I'm officially over the one stable temperature espresso machine.

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
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Jepy
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Joined: 19 years ago

#1: Post by Jepy »

Well I should say I for sure like temp profiles for dark and medium roasts, I haven't started testing on lighter yet. What I like is the ability to tame the bitterness of darker blends to way deeper chocolate, and some new (to me) spice notes coming through.

With my machine, you can dial in pressure and temperature changes and view them in real time as there are probes just above the inlet to the diffuser block, and another inside the shower screen. At first the brew temps I was seeing didn't make sense, because the probe above the diffuser block was pretty stable, reading 2-3 tenths variation, but the one inside the PF was moving quite a bit. It seems the coffee cake changes that temp more than I thought.

I'm curious if any of you have done any taste and temp studies on machines that have a falling temp curve of more than 5 degrees F (maybe levers?), and if so what have you found?

My findings with this machine are that pressure profiles can add to mouthfeel and body, but too much trailing with a stable temp really mutes the flavors away. Now with a pressure curve in front, and some in the back, along with a falling temp seems to leave a little more life in the flavors.

I'm still trying to gather some data for myself, then want some others to try this thing. The other nice thing about this machine is that it records blend profiles for later use, and if I want to brew at a one temp stable profile, it will do that too (within 2-3 tenths F)

Here's a vid clip of the fluke on this, sorry about the camera shake.......

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timo888
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#2: Post by timo888 »

Jepy wrote:My findings with this machine are that pressure profiles can add to mouthfeel and body, but too much trailing with a stable temp really mutes the flavors away. Now with a pressure curve in front, and some in the back, along with a falling temp seems to leave a little more life in the flavors.
Nice musical accompaniment to the video :) Music credits please.

Caveat: I haven't measured any of this, but ...

One might compare the Cremina and Caravel-- manual levers with the potential for comparable pressure profiles and distinguished by their temperature profiles. Cremina brass heat-sink with declining temperature but tending to run hot; Caravel with stainless steel and a flat temp profile, and can be made to run cooler. Pulling gently lungo with the Caravel can bring out fleeting aromatics and evanescent floral notes -- perhaps because more strident flavor-compounds extracted by higher pressures and/or higher temperatures are subdued? It is a flavor orchestra; the "muting" of the horns may permit the glockenspiel and oboe to come to the fore.

Regards
Timo

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Jepy (original poster)
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#3: Post by Jepy (original poster) »

As to the music, I just cut it together with some loops. I figured this video is very dry, I had to put something there....

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erics
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#4: Post by erics »

Really nice GUI! - and, I'm sure, lots of thought, time, and $ into the machine - quite an achievement - congrats.

Are you using the Fluid-o-Tech TMFR series pump? My intuitive feeling was that your ramp-up was too fast - but hey I'm just lookin - you're a sippin :)

The issue of temperature and temperature profiles will probably be debated ad infinitum but what shouldn't be debated is the quest for repeatibility in both temperature and pressure whether its for 1 shot in 5 hours or 5 shots in 1 hour.
Skål,

Eric S.
http://users.rcn.com/erics/
E-mail: erics at rcn dot com

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timo888
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#5: Post by timo888 »

Jepy wrote:As to the music, I just cut it together with some loops. I figured this video is very dry, I had to put something there....
Do you control the pressure profile while the extraction is occuring, or program it in advance?

The soundtrack on your... Baristacraft /coming soon video is even better :)

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Jepy (original poster)
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#6: Post by Jepy (original poster) »

Are you using the Fluid-o-Tech TMFR series pump
No Rotary pump, all custom made to be pulse-less
My intuitive feeling was that your ramp-up was too fast
Well, heres a pic from a 3 second longer ramp to full, with all other brew parameters staying the same as in vid. The differences can be dramatic.

Do you control the pressure profile while the extraction is occuring, or program it in advance?
In this video I set all brew parameters in advance. I can set some of the parameters, and do some manually. This works well to set up a particular blend, then once I like it, I leave it in the program to repeat. I also depend highly on my grinder setup, based on the DRM flat/conical combo(I've tried other conical sets, but that's another story). This grinder has been heavily automated now, as I don't touch the coffee anymore, so it's very consistent


I have a Cafe locally opening soon that will be using a machine with my pressure controls(not temperature at this time) to test in commercial environment