woodchuck wrote:I got a pulse about every 2 seconds averaged over the course of a 1 minute period

Minor geeky point: PID/SSR combos work on a very short, fixed duty cycle, typically one second, or in your case two. The on period of the pulse is some percentage of the 2 second period. For instance, 50% heat is a one second on every 2 seconds, 25% heat is 0.5 seconds on, etc.

another_jim wrote:Minor geeky point: PID/SSR combos work on a very short, fixed duty cycle, typically one second, or in your case two. The on period of the pulse is some percentage of the 2 second period. For instance, 50% heat is a one second on every 2 seconds, 25% heat is 0.5 seconds on, etc.

One of the blessings of replacing my PID Zaffiro with the DC's potentiometer control is that my hall lights no longer flicker with each cycle.

Spent some time today on the Brewtus with PT's Coffee Sidamo Organic Espresso Roast. Boy now there's a switch from my usual Counter Culture Coffee's Aficionado. Tried a number of different temperatures and doses with the Brewtus. Much greater than 200°F and I lost the intense blueberry and raspberry fruits. Much below 196F and things just got too acidic for me. I ended up at the higher end of the scale - 200°F. Dose for this coffee on the Brewtus worked best with a nice level pf and no tapping - that turns out to be 17gr on the nose. Sweetness grew with dose but fruit began to get too muddled. Low doses had a nice clean fruit but lost some body. Not sure compromise is the right word to use with this in your face coffee but at 200°F and 17gr it was most memorable.

By the way, let the cup cool some - the fruit will grow as the cup cools.

Cheers

Ian

dsc wrote:Hi guys,

good to hear that it's accurate, because it looks a bit cheapish and plasticy (yeah like that's a word).

Regards,
dsc.

If you spell it "plastiky" or better still "plastic-y" LOL
Back on topic.
Can the legs be lowered or replaced to allow another inch or so of clearance? A shame not to have that cup warmer cup-warming.

Ahhh, Toscano in the morning - how sweet it is. One of the benefits of testing machines is you get to try a lot of different coffees in a very short period of time. Of course the down side is hyper-caffeination. Talk to my wife about that It has been a roller coaster ride coffee wise this week. Counter Culture Coffee's Aficianado, PT's Coffee Sidamo and now CCC's Toscano. Nut, fruit and chocolate - wow.

I continue to like what I am getting from the Brewtus. The Toscano did well up dosed a tad to 18.5 grams and at a higher temperature 201F. The Toscano blend has been a little up and down taste wise over the past few months for me but this batch had a nice sweet profile with a smooth chocolate base and rich laphroaig mouth feel. Actually the chocolate wasn't as intense as I've had it before but very pleasing none the less. Not sure how much of this to attribute to the machine or to any recent changes to the blend.

Here is a picture of one of the several I tried. Did I say caffeine? Will have to learn to spit some of these out



On another note I did notice the impact of having a brew boiler fed from a steam boiler today. I tried pulling a number of shots in a row along with steaming simultaneously. You can get ahead of both boilers. Once you start pulling shots the steam boiler heater kicks in. If it can't keep up with the load while steaming milk the brew boiler pulling water that hasn't been heated enough from the steam boiler loses too much heat and can't keep up. It takes a few minutes for things to equalize again before you can start. No big deal for a couple of coffees at a time but I wouldn't want to use it for a catering business.

Cheers

Ian

IMAWriter wrote:Can the legs be lowered or replaced to allow another inch or so of clearance? A shame not to have that cup warmer cup-warming.

Rob, the legs are fixed and you need the height to hold the drain chamber that is attached under the drip tray. If you weren't going to plumb the drain in you could probably lower it another 3/4 to 1 inch. Not sure whether you could find stock legs to do this though.

Ian

Gotcha.

Todd at WLL indicated that if you were not going to install the drain, shorter legs were available
http://www.home-barista.com/espre...-t8354.html#p97694

Eric, thanks for the heads up on the legs ... Ian

Well, not exactly part of the machine but I find its good to tweak the accessories to match the machine. After having visited Counter Culture Coffee yesterday and loaded up with a well rested batch of Toscano, I went to work on baskets, tampers and tips.

First the tampers: I have tried three different tampers over the past few weeks - mostly trying to figure out whether a flat or curved bottom worked better with the stock Brewtus basket. For me the flat gets the nod. Overall I have gotten marginally better pours (richer mouth feel) and more consistent flow across the whole pour with the flat tamper. Not a big difference but noticeable over time.



Steam tips. I tried two - the stock single hole tip and a double. The single hole tip produces great micro foam but is slowww. The double is faster but I had trouble avoiding the sea foam with the double tip.



