Graduated to E61... dosing and cleaning

[annp]

First, I'll confess that I posted some of these questions over at CG. No answer. To be honest, I consider HB (thanks Dan!) kind of more of the advanced place, which is why I didn't post over here until I had a more sophisticated machine on the way! My Saeco and I just were not worthy <g>.

As of this morning, at 2:11 AM Anita is in Virginia, which means in my hands on Thursday. I've got the day off, so I intend to burn through some coffee in the pursuit of excellence, I mean competence...

Anyway, these are my burning questions:

For those of you using like machines and a triple basket in a bottomless Rancilio portafilter, how many grams of ground coffee do you dose with?

I've got a nifty programmable timer. Please excuse my electronics ignorance but the spec is as follows: 15 amp, 1875 watt resistive, 5 amp inductive, 120 VAC, 60 Hz. Anita has a 1400 watt heating element. Is this timer adequate?

Lastly, what would a not overly anal, light use cleaning regime be like?

I wonder if the Saeco knows it is going? I just drank a really amazing, nutty, spicy quad Cap I made with it this morning. Better than anything I've ever had at S$! Must just be the superior beans <veg>.


Ann

[HB]

Congratulations Ann! Although the cooling flushing regime of an HX takes a little time to get the hang of, you'll find it easier to pull consistently superior shots on your Anita in short order. Now to your burning questions:

Timer. It sounds fine to me (1875W resistive load < 1400W heating element).

Dosing triple basket. JonR and others may disagree with me, but I don't recommend triple baskets for learning. Obviously you'll go through coffee faster, but they also tend to exaggerate distribution flaws. If you want to give it a go, there's not a precise dosage. It varies from 19 grams to 23 grams, depending on the coffee. I pay more attention to the puck-to-head clearance. The "nickel test" (lock in, remove, look for impression) is a good starting point. From there, you can use a scale if you prefer.

Light use cleaning regime. I was hoping someone would write an article on this for the SwagFest. No takers yet. The good news is your Anita comes with introductory instructions on this point (disclosure: Chris Nachtrieb provided much of the content, I copyedited it).

I'm curious to see how your first couple weeks go. Additionally for my own selfish reasons, I'm interested if the recommended reading I suggested worked for you, and if not, how they could be improved.

[malachi]

For those of you using like machines and a triple basket in a bottomless Rancilio portafilter, how many grams of ground coffee do you dose with?

It depends on the coffee and the desired flavour profile.
Seriously. Sorry. I wish there were a better answer.
What coffee are you using? If it is something I've got experience with I can give you a suggestion or two.
Some coffees seem ideally suited to use with the triple basket - others suffer.

Lastly, what would a not overly anal, light use cleaning regime be like?

Portafilter "wiggle" rinse and brush after each "session".
Green scrubby scour of the inside of the portafilter (unless using naked) each "session".
Damp rag clean of underside of basket each "session".
Clean water backflush after each "session".
Purge and wipe steam wand every every use.
Thorough wand clean each day.
Purocaff backflush followed by clean water backflush every week.
Soak portafilter and basket (unless using naked) in Purocaff solution each week.

Welcome!

[Teme]

Green scrubby scour of the inside of the portafilter (unless using naked) each "session".
Thorough wand clean each day.
Purocaff backflush followed by clean water backflush every week.
Soak portafilter and basket (unless using naked) in Purocaff solution each week.
Welcome!

I understand this tight a regime is a must in a commercial environment, but isn't this a bit much far an average consumer? My questions:

1) Scrubbing the inside of the PF after each session - I do this weekly. To be honest I mostly use the naked PF, but say I was using the spouted PF? Subsequently I do not soak the PF and basket in detergent weekly - I do it more like monthly. Should I step up my routines?

2) I naturally purge the wand after each use as well as swipe it clean with a damp towel. But what do you mean by through clean of the wand?

3) I was under the impression that backflushing with detergent this often might be detrimental to the machine? For example by washing away the lubricants in the lever mechanism?

As background info, I pull on average 4 doubles a day during the week and between 6 and 12 a day on the weekends (depending on if we have guests or not).

Br,
Teme

[malachi]

Shrug.
I'm no expert.

My reasoning is:
- coffee oil residues become rancid in about an hour. as oil is oil soluable (of course) this will result in contamination of subsequent shots.
- I hate the idea of spoiled milk and potential boiler contamination. So I soak the wand using Rinza dairy cleanser nightly.
- I've heard that backflushing too often is bad, but I've also heard you should never clean your machine and that tamping is bad and that you should fill your hopper with grounds before dosing. I've yet to hear that backflushing with detergent can be done too frequently from any reputable source. But I could be wrong.

-c

[Teme]

I'm no expert.

I am quite far from being one

- coffee oil residues become rancid in about an hour. as oil is oil soluable (of course) this will result in contamination of subsequent shots.

This makes sense and I will be stepping up my routine (when I use the spouted PF). With the naked PF, this will naturally not be necessary for the handle but in addition to just rinsing the basket throughly after each session I will actually try and do the detergent soak more often and see if it improves my coffee.

