I'm new to the world of high quality home espresso. I've been drinking lots of press pot coffee and moka pot "espresso" for a long time and while I've enjoyed it, I've been thinking of getting a proper espresso machine for years. When I started looking around online for some good information on what I was about to get into, I found this site straight away and I didn't need to go any further. I was looking for reviews and discussions of equipment and their pros and cons. I wanted a good overview of what real espresso is all about so that I'd know what sort of kit I was looking for. I wanted the benefit of real experience from people who've been making top quality espresso in their homes and this site has it all.
A while back a friend had told me of a friend of his who spent what he thought was a crazy amount of money on a coffee machine. It was an Expobar Brewtus. I started off with that, and found the great review you have of the Brewtus II here and it looked pretty good. After reading it was a Dual Boiler type of machine, I thought that's what I want. But as I read more, I just ended up with more questions that led to more reading and around and around I went.
If the Brewtus is a Dual Boiler, exactly what other types of machines are there? [more reading...]
E61? What's that? [more reading...]
Heat Exchangers eh? You've got to do what? Flush a HX hump out of a 3-way solenoid? Sounds painful. [more reading...]
And it went on like that for weeks, with me reading nearly everything that Home-Barista.com has to say about espresso, espresso machines & grinders, plus a whole lot more, like using a bottomless portafilter to diagnose extraction problems, managing hx temperatures, distribution techniques and lots of stuff about pulling shots by watching the colour, or timing the extraction, or measuring the volume. So much information! So much useful information, excellent!
After reading about data logging the intra-shot temperature profile, I thought "Ah now, I'm not going to go that far. Am I?".
But I was ready to go for it. And after looking at a huge number of different machines, I thought I go for the handy DB Brewtus, just a quick warming flush and we're away. Or so I thought. But I'm in Ireland and I don't know of anywhere here to go to for that sort of stuff, so I was onto a UK site where I'd seen them before, but they'd been removed because they had so many problems with the electrics that they'd stopped selling them. Apparently, the Brewtus doesn't like European voltages. So, I carried on, looking into different machines and types of machines.
While I was at that, I knew I needed a grinder. I didn't want anything too big and I'd rather spend a bit more now rather than get something that I'd want to upgrade anytime soon. So I got a Mazzer Mini doser. Quite big but I thought it would do for more than just a year or two. So far it's been great. Straight away I had a huge improvement to my regular moka pot brews by using freshly ground beans from the MM instead of pre-ground stuff, even if the beans weren't really fresh (Illy).
So, I carried on looking at machines and I though the Gaggia Achille manual lever looked good. But I'd read about a few leaks and didn't want that sort of hassle. I enquired about one anyway and ended up talking to some Italian in Italy and he said they were all defective and that Gaggia were going to make a new version. I hadn't heard anything else about that, but he sounded like he knew what he was talking about. So I thought again, not just about what I wanted, but about what type of machine I actually needed. A pour over, non-plumbed machine was my only real requirement. DB? Not really necessary. Lever (manual or spring) or pump (rotary or vibe), they can all be good, apparently. The HX flushing and temp management had put me off those types at first, but as I read more, I realised that it isn't any big hassle at all. In fact, once you're familiar with the specific machine, one could actually hit a desired temperature quite accurately by measuring the cooling flush and counting the rebound time. I went for the Izzo Alex, a single boiler HX E61 machine with a rotary pump and a reservoir. It has been around for long enough to have a second version, so I thought it was well tried and tested by this stage. That was about one month ago and I've been drinking great espresso since then.
My first shot was a blond gusher and I thought it was very tasty, just slightly sweet, not at all bitter or sour. But day after day, the shots got better and better, and my appraisal of my shots went along with it, the bar got steadily higher. Then I got some fresh beans, just a couple of days out of the roaster. The bag of beans had the Date Roasted written on it. Wow, look at that huge crema cone! Thick and syrupy looking with dark stripes flowing slowly down into my cup, Mmmm that looks delicious! Sweet, dense body & thick dark crema with reddish speckles, best espresso I'd ever had and it looked as good as some of the nice bottomless shots I've seen online.
The Alex came with a boiler pressure that varied between 1.1 and 1.4 bar. As I only do a very occasional milk drink (don't drink them myself), I thought I didn't need it that high, so I turned it down and now it goes between 1.0 and 1.1 bar, roughly. I wasn't sure what would happen to the deadband, but it definitely got smaller after the adjustment. I haven't noticed much difference in the cooling flush, but I'm only learning. The pump pressure said over just 9.5 as soon as I raise the lever, so I turned that down by half a bar. Not sure what pressure I've got at the puck, but half a bar lower hasn't made the extractions any worse. Not sure if it is any improvement, I might mess with it again and watch & taste some different pressure extractions, just to see.
I drink double espresso, except for the flask of americano I take to work with me. I've been averaging about 4 doubles a day. I dose the double around about 16g I think. I've only checked that a couple of times on a kitchen scales, but it doesn't even do 1g accurately, never mind 0.1g. I've tried measuring 14g and had problems with the extraction, seemed like too small a volume of grounds in the basket, so I tamped harder and still got a gusher. But it nearly tasted ok as I was watching for signs of blonding and when I saw it gushing I thought I'd better err on the side of a dark stop. Maybe I should try grinding finer for a 14g double. I've tried 18g and found it hard to pack it in enough to still have a bit of headspace, so I've been mostly dosing by basket volume and end up with roughly 16g. Still only learning, need more trials & tests!
I'll have to try a triple basket too. I think lots of the great looking bottomless shots online are done with triples, but whatever about that, I want to drink it!
I need to work at the HX Flushing. I'd typically flush about 100 or 120 ml while I'm preparing the basket, then if I've been slow about it, maybe another 30 to 60 ml before pulling it. Or if I'm quick, just flush-and-go. But that's part of the problem, I'm still learning and trying to be consistent while there are so many variables. But I'm getting there, and I haven't had a sink shot due to poor flushing. I haven't had any sour shots. I had one bitter one, but that was to be expected. I'd just done the flush and raised the lever to start the shot, when the pump went off and the lights went out - I'd let the reservoir run too low! Doh! Quick as I could, I filled it back up, but the portafilter was still locked in. I didn't want to remove it, as it'd be ruined, but I knew the HX water was going to be too hot. But I pulled it anyway and got the expected result, a dark, very bitter shot with a little bit of thin crema. It was unpleasant and should have been dumped, but I drank it anyway. I've had many as bad as that out in cafes/restaurants/bars where they should know better. But there appears to be a good range of usable temperature from the HX, nearly all the shots are great - thick dark crema, dense body, sweet and delicious!
So, after one month with an espresso machine, I feel like I'm a real Home Barista! I've still got a lot to learn, I need to experiment more with dose weights & volumes, practice more with the flushing and work at my distribution etc, and aim for consistency and repeatability in all of that. I want to get a scales that can measure 0.1g so I can try out different amounts accurately. And I'm going to experiment with my HX by deliberately pulling shots at different ends of it's temperature range, so that I have a better idea of what flush volumes / rebound times result in what sort of temperatures. But whatever about that, I'm definitely off to a good start here! And from day one too, as I'd learned so much before I even got the machine, I felt like I knew what I was doing right from the very beginning.
It is clear that a lot of people have put a lot of time and effort into making this site what it is. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your hard work, the amount and quality of the information I got here has been invaluable to me in getting my espresso to this level.
Thank You HB,
Neil.
