Hello,

this is my first posting her an therefore a brief introduction of myself.
My name is Thomas, coming from Germany. I'm in the late 40th and I'm seriously interested in making coffee since 1996, where I bought a Bazzar A2. Meanwhile, I would say, that I'm somehow experienced in brewing and also in roasting coffee.

For the last two years, my main machine was a Bezzera Mitica Top, connected to a brita purity fines filter and the main water supply of my house. The main beans are a Monsooned Malabar (City to Full City) for Americano and the Vivaldi Blend (a great Blend from Triest Italy) which I roast up to Light French for Espresso. Other beans like a Santos or a Yirgacheffe are used from time to time.

This week I moved from my Mitica to a Bezzera Strega (Version without any pump). It was a pure emotional decision, cause I'm a little bit tired of E61 groups and was always tending a littlest toward a lever machine.

Now after having the first 10-12 Espressi and Americani done, I still do not have the quality in the cup, that I used to have with the Mitica.

Main difference is that I have too much fruits and not enough body in the shot. (Of course I did an adjustment of my grinders first!).

There first thing, what I did, was to increase the bypass ratio of my filter system to make the water a little harder, which helped to reduce the fruits.
Now, to increase the body, I should increase the amount of coffee, but I'm afraid of again increasing the fruits. Because I usually use a 7 gr VST basket, I cannot try it just like that, because it takes max 8 gr. of powder, which is already the load that I'm using. And, before I buy a new bigger basket, I want to make sure, that I'm going into the right direction.
Probably there are also other possibilities like holding the lever etc. (like in the Jim Schulman's video)?

Thank you in advance for any hint, ideas or experience you wanna share to my issue.

Thomas

Hi Thomas,

I think your main issue could be that, you may be comparing the pump version of the Strega with your non-pump version. The non-pump version I believe will have a thinner bodied shot because you are not pressurizing the cylinder above the coffee as high. This is a characteristic of most lever machines, and one that is desired by a lot of people precisely because they do get a shot with different flavors, more fruited, more balanced and but less body. This was the traditional trade-off that spring driven levers give.

The interesting thing about the Strega was that they decided to take this a step further with the original design...what if you could have a similar tasting shot, but with high body? Enter the hybrid pump/lever design.

All that being said, to get a higher bodied shot, I think you do have a couple options:

1. Try to get the pressure of your main water supply into the machine higher
2. Dose higher - you mentioned this, and I feel that it should increase the body of your shot. I like single shots occasionally, but my preferred shot is a double. I wouldn't bother with the VST baskets on the Strega, they are somewhat counterproductive in that your grind has to then be super-fine. I just got the Espresso Parts 14g doubles, and I can say they are quite nice (dose around 16g most of the time, but 14-18g range is normal). Consider ordering from them as they should give you good results and you could then rule out basket as a problem.
3. Fellini move to try to get as much water in the cylinder as possible, therefore ideally starting with the highest spring pressure you can.

You might also consider trading in the machine if you have just purchased it. Likely the shop for a small fee should let you upgrade to the pump version. Personally, although I would have preferred not having a pump because of noise etc, I'm very happy with the unique shots I'm getting because of the hybrid design.

Traditional lever shots are lighter bodied. The simplest approach is to grind very fine (this will reduce the fruit and increase the caramels), and keep your shots very ristretto, around a 10 gram shot weight for a 7 gram coffee dose. This is how lever shots are done in Naples and the Campania. If you get it right, the shot will have a very buttery texture, rather than the dense foam you get from an E61, but it will an equally heavy and satisfying mouthfeel

If you do this, make sure the shot runs transparent before pulling out the cup. Slow down the rise of the lever using your hand on the handle to let the coffee almost drip out. By lengthening the shot time, you will increase the extraction while keeping the shot very ristretto and dense.

Good luck

Grinding finer also makes sense to increase the body since with a ristretto ideally you should have a higher pressure for longer with a spring lever. The only problem I still see is the VST basket might still make this difficult with the larger holes.

I would have guessed that slowing the lever would just be counter-productive to higher body, but I'll try this out myself with my single basket and see what happens. I usually end up doing this only on lighter coffees to get a longer extraction, but I hadn't really considered it much for dark roasts.

Thank you so far, these infos are surely helpful and made some things clear to me.

No, I will not replace my Strega by a hybrid one, because I really wanted to have that original and quite operation.
Water pressure of course is a topic, especially cause my filter system is lowering it. I have no clue about the real pressure, but I do think, that its much lower than without that filter.

The hint, replacing the VST basket is really helpful and I will try the original one with a higher dose.

Let's see, to what level I'm getting at.
Keep you informed.
Thomas

Yesterday I did a doubleshot with an Etiopien Yirgacheffe, Light French, which has typically strong fruits. I did the shot with 18 gr in a 16 gr basket and handgrinded with the OE.
I must say, the the fruits have been not to dominant, the body was quit fine and the finish not bitter. All in all, increasing the dose seems to be the right direction.

Thanks,
Thomas