Thermoblocks aren't that bad? - Page 3

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coffee_no_sugar
Posts: 41
Joined: 17 years ago

#21: Post by coffee_no_sugar »

popeye wrote:Perhaps an easier method of temperature profiling is to mix two boilers of water in the grouphead.
Isn't that just like the E-61? During brewing, some of the water goes through the heat exchanger and gets heated. Some of the water by-passes the heat exchanger by going through the other part of the thermosyphon. The hot and cold water mix in the group. You get some control of the brew temperature by controlling the ratio of hot/cold water but it's hard to control as it is also tied into the thermosyphon circulation.

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AndyS
Posts: 1053
Joined: 19 years ago

#22: Post by AndyS »

artichoke wrote:Andy, even as you've narrowed it down, the dissolved solids affects two dimensions: sour/bitter , and sweetness. I guess the more dissolved solids, the more bitter and less sour.

But as a novice it's not obvious to me where to go to get sweetness and distinctive character. Does that depend on what character I like from the coffee, so that to get the blueberries, I have to accept sourness, from a particular coffee?
In general the sour flavors come fastest, the sweets slower, and bitters the slowest. So the idea is to cut the shot with a good balance of all three.

As far as "character" goes, underextracted shots often are "under-charactered," IOW, enough stuff hasn't come out to fully express the coffee's characteristics. OTOH, depending on the coffee (and on dose, temp, technique, etc), underextracted shots can sometimes be OK, too.
-AndyS
VST refractometer/filter basket beta tester, no financial interest in the company

duke-one
Posts: 499
Joined: 17 years ago

#23: Post by duke-one »

One way to get a shot worth of water at exactly the temperature desired, with no change during the pull, would be to have a small separate water circuit where the water was circulated though the group head and only sent through the puck when it was at a stable temp. Kind of like a holding tank. A few valves a small pump capable of the temperature involved some sensors and electronics, what could that cost? A lot for a prototype but in production? Does it really matter? Does it matter if it matters?
KDM

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