After 3 years with a Rancilio Silvia, I thought I had the hang of things. I was able to make mostly consistent shots. I got a reasonably ok grinder (low end for this crowd, but a huge step for me) a gaggia. Frequently able to make micro-foam. My silvia died recently (perhaps hearing us speak of replacing her? most likely the heat element after doing a lot of reading) and pushed up the purchase of the brewtus IV by a few months. I get a rotating subscription of beans from Blue Bottle, usually arriving 1-2 days after the roast date. I use them in a timely fashion, not usually lasting more than 3 weeks from the roast date.

I have been totally humbled. Although I have used high end equipment before and had no problems (because the owner did all the hard work of finding a grind and bean that worked), for the first 2 days, I wasn't even able to make a half-decent shot with crema. The shots were overly acid. (This was helped by moving up the brew temp to 205). After reading more on coffee in the last few days than I'd like to admit, I have narrowed it down to brew temperature and grind. (Like I said, totally in over my head). In other words, I have realized that I have no clue what I am doing, I just know it isn't tasting right. I tried several different grind levels to no avail until moving to a very fine grind (almost turkish texture) and lightly tamping, I am able to get some crema, but the shots are molasses slow and tasting way over-extracted.

Any advice aside from giving up and moving to Oakland to live next door to Blue Bottle would be appreciated.

Thanks, Ginny

I would do a little research on what the offset is between the indicated temperature on the display and the actual brewing temperature. Typically it has to be adjusted several degrees higher than the brew temp - I don't know what it is for the Brewtus - on the Speedster it is 2.5 to 3.0 degrees. The other parameter to look at besides grind is dose. Optimal dosing on my Dalla Corte was very different from the Speedster. Count on it taking 60 to 90 days to get things just where you want them, but the Brewtus should give you better results in the end.

I read the review and pretty much everything else I can find. Maybe I will go back over the Espresso 101 and see if it helps on the second or third time through. I think my experiments have been solving some problems but revealing new ones or pushing too far in the other direction. I probably need to get a scale (my kitchen one isn't fine enough to measure on this level). I have been using the "fill it to close to the top, level with straightedge, then tamping" method, but clearly it isn't getting me where I need to go. I may also break out the graph paper. Probably by the time I get even close, I'll finish these beans and start on a new blend, square 1. I guess this is where my nickname from college, coffeelocks (as in "this coffee is too bitter, this one is too stale, this one is weak, but this one is just right") comes back to bite me.

The offset is something like 2 degrees according to the manual, but I don't really know much about optimal temperatures since the silvia didn't have any temperature controls. I don't have any reference points and I'm not sure if other machines' temps carry over. All the material I've seen seems to refer to other machines and it is much lower than the default for the brewtus. I've also contacted wholelattelove (where we got it) for some help, but they haven't even responded (odd with their reputation for customer service).

For most of the coffees I use an actual temperature of between 198 and 203 seems optimal. The lower temp ones I often brew in the lever which brews around 198. The higher temp ones I do in the Speedster and most seem to work out at and actual 201 (so 204 indicated). I'd set things around 201 then play with the dose and grind. The temperature will be close enough and you can further tweak it as you get the flow and volume right.

Offset is 18F from WLL.

If you're still using the Gaggia grinder, you might want to consider upgrading. While the MDF (which I assume is what you have) is barely adequate for espresso, it doesn't have enough adjustability in the espresso range to get your shots dialed in right. You frequently end up with one step being too fine and the other too coarse, which results in either too fast or too slow of a flow at the PF. Getting a Baratza Vario or Preciso would give you a lot more useable steps to dial in your shots.

compliance wrote:Offset is 18F from WLL.

I had read that but didn't want to quote it because it seemed too large. Which would mean setting the temperature at 219 F to get 201 F (I assume the offset is to the high side(? Also think Dan is correct on the dose and grind as primary issues.

The offset is already programmed in. Setting the PID at 201 means the boiler is at 219 and the brew head is 201. Don't set the PID to 219!