My Vario will arrive here sometime today. Any tips for getting started?

From what I understand, there will no longer be any need for WDT or other tamping/distribution rituals. Just grind into the portafilter, tamp and go.

Several helpful threads already in progress:

Baratza Vario owners... how are things?

and one from CG: Baratza Vario Grinder Owner's Thread

Thanks for the links Kristian, but I intentionally split Keith's question off so new owners would not have to wade through pages and pages of unrelated discussion to reach the answers to basic questions.

oops, sorry about that Dan.

Yes, Keith very little clumping, etc - but, as a minor issue, I have found that grinding straight into the PF has been rather messy, I have lost up to 2g at times onto the counter (yes, I did weigh it). This might be because of my small PF; 51mm. (I'm curious how it is for a 58mm PF). I know that IMAWriter suggests using a cut off yogurt cup, I do this as well now (some static issues). Initially, I just ground into the big grind box and poured it over into the PF, which worked fine as well.

Well, I bought an aluminum portafilter "extender" from Orphan Espresso and adjusted the fork on my Vario so that everything just fits under the grind chute. (I took the hook out). the portafilter with the extender just sits in there hands free while the dose grinds. When I take them out I tap once and remove the extender and it's ready to tamp. No grinds on the counter. I have a 58mm portafilter, and I suspect it would work as well for a smaller one if they make the aluminum extender for it. Worth a look, I think.

Yeah, it's all Dan's fault. Blame him!

Yeah, I'm really excited to see how it works. Should be a big improvement over the Virtuoso. Which required WDT, weigh every dose, stand on your head, stockfleth's, stick out your tongue, NSEW, do the hokey pokey, etc..

Vario arrived this afternoon. Took about 1/2 an hour and 3/4 lb of beans for me to get the shots dialed in (mostly because of inexperience.).

So far, so good. Shots look so much better and seem less prone to channeling, etc. I'm also very glad to finally have some wiggle room in terms of dialing in a shot. My Virtuoso didn't have nearly this level of adjustability. It really makes a difference.

However, I have two immediate concerns:

1. Mess: I put the PF in the portaholder and had grounds flying everywhere. There was a tonne of static. I'm hoping this is due to a.) the questionable lb of beans they sent along with the grinder as part of the deal (if they're old and stale, that could contribute to the static). b.) The fact that it's -25 C here today which likely means humidity is very low. c.) Perhaps the grinder is carrying a charge from the packing materials or from the trip from a very humid climate (Vancouver) to a very dry one. So, I took off the portaholder and am using my WDT cup. This is solving the problem, but I was hoping not to have to do this.

2. Room on the espresso end: After dialing in my shot, I only have room to go about 5 steps finer on the micro-adjust side of things, and it looks like I have no room on the macro side (although I could be in between steps. Have to verify tomorrow.) From what I've read, it's not a big deal to adjust this, and I likely will.

The grinder I bought was the display model, so I got a bit of a discount, but it had clearly been used a bit, and the brush was missing. I was pleased to see the serial # was in the 400's so I take that to mean that I have the latest version available.

Other than these concerns, I am very impressed with the grinder overall. It seems slightly quieter than my Virtuoso and much more solidly built. It also incorporates all of my favorite features about the Virt.

We'll see how I make out tomorrow, when I experiment with press pot and some better beans.

Oops! I nearly forgot to mention the taste which is, after all, the whole reason for the upgrade. Although I'm unfamiliar with the beans, and not sure about how fresh they are, the taste was distinctly better than the shots I made with the Virtuoso. They tend to be more balanced. Sour shots are sour. Bitter shots are bitter. Good shots are good. With the Virtuoso, it was hard to diagnose problems, since the shots were always a mixture of sour and bitter, and never clearly one or the other. Even the good shots with the Virt. would turn your face inside out.

With the Vario the sour shots, although not preferable, were still drinkable. As were the bitter ones. Once I got a balance shot, it was truly balanced. There was no hint of either bitter or sour.

I was also very intentional about learning to control dose with the timer and not with a scale (although I did weigh a few shots a first just to make sure I was in the right ballpark). It's a bit of a paradigm shift for me, but one I anticipate will pay off down the road. (Kind of like switching from flat-picking to finger-picking on guitar ).

I have to say I'm quite impressed. I found it easy to dial in. Starting with the grinder's default 10 second grind for espresso, the setting too fine (I could tell by feel that it was too fine), so I backed of one notch on the "micro" side and ground another dose. It felt "right" but only weighed 10.50 grams. So I adjusted the timer to 14.5 seconds. Weighed that dose, and it was 16.55 grams, which would be perfect on my La Val, but the Elektra doesn't like updosing, so I backed the timer down to 12.5, got a 14.5 gram dose and -- voila -- a wonderfully tasty shot!

Nice fluffy grinds, virtually no mess or clumping at all (then again, my portafilter is indeed 58mm). Still need to dial it in and make whatever adjustments are necessary for drip and press.

Cheers,
Jason

Day 2: Trying a different blend today. Fratello's Competition Blend. Way less problem with static, and I'm able to grind coarser, leaving me a lot more room to adjust. If I'm careful to hold the PF level right in the middle of the exit chute, I can get by with way less mess. However, I think I'll stick with the yogurt cup for now.

Having trouble finding the sweet spot with this blend. Mostly because I have more variables to play with now. I kept grinding coarser to get a slower shot, but then ran out of headroom. So I reduced the dose with the same grind and got a gusher. Not sure what to do now.

Still, I must say how amazed I am that my worst shots with the Vario are still very drinkable (but there's lots of room for improvement).