Pulling consecutive shots - your technique? - Page 2

[gscace]

i didnt realize how hard this would be until this weekend. after dinner i made 2 capps and 6 espressos. granted its not a lot, but the biggest problem, and i think its just that i need to lose this mindset, is that its impossible for everyone to enjoy their coffee at once. obviously, that isnt the intent with espresso, i had to remind myself that its an individual thing, for each to enjoy one by one. stinks when you want cake and coffee; i guess the coffee cant be espresso.

i was disappointed with the triple basket. i was hoping it would fit into a 2 spout pf so i can give my family generous shots. they come from the moka pot mentality, so like their coffee to be bountiful! that didnt work. i guess i could have made a triple into something bigger and poured it into 2 cups, but that seemed wrong. so, i basically just did doubles with a bit more course grind, so they could all have their 'full cups' of coffee, and a naked pour for me at the end. it was a bit bitter, but i think i was over my head by then :p

i started with the capps, and they came along the best, probably b/c i made and served those one at a time..

grinding slows things down too. granted its only 20 seconds per cup, but thats another 20 seconds each time. if i wasnt using different beans for everyone, i think i would have ground all at once.

having a 2nd double basket is prolly a good investment too..

The right call if someone wants a lungo is to correctly brew the shot, then add a little hot water. By doing so you won't mess up the extraction and the coffee won't be bitter.

WRT dinner parties etc - my practice is to recognize that folks wanting different types of coffee just aren't gonna get them at the same time. My equipment is in the basement because it won't fit in the kitchen no way no how. I brew Americanos sequentially and serve them together. I grind the next shot while the first is brewing and add water to the first Americano while the second shot is brewing. They build pretty fast and they aren't particularly sensitive to serving time, so I serve them all together. I then build the caps / lattes. I fill individual steaming pitchers before starting, so I don't have to pour milk during the build process. My machine takes 17 secs to froth 10 ounces of milk, so I can keep up with my brewing. Milk drinks still take longer than Americanos because I'm frothing while brewing, so I'm not running the grinder. I usually grind when wiping out the pf for the next shot, which takes a little longer. I deliver milk drinks in pairs, which seems a reasonable compromise. Usually someone in the party is interested in the process and is willing to be a runner, delivering the drinks. I brew straignt espressos individually and serve them immediately. I use a runner, or convince the straight shot drinkers to come on down the the basement coffee bar. My equipment is not sensitive to building order in that it doesn't need flushing to get to temperature and high volume steaming does not affect the brew temperature. The order in which I makes drinks is somewhat dependent on how soon I think they'll be consumed ( hot, high volume ones take the most time to cool and drink), and also by the time I need a runner, an interested person will have seen the process performed several time in a row.

The dinner party thing puts you into commercial duty cycle for a short time. But it's long enough to realize that the folks who make barista competitions look so seamless and flawless are really talented.

-Greg

[LeoZ]

The right call if someone wants a lungo is to correctly brew the shot, then add a little hot water. By doing so you won't mess up the extraction and the coffee won't be bitter.

WRT dinner parties etc - my practice is to recognize that folks wanting different types of coffee just aren't gonna get them at the same time. My equipment is in the basement because it won't fit in the kitchen no way no how. I brew Americanos sequentially and serve them together. I grind the next shot while the first is brewing and add water to the first Americano while the second shot is brewing. They build pretty fast and they aren't particularly sensitive to serving time, so I serve them all together. I then build the caps / lattes. I fill individual steaming pitchers before starting, so I don't have to pour milk during the build process. My machine takes 17 secs to froth 10 ounces of milk, so I can keep up with my brewing. Milk drinks still take longer than Americanos because I'm frothing while brewing, so I'm not running the grinder. I usually grind when wiping out the pf for the next shot, which takes a little longer. I deliver milk drinks in pairs, which seems a reasonable compromise. Usually someone in the party is interested in the process and is willing to be a runner, delivering the drinks. I brew straignt espressos individually and serve them immediately. I use a runner, or convince the straight shot drinkers to come on down the the basement coffee bar. My equipment is not sensitive to building order in that it doesn't need flushing to get to temperature and high volume steaming does not affect the brew temperature. The order in which I makes drinks is somewhat dependent on how soon I think they'll be consumed ( hot, high volume ones take the most time to cool and drink), and also by the time I need a runner, an interested person will have seen the process performed several time in a row.

The dinner party thing puts you into commercial duty cycle for a short time. But it's long enough to realize that the folks who make barista competitions look so seamless and flawless are really talented.

-Greg

interesting re: the lungo. great idea, and ill think ill try it for them next time.

re: the building process, after i was done, i sort of played it out that way in my head, so again, seems like a great idea! espressos served individually, capps together since i can steam enough milk for 2 at a time, and lungos for as many as required, adding milk to all right before serving to bring temps back up.

thanks for the comments, though im not looking forward to doing it again, definitely hard work!

[miKe mcKoffee]

The right call if someone wants a lungo is to correctly brew the shot, then add a little hot water. By doing so you won't mess up the extraction and the coffee won't be bitter.
-Greg

I'm gonna disagree with that one. Maybe the easiest way but not necessarily the right way. Nor would it be for a Cafe' Crema which is basically an extreme lungo. Grinding coarser and pulling shorter time for the larger volume(s) is my understanding of the actual right way and won't be bitter. And they do taste different than simply adding hot water to a normale ala Americano. The logic of merely adding hot water to a normale for a lungo extrapolates logically to the oft common practice of merely taking the center of a normale and calling it a ristretto, not.

[Ozark_61]

I had the recent fortune to have my whole family in town (lots of free work on the house!) and I pulled 6 caps in a row, with art. I was surprised how long it took. I used a timer for the shot extraction and was grinding, foaming, flushing, tamping, pulling, pouring (in that order!) and it was 5 minutes between each start of the timer. It may have saved time to foam for two drinks at once, or to grind for all drinks at once, but I don't think I could do decent art having the milk sitting around. Well.. my art isn't very good anyways, so it probably wouldn't matter that much...

Geoff

[gscace]

interesting re: the lungo. great idea, and ill think ill try it for them next time.

re: the building process, after i was done, i sort of played it out that way in my head, so again, seems like a great idea! espressos served individually, capps together since i can steam enough milk for 2 at a time, and lungos for as many as required, adding milk to all right before serving to bring temps back up.

thanks for the comments, though im not looking forward to doing it again, definitely hard work!

I actually love to do it. We had a dinner party on Friday night with 9 adults. That's a pretty good number to make coffee for. I find it fun. Last year I provided coffee for a Christmas party hosted by my next-door neighbors. They're first generation Italian and the party was the whole extended fambly plus others - more than 50 people. I was pretty busy and it was a crowd that liked their espresso. Fortunately I was testing a GS3 at the time. This year it'll be a La Spaz S1, a Robur for real coffee and a mini-e for decaf. Hope the Spaz is up for it.

-Greg