Seattle Leverfest and Tour of Kent Bakke Collection, January 13! - Page 4

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grog
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#31: Post by grog »

Great to meet so many HBers in person. Huge thanks to Gary for organizing and to LM for hosting. Can't wait to see people post photos of Kent's jaw-dropping vintage espresso machine collection. I was too busy nerding out on dozens of amazing vintage levers to have the presence of mind to take photos!
LMWDP #514

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g3dahl
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#32: Post by g3dahl »

Was so sad to miss out...I do hope that another opportunity arises in the future!
LMWDP #569. Long live lever lovers!

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JavaMD
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#33: Post by JavaMD »

Yes .. great time and nice meeting everyone. The La Marzocco folks were very gracious with their time and talent ...
Thanks to all for bringing all the cool grinders I had never seen in action (Monolith) as well at the Streitman, Flair, and I believe it was a Cremina lever.
Lots of fun and seeing the old machines in the basement was amazing. A well caffinated day!

Steve Egge

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drgary (original poster)
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#34: Post by drgary (original poster) »

I haven't posted until now because there was just so much to remember and write down. Also I've gotten photos ready for posting. Dan, here's a megathread warning! :twisted:

I'm still amazed at how this all came together. I was just settling into our meeting, putting faces to the members with whom I've exchanged posts over the years, gawking at and trying the stunning La Marzocco Leva, their state of the art commemorative machine. (I will post more about that soon.) I was delighted to see that Dennis Basaric was there, busy working with his grinders and I was hoping to spend some time with him. Then I noticed that Kent Bakke had walked into the showroom. I walked over, introduced myself and began an extended and informal conversation. I didn't take notes or photos because I wanted this to be a more relaxed encounter. As we were visiting a fellow walked by and waved. He later entered and Kent introduced me to John Blackwell, one of his best friends and business partners. They started working together in 1974 before entering the coffee business. This is John, talking with H-B member Dave aka dsblv.



I had the opportunity to visit with John at length. He and Kent are part owners of La Marzocco. He began to introduce me to the LM top management group, but since I don't have that complete story I'll leave that to later posts. While chatting with Kent one one side and John on the other, Dennis came over holding a Monolith Conical grinder and saying he was getting ready to depart. I then introduced him to Kent and John, who's the engineer primarily responsible for the La Marzocco Swift grinder. They each shared the design criteria for their grinders. (I will fill this in later and want to get on with posting photos).

Soon Kent and John invited our whole group to tour Kent's collection of vintage espresso machines and coffee makers in storage nearby. On the way, John told me of Kent's interest in collecting electric cars since about 1980, as we walked by several of them. Here's one example.


Photo courtesy of Kent Bakke

From here I will split the thread as Dan suggests so our tour of the Kent Bakke collection can be found. Here's that amazing thread.


Tour of Kent Bakke Collection at Seattle Leverfest January 13, 2018
Gary
LMWDP#308

What I WOULD do for a good cup of coffee!

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drgary (original poster)
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#35: Post by drgary (original poster) »

These notes about our event wouldn't be complete without telling you about what it's like to use the innovative and stunning Leva machine highlighting the start of the thread. The first photo is courtesy of La Marzocco USA and is captured from their promotional materials. The crude iPhone photos are mine. :mrgreen:



90 special edition Levas have been built to commemorate the 90th anniversary of La Marzocco (I am not sure which model is in this number). There are two versions, the Leva X, with more advanced computer technology and the Leva S. These models are detailed in the materials linked at the end of this post. My brief notes* won't do it justice, but I can say a few things and hope to write more.

The Leva is easy and intuitive to use. It combines the best mechanical features of a vintage lever with innovations that address shortcomings of earlier lever designs. The groups are saturated, and each group has a separate temperature control, plus 3 cartridge heaters and 3 separate PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) computer controls. I was stunned at how quickly the temperature could be lowered from 202°F for a medium roast to 177°F for a dark roast. It got there in about 2 minutes. You can create a pressure profile by manual manipulation of the lever. Each group can then store that profile and 3 others. I followed Dominick's experiment of setting a profile for a Nordic home roast I brought with me. For more, see his lever pressure profiling thread:
dominico wrote:Light roasted SO's: the Synesso Hydra style profile as described above - 5 second standard preinfusion, slow ramp to about a 20 degree angle above horizontal, holding for 5 to 8 seconds, then full pressure.
Although I would have needed to dial in a couple of shots to get the grind and dose where I wanted them (as Dominick also suggests), temperature was correct, and I could taste that the profile was in the ballpark. Here's the pressure profile display. The temperature is also displayed on that screen and is adjusted with the knob to the right.



Each group is also volumetric. Shot volume is set by catching a notch in the cam, the round wheel you see as part of the group. Also there's a safety clutch so if you pull a lever and release it without loading a portafilter or with no coffee in the filter basket, the lever doesn't snap back, preventing injury. If you look closely you'll see that the mechanical spring is mounted horizontally, at the back of the group. The smaller back handle is easily gripped with the main handle and is used for setting the shot volume and profile. The levers don't require a lot of strength to pull down. They feel about comparable to my Conti Prestina, which is fitted with a linkage to ease that task. With the Leva I expect that ease is achieved with the cam mechanism.



I will follow up with Josh at La Marzocco to do a more thorough write-up of the Leva. La Marzocco has been developing extensive promotional materials. Here's a website link giving some of that presentation. More materials are being developed. For instance I saw a moving image of the internals of the group to illustrate its function. As I understand it that video has not yet been released.

* This summary is brief because the opportunity to visit at length with Kent Bakke and John Blackwell was unexpected and not to be missed.
Gary
LMWDP#308

What I WOULD do for a good cup of coffee!

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