Weber Workshops Unifilter - Page 17
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frankly, I'm surprised at all the opinions formed without trying the unfilter. As we know, espresso is a game of small changes that add up in the cup. Just got one, no paper (out of stock for now). I'm still cranking the fineness (many clicks on a weber key at this point) to see how far it can take me. I'm pulling an 18g in, 30g out, 87 second extraction, 202 degrees, no bitterness. I need to try with filters. But for now, I'm going to keep seeing how far I can take it. There's no way I could pull this shot with medium roast (an indo anaerobic from black and white roasters nearing the end of its life) without it getting nasty on my regular comp portafilter. This is as fine as I've ever gone without detrimental effects, including on a monolith max that I sold a year ago. I'm a little scared to try some light roast. To me, this is a new standard when paired with a good grinder. Your mileage may vary. Hope this helps with the collective understanding.
- yakster
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Weber Workshops announced on Instagram today that their "dogleg" version that fits the Flair and Decent is live on the site now and will be shipping in a couple of weeks.
https://weberworkshops.com/products/uni ... 6810319925
https://weberworkshops.com/products/uni ... 6810319925
-Chris
LMWDP # 272
LMWDP # 272
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I've been using the unifilter for 2 days. I wrote this after the first day:
I just got the unifilter and I pulled a set of decafs (too late for regular coffee). Here's my first impression:
Setup: I used Onyx decaf Ethiopia Worka Chelbesa Natural coffee, 18g in, 50g out, just like Onyx recommended. I used a e37z hero grinder, at 600 rpm. My flow includes paper filter on the bottom, metal filter on the top, grind directly into the portafilter, but move it so that it covers the edges first (no coffee mountain in the middle), light OCD, WDT, tap, weighted tamp, light water spray on the metal screen (or coffee), then pull using a 2g preinfusion, Slayer-style. (my mini is modded with the needle valve). My max pressure on the mini is set to 7.25 bars and I use a 0.6 gliceur. All I did now was to change the regular portafilter with the unifilter.
Pros:
- I was able to grind much finer than usual. Even when I was going finer and finer, the shot tasted good. The extraction you can see on the bottom, and the water was straight down, clearly with less channeling. There's a clear improvement, much more headroom in terms of grinding.
- The coffee tasted good, but I need to test more coffees to see the differences
Cons:
- the unifilter doesn't sit on the stand on the grinder. It's flat, and you can't have it sit in the place of regular portafilter. That was ok when I was grinding, because I hold it in my hand to control where the grinds fall, but afterwards I like to flush the grinder of the fine particles by doing high rpms and push some air thru the grinder. For that it's easier if I can rest the unifilter. I cannot.
- again, the unifilter doesn't fit into the portafilter station. I like to rest it there for OCD, WDT and tamping. But it's not that bad because it's flat, and I can just put it on top of the mat and it's fine.
- after I pull the shot, it's very hard to remove the puck from the unifilter. The walls are straight and the puck simply gets stuck. This adds about 10 seconds if not more.
- the flow from the unifilter is like a shower, and it doesn't come together to the middle. This is because the bottom is flat, not slightly curved like with a regular portafilter. This gives the advantage that you can see how bad your channeling is (there's always some amount of unevenness/channeling), but it also means that I cannot use regular espresso glasses. Goodbye Kruve glasses...
First impression: clear improvement in the extraction, mostly in the headroom of channeling. I'm going to experiment with higher doses, to push things further, things I couldn't do with the regular portafilter, because I was already at the limit. I could also increase the pressure, since I have more headroom now. The downside is that it's simply harder to use.
Update:
I've been pulling more shots of different coffees. I can go much much finer with the unifilter. This is not a subtle difference. So far I didn't get much better extractions. There's an improvement, but small on extraction. Other things made a bigger difference on extraction yield. (like paper filter on the bottom of the portafilter). There is more clarity in the shot. There's clearly less channeling. Getting the wet puck out of the portafilter continues to be an annoyance.
I just got the unifilter and I pulled a set of decafs (too late for regular coffee). Here's my first impression:
Setup: I used Onyx decaf Ethiopia Worka Chelbesa Natural coffee, 18g in, 50g out, just like Onyx recommended. I used a e37z hero grinder, at 600 rpm. My flow includes paper filter on the bottom, metal filter on the top, grind directly into the portafilter, but move it so that it covers the edges first (no coffee mountain in the middle), light OCD, WDT, tap, weighted tamp, light water spray on the metal screen (or coffee), then pull using a 2g preinfusion, Slayer-style. (my mini is modded with the needle valve). My max pressure on the mini is set to 7.25 bars and I use a 0.6 gliceur. All I did now was to change the regular portafilter with the unifilter.
