Ponte Vecchio Lusso Temperature Too Cold

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m.scotto11
Posts: 23
Joined: 11 years ago

#1: Post by m.scotto11 »

Hi all, I feel like my PVL is running a bit too cold, right now it runs at 1.1 bar and my shots come out more on the warm side than on the hot side. Only if I pre-warm a nice thick ceramic cup with a shot of hot water will my shots taste more appropriately hot. I even changed my preinfusion time from 5 seconds down to just 2 seconds to see if that would increase the temperature a bit, but there's no noticeable difference.

Wonder if there are any suggestions as to what I can do to bump up the temp of my shots, or do I need to get a little dirty and increase the pressure setting on the machine? If I need to change the pressure does anyone have good instructions I can follow to do this?


Thanks in advance.
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rpavlis
Posts: 1799
Joined: 12 years ago

#2: Post by rpavlis »

The heat capacity of portafilters is quite high. One thing that will warm up espresso temperature is to put the portafilter on the machine before turning on the power. (Without the filter basket in the portafilter.) (Regardless of what the machine is.) Grind the coffee and place it in the filter basket and properly tamp it while the machine is warming up. After the machine is warmed up, and you have run some water through the group through the portafilter and into your espresso cup proceed: Quickly dump the hot water out of the espresso cup. Dry it. Remove the portafilter from the group and dry it with a towel as fast as possible and put the filter basket into it and quickly replace it on the group. It must not cool down!

If you wait too long after putting portafilter with the basket in it back on the machine the shot will be bitter, because the ground coffee will be hot when the hot water gets to it and extract things too well. It is likely to taste burnt, not because it gets burnt on the group, but because nasty tasting things that taste burnt get into your final espresso that would otherwise remain on the grounds.

If you pull the shot as quickly as possible after putting the portafilter on with the filter basket, the espresso will tend to be a "flavour gradient" with the material on the bottom tasting quite different from that on top. You should get lots of crema doing this too. (This is essentially a temperature programmed chromatography, the coffee grounds start out at low temperature and heat as more hot water runs through it.)

How soon you pull the shot dramatically effects the final product.

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peacecup
Posts: 3649
Joined: 19 years ago

#3: Post by peacecup »

Is the group getting very hot to the touch? If not, you could flush a couple of more oz water through the group and PF right before the shot. Most people don't seem to keep the pressure above 1.1 bar, but of course it's possible to increase it a little. Not sure what the max recommended is but I guess less than 1.5 bar.

The main question is how does the coffee taste? If you like the flavor you may not want to increase the temperature too much. You can google the relationship between pressure and temperature to see how it changes.

I keep mine set below 1.0 and I like my shots without any preheating. I heat the cup with the hot water wand.

A simple temperature strip on the back of the group will help with consistency. You need those that read lower than commonly used on Pavonis because the Lusso group stays pretty cool. It is difficult to get it much over 90C.
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Hand-ground, hand-pulled: "hands down.."

ziobeege_72
Posts: 308
Joined: 15 years ago

#4: Post by ziobeege_72 »

m.scotto11 wrote:Only if I pre-warm a nice thick ceramic cup with a shot of hot water will my shots taste more appropriately hot.
May have miss understood your point but pre heating cups as you imply is actually recommended procedure. If you are pulling a room temperature cup then your espresso is going to be too cool. In other words keep doing what you do!

A pstat setting of 1.1 should be ample. Mine is set at 0.8. I preheat my cups as standard routine.

m.scotto11 (original poster)
Posts: 23
Joined: 11 years ago

#5: Post by m.scotto11 (original poster) »

Yes, I always do a flush through the group before pulling shots and the group is not cool to the touch as it is before a flush.

As for flavor, I'm pretty happy with it but can't get over how it's more warm tasting than hot, but maybe I'm just used to drinking hotter espressos - as I mentioned the temperature isn't really an issue if I preheat the cup, so I guess I just need to be mindful of this to get the results I'm looking for.
LMWDP #425