty pounds of pressure is ideal. I've pulled one with a lot more pressure than that and only bent the lever a little.

[mogogear]

Yep, What he said.................... Levers are meant to be pulled- don't be scared! The only ones you don't force are they ones that no espresso comes out of your PF spouts- Read: CHOKED! Then if you really lean on the lever you can cause some damage.....

[alsk]

btw

what about double shot?

[Fullsack]

btw

what about double shot?

Pull the shot, with the double basket, until you see the first drop of coffee, raise the lever all the way back up and hold for 4 seconds. Pull down until you see the beginning of blonding then pull the cup away before anymore coffee falls.

Some H-Bers do a double with a single pull. See what works best for you.

[caffeind]

Using the WDT method of stirring the grind before tamping, with a cut-off yogurt pot as a sort of funnel in the filter basket and a thin spike (eg frothing jug thermometer) to stir, I got instantly 200% better, smoother espresso out of a Europiccola, which wasn't too bad to start with . Pass it on!

[matadero210]

I had continually problems with donut shaped pre-infusion. During the 10 sec pre-infusion, I would only see liquid in a ring around the edge. When I pulled the shot, it came from the center too, but never during pre-infusion. I tried distributing more toward the edges, and it helped only a bit.

Then I read about basket flatness. My Pavoni double basket has a fairly curved bottom: it rocks on a flat surface. So used a 1" wooden dowel and pounded the center flat. I got a perfect pre-infusion, but after the first shot the center was bowed out again. Then I switched to a Elektra double basket (which fit fine in the 49mm pre-M Pavoni). Things seem to be better now. The Elektra basket holds its shape better, and a concave distribution produced a mostly uniform pre-infusion.

Needless to say, all of this was done with a naked portafilter. I don't know if the flavor is any different (roast has changed, tamp has changed, and basket has changed), but it looks better.

I imagine that some Pavoni baskets must be shaped a bit better than mine--it may be a quality control issue. So, don't forget to check for flatness.

raj

[Fullsack]

I had continually problems with donut shaped pre-infusion. During the 10 sec pre-infusion, I would only see liquid in a ring around the edge. When I pulled the shot, it came from the center too, but never during pre-infusion. I tried distributing more toward the edges, and it helped only a bit.

Then I read about basket flatness. My Pavoni double basket has a fairly curved bottom: it rocks on a flat surface. So used a 1" wooden dowel and pounded the center flat. I got a perfect pre-infusion, but after the first shot the center was bowed out again. Then I switched to a Elektra double basket (which fit fine in the 49mm pre-M Pavoni). Things seem to be better now. The Elektra basket holds its shape better, and a concave distribution produced a mostly uniform pre-infusion.

Needless to say, all of this was done with a naked portafilter. I don't know if the flavor is any different (roast has changed, tamp has changed, and basket has changed), but it looks better.

I imagine that some Pavoni baskets must be shaped a bit better than mine--it may be a quality control issue. So, don't forget to check for flatness.

raj

Try down dosing to solve your donut problem.

[JeffNYC]

I'm just starting to work with my Gaggia Factory (grinder Cunhill Tranquilo). This site has been very helpful to getting me up to speed, but I'm doing something wrong. I've dialed in the grind significantly finer than what would have choked my Gaggia Coffee, but I only seem to get modest resistance. Here's what I do:

1. Heat up and bleed false pressure for a few seconds. Let heat up again while I start grinding.
2. Grind into the portafilter.
3. The Tranquilo is timed for a single per button push, and I tamp lightly after the first push, and fairly strong after the second. Slightly less than 1/4 headroom.
4. Seat the PF and lift up (a couple of seconds to lift up, too fast?)
5. Wait like 10 seconds (no drops come out even if I wait longer) and start to pull down to roughly halfway.
6. Doesn't seem to do much, almost as if there isn't much water in the group, then lift up to get more water.
7. Pull down with some resistance, then pull up and repeat. Second time is easier than the first, thinking I may have broke the puck lifting up.
8. Don't get much crema. Taste is good though. Puck is dry and cracked, couple of cracks across the middle of the puck.
9. (I roasted Sweet Maria's Monkey blend today, and did not give it a rest so I can practice.)

Thoughts? Finer grind? Harder tamp? Lighter tamp? Wait longer for pre-infusion, filling the group? Wait until coffee rests longer? Give up? (I'm not going to give up...)

Jeff

[TUS172]

I would definitely try a much harder tamp. If you choke the shot at least you know when you've tamped too hard.

