wow, 1 finger? video please!!!

drgary wrote:Hello Everyone,

I've just spent almost an hour just skimming through the clever mods people have been trying. Why? Because it's Christmas here on Candy Cane Lane and a Pharos just arrived from Santa's workshop! Let me set the scene.

First I had a restoration to do.

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Here's what it looks like across the street!

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Friday night a dance troupe rocked out to Christmas music in front of our house.

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Saturday night we had a train for the kids.

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Ho Ho Ho!

Gary, you ooze cool. Congrats on your Pharos.
Merry ho ho ho from OO

time8theuniverse wrote:When I got #191 it took a small effort to move the handle around but now that the settling in period is over i can use one finger to swing the handle around. The Pharos is part of my routine now and i don't see that changing its just so good. There is a learning curve but stick with it the results are incredible.

Having used the Pharos, I have to see this 'one-finger' grind.

B|Java

Has anyone on here paired the Pharos with OE's Hand Grinder Portafilter Doser Scoop? Would that make it more convenient to get the coffee into the basket instead of turning the Pharos over, pulling the plug, then covering the hole with the filter basket and turning it right side up? (Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever actually seen a video of their scoop in action.)

SlowRain,
What I did was empty the ground into a weighing boat and then pour into the basket. Because the ground from Pharos is very fluffy so this work very well. No clumping at all. Plus, the weighing boat is exactly 6.0g so i can always know how much coffee I lost in the Pharos if I decided to measure it.


The Portafilter doser scoop might work I suppose,provided the dimension is big enough.

I use 4-cup basket paper filters to dump the grinds into (on a scale). Then I can fold the filter paper into a tube which is easy to pour from into the portafilter basket. Simple tap of the PF onto the table, tamp, and pull - no fancy redistribution necessary.

drGary said

I've just spent almost an hour just skimming through the clever mods people have been trying. Why? Because it's Christmas here on Candy Cane Lane and a Pharos just arrived from Santa's workshop!

Nice present! 041 arrived months ago; I'll call it an early Christmas gift since it has been most enjoyable.

I've just had a chance to try the Pharos and am very pleased. But first, Doug, you didn't tell us you put a trick feature in there to get us to take it apart and admire your handiwork! Other Pharos newbies, watch out! If you push too hard on the rubber stopper it disappears into the internal cone and then you have to disassemble the Pharos and fumble to reassemble it. Not that reassembling is all that hard, but like any well-engineered device, everything goes in its place, in the right holes. So if you don't have it correctly lined up, you'll need to loosen things up and reposition.

Here's another newbie tip. When dialing it in, use viable beans. I had some old dried out decaf beans. Well they were so lifeless and dry there was no such thing as getting an espresso pour. Each attempt was a gusher until I used something drinkable.

Aside from the deliciousness of (other) coffee here's what I noticed.

1. It's almost impossible to choke my Isomac Amica with a Pharos. I wonder if that's true for my lever machines? There are almost no fines, so if you feel any grain in the coffee the machine won't choke. I've got it cranked down to near the zero point and this still holds. Later add: Not! I'd been tightening to finger strength but was able to tighten more using the adjustment bar while taking Doug's advice to not overdo that. Easily choked the Amica. Now it's time to dial that baby in!

2. I had to updose about 10% from my Super Jolly standards to get a reasonable flow rate because of this finer grind, no-choke characteristic. More grinds fit in the basket.

3. Even when puck preparation is a little off it seems to correct itself. I'm guessing the uniformity of the grinds somehow allows redistribution.

4. Substantial hand strength is needed to hold it to the counter when grinding for espresso. If I had time or tools at the moment I might rig up a jig to temporarily lock it down. I took the advice from Doug's video and fastened onto it with a golf grip, using that holding hand to push it down and the other hand to turn. This is while using the positioning pad that Doug and Barb now supply. Later add: Grinding becomes easier and smoother after about 15 shots worth have been run through the Pharos.

5. For added torque, I might also want to fasten a larger handle on the beast like one of the earlier posters. But I am able to manage quite well for the moment.

6. For my Isomac Amica, the adjustment for espresso grind is well less than 1/2 turn from zero point, more like 1/4 turn. But I was able to get close to a ristretto pull that some coffees like.

7. Emptying the Pharos is a bit awkward compared to an electric grinder. I shake it into a small cup like Doug does in his video. But there's still a lot left in the chamber. Rather than spank it, I remove the plug and tap it rightside up on my granite countertop. Then I can easily use a trim brush and small dustpan to collect the remaining grinds and spoon them into the portafilter. I'd like to find small steel cups that fit 58mm and 49mm portafilters for direct transfer.

All of this slows down the grinding process in a nice way so rather than rush through a simpler routine, there's more of a Zen experience.

Tastewise the Pharos is a winner and makes me crave a Compak K10 or its Wega counterpart. I prefer the efficiency of electric grinding but am grateful for this handcrafted, portable and affordable packaging of conical burrs.

The taste was so good that on my first outing I pulled the best cappuccino ever on my Amica. And this is after about only a dozen shots pulled to dial this in, the first four or five with impossibly stale beans. I asked my wife to taste it. She almost never enjoys straight espresso but really likes the "fluffy coffee" capps I make her. I gave her a taste of a straight shot and she said, "I almost like that"! She almost went for seconds and decided she was full. Then she suggested I take the SJ to my office and leave the Pharos here.

I haven't even tried the Pharos with a lever machine but am glad to have some high quality, fresh decaf on hand to start pairing it with my pre-Millennium La Pavoni Europiccola. There's some Idido left in my freezer for when it's all dialed in!

drgary wrote:1. It's almost impossible to choke an espresso machine with a Pharos. There are almost no fines, so if you feel any grain in the coffee the machine won't choke. I've got it cranked down to near the zero point and this still holds.

Are you sure about this?This is very interesting! I was able to choke my Cremina with Pharos though. How far are you from finger tight zero when you say it's near the zero? Mine was about 180 degree from zero or about 30 minutes on a clock face.(This setting is for a proper dialed-in shot btw, not a choked one)

I reworded that a bit while you were posting because I realized my Pavoni chokes far more easily than the Amica. More in a bit.

A few minutes later: The Pharos definitely has leverage! First shot attempted on the Pavoni pre-2K was the best I ever pulled on it, even though I wasn't using my favorite beans. I took into account Sam's note about choking the machine. So I kept it at the same tight setting and backed off the dose to 13.5 gm in an Elektra basket. Rich crema, delicious and nuanced. That's the stuff!