Very cheerful Peppina, you have there

The nylon-reinforced EPDM washers were custom made several years ago. I put together some rebuild kits to offset my out-of-pocket costs but the stock is now depleted.

Thanks again for all the encouragement and advice.

Last night I pulled two great doubles and an Americano. For the Americano for the Wife, I pulled the drip tray to let my Bodum Pavina tumbler fit under the portafilter and pulled twice to warm up the group and fill up the cup 2/3rds with water for the Americano. I followed this with the double into the same cup. I figured that this would be easier then separately heating water to add to the Americano, playing with the ventilator cap to try and force water out of the cap (by screwing the steam wand on the inside) or cleaning the group and then pulling the water afterwards. I didn't get any complaints.

This morning, I pulled a perfectly good 7g single. Good, not great, but definitely not a sink shot. I think the technique is slowly coming together and I also took some advice I found about really curtailing pre-infusion with a single which may have helped. I also leveled with the finger, nutated the grounds followed by a light tamp.

Now I'm getting calls for a cappuccino so I guess I'll have to get the ventilator and an apron out and get to work... cappuccino was enjoyed by the Wife and I followed that with a single espresso macchiato for myself since I had leftover frothed soy and no kids around to use it up on hot chocolate drinks... another good single, I'm stunned.

I've been looking at where the handle attaches to the portafilter. It looks like you could cut away 2/3rds to 3/4rs of the bottom of the portafilter and leave the handle attached, but the handle would face towards you blocking the view without a mirror. I'm starting to think I don't really need a naked portafilter at this time since I've got lots of practicing to do, but maybe if I'm feeling particularly flush I'll pick up a spare pf and look at chopping this one. The SSR is being shipped so my next project will be connecting up a PID to La Peppina which should make it more convenient to be able to leave it at temp between shots.

I'm loving this machine.

I tend to agree that creating a naked pf is rather against the spirit of this machine. The Peppina is a machine with soul, which is what makes it such a joy to use. I think one needs to cut some accepted principles some slack to get the best tasting espresso from the machine.

I like to fill my double with 10g at a relatively coarse grind for a low 20s 40ml shot. Way faster than I would use for a pump machine but I find slow shots lose too much heat, subduing sweetness. I've pulled some of the tastiest shots I've ever tasted on that machine, then removed the pf to find the puck looking like the surface of the moon with large pinholes.

For me, over-analysis is rather futile. You will get better results from it if you buy it chocolates and take it out to dinner, you've just got to feel it.

I don't even bother with the thermoprobe anymore, just get to a mellow boil, switch off, flush a couple, prepare the basket, flush a couple more then pull the shot. Spot-on every time.

This is what I Love about the Peppina. If you get your grind into the right range you almost assured of having at least a great shot, maybe not godlike but always good or better.

The only trick is that you can look at the heat, directly. Just above the head unlike just about any other non open brew path. You get the temp in the boil kettle a couple of degrees above the puck temp you want then you know what your brew temp will be.

In the point of this thread I do not see much if any benefit with having a bottomless PF. Other than being fashionable. These machines do what they do well, why screw with it?

Will that inch or two of metal change things enough to destroy a limited resource like the PF's temp stability for this machine? And will it be a change for the better in taste?

I have one PF and a couple of baskets, and I am not willing to drill it out it to test it.

And I do not know where to get another PF if I do not like the change. Limited options lead to limited experimentation. This machine is perfect for testing this, but the limited hardware stops the willing test subjects.

-C

CRCasey wrote:This is what I Love about the Peppina. If you get your grind into the right range you almost assured of having at least a great shot, maybe not godlike but always good or better.
Snip...
I have one PF and a couple of baskets, and I am not willing to drill it out it to test it.
-C

Good Call! La Peppina is a great machine! The Peppina uses a different lug/ear pattern than the PV. The Peppina portafilter will not survive long as a bottomless. I believe the handle locking torque will bend it out of shape in a very short time as it will any fairly weak walled PF like the Caravel. I make the extra thick walled bottomless pfs to prevent that in the few models I do. The larger commercial portafilters have the room to clear the bottom of the basket and still retain some of the pf bottom to add stiffness when they are drilled out.
Merry Christmas to All!
-Richard

Tonight I got over any desire for a bottomless portafilter for my La Peppina. The Wife's been sick so I had KP duties tonight and decided to get out the La Peppina and hook up the PID for an energy boost midway through cleanup. I ground up 14 grams of 12 day old FC+ Liquid Amber and set the PID for a kettle temp of 206 F. I coarsened up the grind because most of my pulls have been borderline chokes and I pulled the cup early because I'll often see two light circles from when the extraction starts to blond.

I was rewarded with a very tasty, crema laden one ounce shot. It was so good I pulled a second (and snapped a photo this time). The shots were sweet and citrus with a nice, chocolaty crema and some dark, rich flavors underneath. I'm really liking this, I pulled out the other half of the roast from the freezer for this weekend as I have less then 14 grams of the first half left.



I'm hoping for some health benefit from the coffee to boost my immunity.



BTW, Doug does have the La Peppina portafilter body for sale at OE for anyone who really, really wants to go bottomless, but I'm going to consider the La Peppina a member of my family that I don't need to see naked, like a sister.

p.s. I'm adding a link to the Peppina Goes Fearless & Naked thread where Daniel creatively created a bottomless portafilter for his La Peppina using O-Rings for grips instead of a handle.