[JeffNYC]

I did harder tamp this morning, no difference and puck had one crack through the middle of the puck (normal?). I seem to be having an issue with water filling the group (when I first pull down I don't get the sense there is much water in there). I wait 10+ seconds after lifting. Am I lifting too fast? Or is it that I should be expecting a very, very small amount of water per pull (I did expect less with a manual machine). Anyone hear of defective machines in this regard? I wouldn't think so since they are so simple. Thoughts?

[Fullsack]

I did harder tamp this morning, no difference and puck had one crack through the middle of the puck (normal?). I seem to be having an issue with water filling the group (when I first pull down I don't get the sense there is much water in there). I wait 10+ seconds after lifting. Am I lifting too fast? Or is it that I should be expecting a very, very small amount of water per pull (I did expect less with a manual machine). Anyone hear of defective machines in this regard? I wouldn't think so since they are so simple. Thoughts?

Try lifting the lever to the point where water begins to come out then back down a hair unitl the water stops. Insert your portafilter at this time and then slowly raise the lever the rest of the way to the top. If this doesn't help then the problem probably has to do with dosing and leveling.

Also, keep making your grind finer and until you get to the point that it is so fine you can't pull the lever and then make it only a bit coarser.

[fac10]

I've been at this a few months now with my Gaggia Factory, and I get a cracked puck on virtually every shot. However, I have been able to get shots that taste pretty good to me, so I've stopped obsessing about the cracks.

My technique right now is:

Grind into Maestro Plus bin. Stir up the grounds in the bin with my WDT-style needle tool. Then pour into a yogurt cup funnel while shaking the bin back and forth to spread the grouds out evenly in the basket. Originally I used the traditional WDT stir-directly-in-the-basket approach but had consistent channeling problems, especially at the edges. As many people swear by WDT, it seems likely that I was doing it wrong, but in any case I've found that stirring before dosing into the basket works better for me.

Remove funnel and level grounds to the top of the basket with a straightedge. I move the grounds around to fill in any holes but try not to push the grounds down at all. With Black Cat beans at my current grind setting I get a pretty consistent 14.5 gram dose.

Tamp lightly using finger pressure only. Polish the puck lighly, pushing the tamper against the basket edge as I polish, and rotating the basket at the same time. This technique seems to help in avoiding side channeling, which I had a big problem with for a long time.

Put the basket in the PF, lock in PF and raise the lever to the top. Wait 10 seconds. Push down gradually but firmly to what I think is about 30-40 lbs pressure on the lever. Generally I'll get some drips within 10 seconds or so. Once the drips start I back off the pressure a bit and count 10 seconds, then lift the lever slowly back to the top, and count off 5 seconds at the top of the pull. From there, I do two full pulls at 30-40 lbs pressure. This yields a shot at about 1.5 - 2 oz of liquid.

I suspect the cracked puck may be a result of sucking in air on the 2nd pull. However, my single-pull shots tended toward the acidic side, and the shots became much sweeter when I added the 2nd pull. I assume this is because the one-pull shots were under-extracted.

As I said, I'm pretty much a newbie myself, so I'm just telling you what I'm currently doing, not claiming that it's the best technique. Ask me again in 6 months and I suspect it will be different in some way. Maybe I'll even figure out how to stop the pucks from cracking. But for now, as I said, I'm pretty happy with the taste of my shots.

[JeffNYC]

"Tamp lightly using finger pressure only. Polish the puck lighly, pushing the tamper against the basket edge as I polish, and rotating the basket at the same time. This technique seems to help in avoiding side channeling, which I had a big problem with for a long time."

You mean you don't tamp 30 lbs? Just a light tamp?

[fac10]

You mean you don't tamp 30 lbs? Just a light tamp?

Correct, just a light tamp. This was recommended by Timo in a number of his posts, and I think I have read that at least some other lever users have had good results with this approach. As I understand it, the idea is to tamp as lightly as possible while still creating enough headroom for the puck to expand. I'm just a follower on this, so I'll leave it to someone else to explain the reasoning behind the light tamp school of thought. If nothing else, I find it easy to consistently align the top of my tamper piston relative to the basket rim, whereas consistently tamping at 30 lbs vs 20 or 40 seems more problematic.

[Tim]

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this site. I have a problem with my La Pavoni Europiccola which I have been using for a couple of months now and I am hoping that someone can help me with it. I am using a minimoka grinder, a Reg Barber tamper and freshly roasted coffee. Everytime a start pulling shots, the first one is quite alright. The problem is when I start pulling the second one. The routine is exactly the same, but for some reason it chokes. It is far more harder to pull the lever down and usually the crema is darker than with the first shot. I am guessing it has something to do with the rise in temperature of the machine. Has anyone experienced the same problems or knows what I am doing wrong?