I think it's great you're proposing an experiment... especially when eating pucks is at stake (we'll need a video of that! )

cafeIKE wrote:Unless you purge a gram or two the first shot of the day will be suspect.

He mentions first shot is tossed (or wife gets it if that's what 'sorry dear' meant )

cafeIKE wrote:Bean aging will be a factor over two weeks

The comparison is between the 2nd and 3rd shot, so sounds like bean aging will affect them the same. Maybe also good to alternate which method is 2nd and which one is 3rd each day.

spiffdude wrote:the second with regular tamp

How do u define "regular tamp"? any distribution technique used there? or nothing and just a straight tamp (I never got that to work well).

I wonder what you'll find... I'm still chasing the best method. I agree about taste meaning the most.... but for me, a naked PF certainly helps understand what's happening... and also easier to use and keep clean.

I load the hopper with enough beans for a couple of days. I measure the weight of ground coffee in the basket (scale tared to the weight of said basket).

After each session, the chute and doser get a complete sweeping. Once every two of three days i vacuum these areas.

The first shot will be indeed be used for the wife's latte, honestly, unless i really screw it up, it's ok for that purpose. 2nd and 3rd shot should be more representative and will be used for my "test".

Since i intend to try both methods every day, aging will affect the shots the same way, that is what i meant by aging not being a factor (instead of doing nutation the first week and non nutation the second on the same batch of beans).

About the non nutated pull... i was thinking about simply tamping down the pile at level. Ben you said this does not work out for you, i agree it also has me worried. But if i do some type of distribution, i should do it to both baskets to eliminate that factor... I had though about doing a WDT but then i'd have to do it in both baskets. Also adding extra steps increases the chance of operator errors.

Please bear with me, this test might take me a while since i usually only pull shots in the morning before the day starts. I have little time as it is, if i start using up my evenings for coffee testing, my brownie points will take a serious hit.

I've just realized this is getting of topic, should i start another thread?

Topic We don' need no stinking topic

spiffdude wrote:aging will affect the shots the same way

If you don't compensate as the beans age, the shots may suffer to the end of the test. Since I expect you'd like to taste them, you may need to adjust the dose up a bit toward the end. Possibly a tad coarser as well.

You should use the same distribution method on both shots. I normally distribute with a gentle side to side shake that I learned before the Internet was invented and nutation makes zero difference.

EDIT : use a coin toss to determine which shot to nutate

Thanks Dan, will start a new topic in this case. Makes sense.

I think you as topic creator can edit the first post and change the topic