One of the problems with spouted PFs, at least the one that came with my machine is that it is very difficult to clean (you have no access for scrubbing the spout area). Even with the "open" spouts in some PFs it is the path from the inside of the PF to where it attaches to the spout is tricky. And the spouts in general seem to attachd in a way that makes them difficult to get off without damaging the PF.

I hope that someone could come up with a spouted design that would be easier to clean and the spout would be easier to get off.

- I hate the idea of spoiled milk and potential boiler contamination. So I soak the wand using Rinza dairy cleanser nightly.

Again, I appreciate the tip (no pun intended). I purge the wand immediately after steaming and before hitting the brew lever to avoid boiler contamination. But I guess there might be a chance of some burned milk inside the tip that I cannot access with the routine swiping of the wand.

- I've heard that backflushing too often is bad, but I've also heard you should never clean your machine and that tamping is bad and that you should fill your hopper with grounds before dosing. I've yet to hear that backflushing with detergent can be done too frequently from any reputable source. But I could be wrong.

I think everyone agrees that you should clean your machine, that you should tamp and who has thought of filling one's hopper with grounds before dosing...

Perhaps with this one we should not be talking about the time interval but the number of shots pulled? I'd like to hear others with more and longer experience chime in on this as well.

Br,
Teme

[malachi]

A couple years ago, Schomer told me that the fewer shots pulled per time period, the more critical (and frequent) cleaning becomes. This is largely due to the lack of constant flowing water/coffee, which will delay the contamination.
Not intuitive, and probably just personal opinion, but it kind of makes sense to me.

Of course, that's speaking about commercial machines...

[HB]

- I hate the idea of spoiled milk and potential boiler contamination. So I soak the wand using Rinza dairy cleanser nightly.

Yowza, every night? I always purge the steam wand immediately and wipe it down. Every month or so I remove it and scrub the inside with this brush:


(Image courtesy of espressoparts.com)

Although I've never noticed any sign of milk build up, it's part of my cleaning rituale. Mike Walsh uses a similar thin long brush originally designed for the CamelBak hands-free drinking system for cyclists to scrub the silicone tubing of his Silvia (they do get slimy after awhile).

Speaking of maintenance, the Pallo three-in-one "coffee tool" is a must-have:

It is a replacement of the ubiquitous angled "please, burn my hand" grouphead brush. I first saw one of these at last year's Counter Culture Coffee EspressoFest and noted:

• You can scrub madly while running water through the group, thanks to a long handle and ridges near the brush end. The water streams straight down, not down the handle. Rinsing the grounds off and scrubbing the dispersion screen was never easier.
• Is the steam tip clogged? No problem, a little metal poker on the end will clean it out in a jiffy (note that it may be a little too large for some prosumer steam tip holes).
• When it's time for espresso cleaner, you've got a measuring spoon at the end of the handle.

It also comes with three replaceable brush heads.

[annp]

I went kind of tool crazy over at Visions and ordered their big kit in a box and one of those nifty coffee tools shown in Dan's post up there.

Its the little tool box that got me even if Anita comes with a back flush disk of her own. I'm a gearhead. I think this is why stuff like bicycles and espresso machines appeal to me.

Visions is sending me their cleaner, something private labeled and phosphate free. I asked via email how their cleaner compared to what was recommended for an E61 machine, Cafiza or PuroCaf. The response was that it was more environmentally sound and "the Visions cleaner foams better to push the cleaner deeper into the machine and is less harsh on your hands."

So what in the heck is Cafaza and PuroCaf and is it being "pushed deep into my machine" when I backflush?

I appreciate all of the suggestions. I'll definitely have some food for thought. I can see Malachi's reasoning behind being very thorough - but there is also the fact that this is part of my morning routine and if it takes me longer to make a coffee and clean up in the morning than it does for me to take a shower and get ready to go to work, I'm not going to do it. I need to find a happy medium.

Eww, I don't know if I want to take the steam tip off the wand on the Saeco. Thats 10 years of accumulation, if purging isn't doing the job entirely.

I finished my suggested reading Dan, lets see how well I do tommorow!

Ann

[annp]

Malachi asked:

It depends on the coffee and the desired flavour profile.
Seriously. Sorry. I wish there were a better answer.
What coffee are you using? If it is something I've got experience with I can give you a suggestion or two.
Some coffees seem ideally suited to use with the triple basket - others suffer.

Sadly, since you are out there in the cradle of civilization - and I'm here in the LA of the South, this is where I get my beans:

http://www.atlantacoffeeroasters.com/

As a expatriate, I find myself drawn to the San Francisco blend which is Guatemala, Mexican , Brazil, Kenya, Colombian and Sumatra.

I've also tried their Italian Roast and Vienna Roast - but the Saeco seemed to work best with a blend. I'm willing to experiment though.

Chris, (and anyone else) if you know of other Atlanta area roasters that are good, please let me know. We have Batdorf and Bronson over at Bacchanalia but they aren't as convenient to me as Atlanta Coffee Roasters. Whole Paycheck (Whole Foods) roasts also but I've never bought beans there.

Ann

[malachi]

Sorry, I'm not familiar with those coffees.

If you, at some point, want to spring for shipping you might check out Counter Culture in North Carolina...

[cannonfodder]

Light use cleaning regime. I was hoping someone would write an article on this for the SwagFest. No takers yet.

There is now... Espresso machine cleaning 101