Damien Damian Scisci, another one of the beta testers, has been playing with the advanced profile editor for a few days, trying out variations on in-portafilter 'pour overs'. He just posted a video of a recent attempt. I'm linking to it here with his permission.
In the video Damian mentions calibrating the flow rate, which is something a number of us have done recently. I found that my machine was about 10% fast, ie 4.0ml/sec was really 4.4ml/sec. Adjusting it to within 1-2% has made a noticeable difference in my recent espresso shots.

MrEd wrote:Damian Scisci, another one of the beta testers, has been playing with the advanced profile editor for a few days, trying out variations on in-portafilter 'pour overs'. He just posted a video of a recent attempt. I'm linking to it here with his permission.
In the video Damian mentions calibrating the flow rate, which is something a number of us have done recently. I found that my machine was about 10% fast, ie 4.0ml/sec was really 4.4ml/sec. Adjusting it to within 1-2% has made a noticeable difference in my recent espresso shots.
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Thanks for posting this Ed and for Damian for giving it a go. IT is so cool to even be able to try something like this. I can just imagine all the different things people will try and who knows where this can go in terms of new great coffee drinks. Like he said, more things you can do with your coffee.

I'm curious about an aspect of this, but I only did pour overs when traveling so I'm not super experienced with them, and I'd be really interested to hear from a pour-over export (hope that didn't just chase them away) whether this comes close? I'm really wondering if there is an effect from the thin-layer/wide-area of coffee, let alone the stacked conical effect, with a typical pour over versus the dissimilar geometric limitation of the espresso basket.

DamiAn here - I make pour overs pretty frequently, because I like variety in my coffee life. Sometimes I want a big cup of coffee, but I like the flavor profile of a pour over rather than an Americano, etc. Not to say I'm a pour over expert at all, but from everything I've done and how I make them, the key to a good one is a settled bed of grounds and even extraction. Draw down time is also really important. It's why I've been experimenting with the DE1+ to see what I need to vary to hit that sweet spot.

The original pourover recipe was for 6ml/s, which I felt was WAY too fast, but the idea of that recipe was to be pouring into an actual cone - not my version in the portafilter. People use a gooseneck kettle because they can control the flow of water to the coffee directly, evenly, slowly, but they still add it in steps because they just can't be bothered to pour continuously and slowly - (at least not THAT slowly). It's often done in several small pours, allowing the water to drain down to coffee level before topping up. If I can figure out the flow rate I need just to get a continuous draw through the very flat, even bed of coffee in a portafilter, then I should be able to get a perfect pour over in theory, since the shower screen is delivering a nice even distribution of water to the grounds. I'm currently pouring for 150 seconds at 2ml/s. Total time for a brew with the bloom step is about 4 minutes, which is in line with how long it takes for one to be made manually and with good technique and grind. I think I still might be a little bit too fast just judging by how the coffee comes out of the basket, but fortunately, I can play and test and I've got latitude to reduce the flow until I think I've nailed it. I can also play with grind of course to see if perhaps the shape of the coffee bed in this preparation requires something finer. Don't even get me started on temperature profiling...

All of that ramble up above and I'll say that the coffee I'm making in this way tastes really good, as one should expect. I've eliminated the aeropress filter too and that changed the flavor somewhat - if you want a bit more acid, this is the way to go.

I'm just exploring pourover and have been playing with the BUNN MCU single cup brewer trying to merge espresso making technique with pourover:
Bunn MCU
For $130, the MCU has a lot of bells and whistles to play with....

This is very exciting, as I have been hoping that this machine could essentially "do it all!'

Now, who wants to volunteer to make a coffee like this?

- Slightly coarser grind than espresso
- tamped, brewed at maybe 4 bar
- 1-2 minute extraction

Scott,
What do you want to know about it? What volume are you shooting for? Slow preinfuse? Let me know, and I'll make one.

Why do most of the shots they show use 90 degree C water and not 93 deegree water?

thesheesh wrote:Scott,
What do you want to know about it? What volume are you shooting for? Slow preinfuse? Let me know, and I'll make one.

I am shooting for a great brewed coffee in a short time. A preinfuse would be good, then a brew under pressure to speed extraction but much less pressure than espresso.

Hmm,
Kind of sounds like you're looking for something closer to an aeropress type beverage then? I could very easily create a preset that pumped a few hundred ml through a little coarser than espresso grind coffee in 90 seconds or so, but in my experience, running too much water through too finely ground coffee produces a pretty disgusting drink. It will be overextracted and bitter. Maybe it would taste better with a declining temp curve or something, but I'm not sure. If you want a pressurized coffee extraction, but a full cup of coffee, an Americano is still your best bet. The DE1 has the hot water spigot for that and you can pop right from espresso to hot water immediately and fill up your cup after pulling a shot.

I just need to know if I need to start selling everything that I have (except the La Pavoni...not getting rid of that one...) and order a Decent Espresso DE1+ now??

Can't wait for more reviews and photos and comparison in the cup from those that received theirs and still have their other machines....

I mean... there is not even photos in the "Post a pic of your home espresso setup..." thread from those that got it... common guys!!