Pros:
- I was able to grind much finer than usual. Even when I was going finer and finer, the shot tasted good. The extraction you can see on the bottom, and the water was straight down, clearly with less channeling. There's a clear improvement, much more headroom in terms of grinding.
- The coffee tasted good, but I need to test more coffees to see the differences
Cons:
- the unifilter doesn't sit on the stand on the grinder. It's flat, and you can't have it sit in the place of regular portafilter. That was ok when I was grinding, because I hold it in my hand to control where the grinds fall, but afterwards I like to flush the grinder of the fine particles by doing high rpms and push some air thru the grinder. For that it's easier if I can rest the unifilter. I cannot.
- again, the unifilter doesn't fit into the portafilter station. I like to rest it there for OCD, WDT and tamping. But it's not that bad because it's flat, and I can just put it on top of the mat and it's fine.
- after I pull the shot, it's very hard to remove the puck from the unifilter. The walls are straight and the puck simply gets stuck. This adds about 10 seconds if not more.
- the flow from the unifilter is like a shower, and it doesn't come together to the middle. This is because the bottom is flat, not slightly curved like with a regular portafilter. This gives the advantage that you can see how bad your channeling is (there's always some amount of unevenness/channeling), but it also means that I cannot use regular espresso glasses. Goodbye Kruve glasses...
First impression: clear improvement in the extraction, mostly in the headroom of channeling. I'm going to experiment with higher doses, to push things further, things I couldn't do with the regular portafilter, because I was already at the limit. I could also increase the pressure, since I have more headroom now. The downside is that it's simply harder to use.
Update:
I've been pulling more shots of different coffees. I can go much much finer with the unifilter. This is not a subtle difference. So far I didn't get much better extractions. There's an improvement, but small on extraction. Other things made a bigger difference on extraction yield. (like paper filter on the bottom of the portafilter). There is more clarity in the shot. There's clearly less channeling. Getting the wet puck out of the portafilter continues to be an annoyance.
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- Posts: 4
- Joined: 2 years ago
Just got my unifilter with dogleg today to use on a flair 58. One important thing I noticed is that since the flow of the espresso does not come into one single flow, and the force I applied on the flair started to tilt the brew head a little bit and the flow started to flow over the handle. You definitely want to make some angle offset for it if you're going to use is on a flair 58. Also paper filter in the bottom is also very recommened as you need to grind finer than usual to accommodate the larger bottom, fine particles would stuck in the hole and you'll need more time to get it out
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Has anyone tried whether the standard version fits into VA E1 Prima? They have an instagram story showing it fits into the Black Eagle, but the group head parts have different part numbers. Or is the dogleg version necessary, which is out of stock.
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I've tried it in the E1 Prima. You need to push the handle all the way to the right in order for it to lock into place. so the handle is pointing completely to the right, and you have to move the water spout out of the way.
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Thanks! I know it would be turned weirdly because of VA/NS lugs position. My concern was if the group head isn't so bulky to obstruct the handle.
// Answered here: Weber Workshops Unifilter
// Answered here: Weber Workshops Unifilter
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- Posts: 61
- Joined: 1 year ago
I read the whole thread and felt compelled to finally make an account on here. It looks like SworksDesign (inventor of the PorcuPress) is working on a filter only version of this concept.
and
Still clearly experimenting but I'm very interested in this. It's billet manufactured so I can imagine it will be $$$ as well.
He also did some crazy puck screen that I wish I had seen as it sold out super fast. Unsure if this is materially better than WW's or the various other puck screens out there.
and
Still clearly experimenting but I'm very interested in this. It's billet manufactured so I can imagine it will be $$$ as well.
He also did some crazy puck screen that I wish I had seen as it sold out super fast. Unsure if this is materially better than WW's or the various other puck screens out there.
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- Joined: 4 years ago
Weber is also working on a basket only version like sworksdesign. Lance Hedrick had previewed it in his IG stories at the recent Melbourne coffee expo.
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I asked Weber about the baskets, because that'd be a better solution for VA/NS non-standandard lugs placement, they estimated the availability to Q1 2023