I am still disappointed in the steaming performance of the Brewtus. For a double boiler it just isn't nearly as powerful as either the Dalla Corte Mini or the La Spaziale Vivaldi. Dan and I discussed whether or not it might have something to do with the geometry of the boiler. Given a good sized boiler (1.7L) for such a small machine, it just just does not have the front end steaming power that some of the other DBs do.

This is probably stretching things a bit-- and I admit it may be all in my head --but I have played around with a couple of different baskets over the past few weeks and have decided I prefer the squarer LM basket to the stock Brewtus basket.



Again the affect on taste is minimal if at all. I just seem to get better pours out of the basket with the steeper walls. It is pretty much gut feel at the moment for me. Maybe we can try some different basket geometries at CCC one day.

I'm off on a shooting gig for the next couple of weeks (out in the boonies with no espresso or internet) so will have to leave this thread alone till I get back.

Cheers

Ian

Ian,

Does the steam boiler on the Brewtus remain full of water? I ask because on my Alexia I notice the steaming is better if I create "head space". To do this I simply purge the wand right after I've pulled my shot to drop the water level in the boiler, allowing room for steam. Once done steaming, I top off the boiler.

My Vetrano's boiler is only partially filled, so a ton (relatively speaking) of steam is sitting on top of the water in the boiler, allowing it to steam quite well. I was just thinking that if the Brewtus had a water level probe inserted into the steam boiler to lower the level to allow head space it'd be able to steam better (assuming an appropriate tip is fitted).

I guess my question is for all DBs...do they all have the steam boilers topped off with water, or do any of them allow head space for steam?

p.s. In addition to the great info of your reviews, thanks for the incredible pictures. Everyone loves eye candy.

uscfroadie wrote:I guess my question is for all DBs...do they all have the steam boilers topped off with water, or do any of them allow head space for steam?

Er, a steam boiler filled with water isn't a steam boiler, it's a brew boiler. Seriously, the steam boiler is always partially filled (or partially empty, depending on your point of view). When Ian returns, I'll ask him about tweaking the steam boiler level. As a general rule of thumb, raising the water level means more powerful steam, but it's wetter.

Thanks for the quick answer, Dan. I feel stupid for asking such a question but wasn't sure if they were partially filled or full.

But the amount of vapor space in the boiler does effect the performance. If I remember correctly, it was somewhat counter intuitive. Less steam space, more water got you more steam pressure but a wetter steam that fades fast. Less water in the boiler gave your less pressure but a dryer steam that will run longer. Or I could be completely wrong.

cannonfodder wrote:But the amount of vapor space in the boiler does effect the performance. If I remember correctly, it was somewhat counter intuitive. Less steam space, more water got you more steam pressure but a wetter steam that fades fast. Less water in the boiler gave your less pressure but a dryer steam that will run longer. Or I could be completely wrong.

No, I think you are exactly right. It starts out counterintuitive that it is true, but then when you think about it from the perspective that (within reason) the steam boiler is filled with two things - water and steam the intuition turns because if the volume of water is higher the volume left for steam is lower and vice versa.

Well finally made in back from Palau and Yap. Two weeks on a boat with narry an espresso to be seen. Nothing like a few espressos from the Brewtus to ward off the jet lag. This one tasted mighty good to me even though it ran a bit thin - had sequestered a bit of coffee in the freezer before I left so it was a little past prime.



By the way if any of you divers out there are interested Palau has some pretty good shark action along with some great wall diving.



Will get into a few more tests once the jet lag wears off.

Cheers

Ian

woodchuck wrote:I am still disappointed in the steaming performance of the Brewtus. For a double boiler it just isn't nearly as powerful as either the Dalla Corte Mini or the La Spaziale Vivaldi. Dan and I discussed whether or not it might have something to do with the geometry of the boiler. Given a good sized boiler (1.7L) for such a small machine, it just just does not have the front end steaming power that some of the other DBs do.

According to a post of a German distributor here he actually measured the boilers to be 1.3 liters.

Bernard, thanks for the link. I'll check it out. May need some help from google translate

Cheers

Ian

In short it says that the manufacturer's data changed from 1.7 l in 2007, to 1.5 l in 2008, to 1.65 l in 2009 - without any changes in the outer dimensions, which prompted him to measure the size i.e. 1.3l

He concludes that not only do the Italians make everything bigger and longer but so do the Spaniards

A bit OT:
He also does custom work on the Brewtus III and Vibiemme Junior. Of course isolating the brew boiler is questionable but energy cost on the Vibiemme is down about 40-50% according to the description. [End of thread drift]

Bernard, thanks for the translation.

Cheers

Ian