Cleaning the portafilter between shots - Page 6
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CafSuperCharged
- Posts: 233
- Joined: 16 years ago
In response to Fam. Mumma, follow Jim Schulman's motto that you need to be able to taste the difference.
The idea is interesting and e.g. my grinder being doserless, "old coffee" falls out of it during idle so I put a glass under it to keep the coffee trolley cleaner. Such a thing could be a source.
I am not a believer however of purposefully blowing coffee back into the group. As I said in my previous post: "My approach to 3- is A- prevent it, B- frequently backflush with espresso machine detergent - the detergent will dissolve the oils and you do not force coffee into the brew head unnecessarily."
"Prevent it" on the manual E/61 brew head:
- the lever that operates 3-way valve and pump has three positions:
0- pump off, coffee water closed, backflush open
1- pump off, not sure, backflush closed
2- pump on, coffee water open, backflush closed
Flushing and coffee preparation are at "2", idle is at "0"
As I have a pour-over machine, I am not sure about "1" if the coffee water is open or closed. If it would be open, on a plumbed machine, there would be some pressure from the water mains.
Back to preventing it: at the end of the pour, switch from "2" to "1" and let the mouse tail become a drip.
Then switch from "1" to "0".
What happens is, the pressure over the coffee bed that is still present in position "1" now pushes water out through the coffee. When you go back to "0" there is (almost) nothing coming out of the backflush drain.
I have seen barista in Italy doing this so often on machines that would allow this that it seemed to me there was a pattern or reason. Some of them say they can taste the difference between coffees where this was done or not.
Given the context of this thread, I now wonder if they actually taste the difference between a machine with clean group innards vs. dirty.
Regards
Peter
The idea is interesting and e.g. my grinder being doserless, "old coffee" falls out of it during idle so I put a glass under it to keep the coffee trolley cleaner. Such a thing could be a source.
I am not a believer however of purposefully blowing coffee back into the group. As I said in my previous post: "My approach to 3- is A- prevent it, B- frequently backflush with espresso machine detergent - the detergent will dissolve the oils and you do not force coffee into the brew head unnecessarily."
"Prevent it" on the manual E/61 brew head:
- the lever that operates 3-way valve and pump has three positions:
0- pump off, coffee water closed, backflush open
1- pump off, not sure, backflush closed
2- pump on, coffee water open, backflush closed
Flushing and coffee preparation are at "2", idle is at "0"
As I have a pour-over machine, I am not sure about "1" if the coffee water is open or closed. If it would be open, on a plumbed machine, there would be some pressure from the water mains.
Back to preventing it: at the end of the pour, switch from "2" to "1" and let the mouse tail become a drip.
Then switch from "1" to "0".
What happens is, the pressure over the coffee bed that is still present in position "1" now pushes water out through the coffee. When you go back to "0" there is (almost) nothing coming out of the backflush drain.
I have seen barista in Italy doing this so often on machines that would allow this that it seemed to me there was a pattern or reason. Some of them say they can taste the difference between coffees where this was done or not.
Given the context of this thread, I now wonder if they actually taste the difference between a machine with clean group innards vs. dirty.
Regards
Peter
