woodchuck wrote:The best shot for me today turned out to be right in the middle 15gr. A bit more body than the 14gr and a little brighter than the 16gr. Interestingly enough I still have to crank the grind down much tighter on the DC than the VII - almost two notches on the Robur - even though the pressures are about the same now. I had some good shots, only one 16gr fell apart on me. Testimony to the Robur's consistency. Will do some more testing as the week unfolds.

Cheers

Ian

15gr 25 seconds

<image>

My experience is the same both on the grind and the approximate dose weight. Wonder what difference the dosing would be with the thinner dispersion screen?

The discussion around different grind settings piqued my interest. I suspect it does have something to do with the different basket geometries. Here is a shot of three different baskets: my La Spaziale VII, the Dalla Corte and one from a La Marzocco. Different diameters and different depths.



I also took a shot of the diffusion disks from the two machines I have while I was at it. The Dalla Corte has a single screen and the La Spaziale has two stacked.



Also took the opportunity to give both a good cleaning.

Cheers

Ian

JohnB. wrote:Ian - Are you trying different p/i durations along with the different doses? Do you notice a difference in taste between 0-2-4sec p/i with the same dose?

John, I have pretty much stuck with the 4 seconds of pre infusion on the Dalla Corte since I started using it. I played with it earlier and found I got the most consistent shots with the 4 second setting. I will go back and try a few different combinations though. I have some new coffee sitting here so that will be a good excuse to run some tests.

Cheers

Ian

Ian,

I noticed in the 14g, 16g pictures that the pictures appear to show a very flat puck post-pull for both 14g and 16g. Does that mean that the puck hitting the grouphead screw only happens as you insert the portafilter into the machine, but that after you lock it in, there's some headspace?

Andrew

Andrew, it's hard to see in the pictures but at 16gr the screen just brushes the top of the puck. Any more than that and the screen will compress the puck when you load it.

Cheers

Ian

Worked with the pre infusion presets today. I tested 0, 2 and 4 seconds of pre infusion with 16gr of coffee. I was using the Cuvee Meritage blend that I recently received (see the Meritage thread on HB). I ground the shots for a 25 second pour. Not much change in grind across all three steps.
There wasn't a noticeable change in taste across the three settings. I have found as with my other machine that pre infusion does improve the consistency of the pour. You can see how deep two and four seconds saturates the puck from the following picture - not too far at all.



My take on pre infusion for the Dalla Corte is crank it up to four seconds (it won't hurt) and if you have a grinder that's not totally consistent then you'll see some improvement in the consistency of your shots.

Cheers

Ian

John, it's not much. I believe the water is just what's pooled in the group and what ever modest amount of pressure is in the group because of the warmer water prior to the vibe kicking in.

Cheers

Ian

My SUPER MINI!!!! and espresso shots

really lovin it!!

One of the nice things about double boilers is lots of steam and the Dalla Corte Mini is no exception. I timed some different size pitchers today. It took 23 seconds with the stock tip to get 8oz of 40°F water up to 160°F. The tip that came with my machine is a three hole tip. Not sure of the exact hole size. If I had to guess I would say around 1.0mm based on some of my other tips. Larger volumes took longer - 10oz was 35 seconds and 12oz was 44 seconds. I didn't wait for the steam boiler to recover at all just the time it took me to get setup for the next test. Maybe a more "controlled" experiment would put recovery time in there between tests. It may speed up the larger volumes a bit. Needless to say you won't run out of steam.

One small issue with steaming is the articulation of the steam wand. It won't raise up quite enough to easily fit a larger pitcher underneath. Here is a picture of the wand fully raised and a 16oz and 24oz pitcher. The 16oz just makes it and you have to work at it to get the 24oz under the wand.



A little more lift would have been nice.

Cheers

Ian

HB wrote:For those following this review, Eugene has the Dalla Corte Super Mini, the bigger sibling of the model Ian has discussed in this thread. The Super is 20" tall versus the regular Mini 15.4", bigger steam boiler, higher wattage, steam tap, etc.

I'm guessing that a plumbed-in supermini actually saturates the puck in a 4-second pre-infusion due to its rotary pump and associated water mains pressure. The photos of the 4-sec "pre-infusion" from the vibe pump-equipped mini don't speak well for that particular implementation. From those photos there is no effective pre-infusion for the majority of the coffee cake.

-Greg

geneene wrote:<image>

<image>

<image>

My SUPER MINI!!!! and espresso shots

really lovin it!!

What exactly is that inviting object in the middle? That picture is a beauty.

Looks like a small spoonful of sugar. Nice how the crema supports it. I can almost taste the shot. Yum!

a detailed look at the brewhead


Dalla Corte evolution / super mini / mini brewhead


brewhead


removed the showerhead and showerfilter


showerhead set

woodchuck wrote:John, it's not much. I believe the water is just what's pooled in the group and what ever modest amount of pressure is in the group because of the warmer water prior to the vibe kicking in.

Cheers

Ian

From my own informal experiments, it seems that the volume of water hitting the puck is the same whether 2 or 4 seconds of pre-infusion is selected. From the picture, the lack of greater saturation with the longer time suggests there's little or no pressure. For that reason, and because I couldn't taste a difference between 2 and 4, I've set my Mini to 2 seconds of preinfusion and have been very happy.

gscace wrote:I'm guessing that a plumbed-in supermini actually saturates the puck in a 4-second pre-infusion due to its rotary pump and associated water mains pressure. The photos of the 4-sec "pre-infusion" from the vibe pump-equipped mini don't speak well for that particular implementation. From those photos there is no effective pre-infusion for the majority of the coffee cake.

-Greg

Hi Greg,

Adding some sort of "pre-infusion" program to a vibe pump is about as useful as tits on a bull. With their gradual pressure ramp up, vibe pumps give you "pre-infusion" for free, without the need to do anything. Further slowing down the native pressure ramp up on a vibe machine may do more harm that good.

ken