I've had this machine about 6 weeks now and am thrilled. It was shipped with a bad pump microswitch, which was a real buzzkill at first (yay -- a several-kilobuck, 70-lb, heated paperweight). But Todd @ WLL fixed me up pretty quickly with a new one, and swapping out was trivial once I got over the emotional trauma of cracking open a brand-new $2k+ appliance.

Some have commented about weak steaming, and I initially wasn't opening the steam valve full-blast so I had a little trouble stretching milk. But once I figured out the problem was me, I've gotten to where steaming takes about the same time as my 25-sec shot and if anything I'm overstretching the milk and making a cappa instead of the intended latte.

It's currently paired up with a Baratza Vario on my desk at work and some beans from Primavera in Birmingham AL. Yum.

Any questions, fire away.

Congrats on the new machine! I have a friend that has had a Brewtus for about 5 years and he continues to really like it. It was vibe pump originally, and he just swapped in a rotary.

Didn't know that there was a brewtus IV. I've had mine (B-IIIR) for 2+ years and I've never had any trouble of any kind. I wonder if the B IV has newer parts or they just rewire it to have the two boilers run independently.

By the way, the brewtus is also "paddle" but without the marketing names. Just crank up the lever half way, and let the line pressure do the push.

Cheers

Arpi wrote: By the way, the brewtus is also "paddle" but without the marketing names. Just crank up the lever half way, and let the line pressure do the push.

Cheers

Is this true for some of the other semi-auto 'lever' machines? i.e. the Vibiemme Double Domo, Alex II Duetto, etc.? I never realized you could use the lever as a pre-infusion in the same fashion as a paddle.

See Is there a purpose for the E61 middle brew lever position? and Adjusting E61 Middle Position. It's not really the same as a paddle on the Slayer or La Marzocco since twiddling the E61 lever position won't change the incoming water pressure, though it does allow you to experiment with extended preinfusion / prewetting the puck.

Very interesting, thanks for the info.

HB wrote: It's not really the same as a paddle on the Slayer or La Marzocco

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I was under the impression that the La Marzocco "paddle" GS3 did not change the line water pressure. But probably they improved the model by now.

Thanks

Actually I was thinking of the La Marzocco Strada, not the GS/3.

The Strada has a pressure gauge atop each group so the barista can manually tweak the brew profile during the extraction. It's not easy though, since the range of motion in the "espresso zone" pressure of 4 to 10 bar is only a few degrees of rotation. I've never used the paddle GS/3, but I don't believe it allows this sort of finessing.

So what does the GS/3 Paddle do? I was under impression it controlled line pressure... but once pump came on it was full force (while the Strada allows to control throughout the extraction).

If line pressure can't be controlled, then is it pretty much the same as e61 lever mid position?