The pre-millennium Europiccola takes a 49mm basket. I find that filling a double basket with 13.5g of Pharos-grounds and pulling 24-25g of espresso provides me with my target brewing ratio of about 55%.

I read of others using as little as 12g in their LP pre-millennium double baskets and of some employing Elektra MCAL double baskets in order to put in 15g and more.

This variation makes me wonder just how much coffee other LP pre-millenium owners are putting in their baskets and what brew ratios they are pulling.

I like to use 13 to 14g in my 74 Pavoni double basket.

Its been some time since I have weighed my shots, but when I was, I liked them a little shorter in the 18 - 22g range.

I did try up-dosing for a while and was cramming 15 - 16g in the same basket, but results were inconsistent and generally poor. I think this encouraged channeling when the puck tried to expand and had no where to go, also had more problems with lever pressure being slack or too hard.

I also have a Caravel now and been through the same thing...I find much better results with lower doses, finer grind and a gentle leveling tamp, I would say not more than 5kg of pressure.

I normally weigh out 14 grams for the standard 49mm La Pavoni basket. I normally get about 32 to 35 mL from this.

14 g for a ristretto

There are so many sizes for La Pavoni baskets out there that it's hard to compare them equally. I have a 1984 Professional with the old retainer ring portafilter. The double basket will barely hold 13g on a good day, and some beans I can only get about 12g max - that's all the way to the dispersal screen sometimes.

I do have 2 MCAL baskets, but they don't fit right in the portafilter - unless I want to chop it. Still thinking about that.

I sold my pre-millennium Pavoni months ago but when I was using it I was putting 8-8.5g in the single basket and 12g in the double basket (MCAL basket).

Kfir.

I normally use 16 grams in the double basket. If I really pack it in I can fit close to 17 grams. This was not original to my '73 Europiccola so I wonder if the original basket was just as deep. I got this one from a LP parts supplier. I didn't realize the double baskets came in different sizes.

OldmatefromOZ wrote:...I find much better results with lower doses, finer grind and a gentle leveling tamp, I would say not more than 5kg of pressure.

This has been my experience, too. I dose the double basket with 11.5 gs of coffee, slapshot the tamp and pull about an ounce of juice.

I've moved to using the Elektra double basket exclusively, and I dose 16g. This yields consistently excellent results. Just for the heck of it, I tried using the 'standard' double again recently and choked the machine using 14g, same beans and grinder. I use about 8g in the single and like the results I get there.

Apparently I can only exist in these two poles.

Seacoffee wrote:14 g for a ristretto

+1 with my millennium. Lately though, Ive been pulling 16g shots using one partial pull, and then back up for a full pull ... shots have been amazing. Of course, YMMV, as always!