The Alicorn: Achieving Precision Alignment with the Baratza Forté/Vario - Page 5

#41: Post by **acg** » November 13th, 2019, 1:02 am

I stripped a screw when trying to take it apart. Actually I did not go far other than removing the back cover and then tried to remove this one and it was so tight that I could not get it off. The screw head became hard to engage the screw driver. The photo was copied from Jake's post but it is exactly the one shown in the picture being unscrewed. I plan to extract it out but will need to replace it with a new one. Anyone knows the size of the screw?

#42: Post by **Jake_G** » November 13th, 2019, 7:19 am

The parts manual says M3x12. Item 6, below.

I have worked on grinders only ever serviced by Baratza that have had multiple screws broken off. Don't feel bad.

Cheers!

- Jake

**Edit**
I've added all the videos to the bottom of this post

#43: Post by **acg** » November 13th, 2019, 10:12 am

Jake_G wrote:The parts manual says M3x12. Item 6, below.

Thanks Jake!

#44: Post by **Quester** » November 13th, 2019, 10:25 am

pcrussell50 wrote:Have you taste tested one vs. the other? A good friend of mine did, and indeed he found the Forte tasted better with pretty much every coffee he tried with both of them. But still. The Niche has a solid enough reputation that it's worth trying both side by side if you can. Fortified Vario or Forte ought to be the same if aligned.

-Peter

Last week I tested the EG-1, Forte BG, and Niche pulling lever-profile shots on a DE1Pro and doing V60s. I also Kruve sifted. We had one medium blend, three light-medium single origins, and one light Sey.

Using the medium blend, the Niche did well with espresso. It was different than the two flats, but great-and a complete delight to use. With lighter single origins, the Niche doesn't create good separation of flavors using a lever profile on the DE1. And with V60s, the Niche is poor.

#45: Post by **njw** » November 13th, 2019, 8:49 pm

Quester wrote:Last week I tested the EG-1, Forte BG, and Niche...

have you done the alignment procedure on your forte? how did the forte hold up against the eg1 with the lighter coffees?

November 13th, 2019, 8:59 pm

When I did the ink test, my burr was as perfect as I think it can be-so I lucked out and didn't have to align.

The Forte is very similar to the EG-1 with lighter coffees, but I have the original EG-1. The new DB1 CORE burr they use in version 2 is on the way-so it might be different.

November 13th, 2019, 9:15 pm

when you say similar, do you mean max. extraction possible or by taste?
And can I ask are you comparing espresso or filter?

November 13th, 2019, 9:56 pm

My last reply was referencing espresso-and comparing by taste. I didn't have the refractometer out, but that would be interesting.

November 13th, 2019, 10:30 pm

neohk wrote:when you say similar, do you mean max. extraction possible or by taste?
And can I ask are you comparing espresso or filter?

So...

One of my friends did a comparo using a NOT-aligned Forte with ceramic burrs, a Niche and his Monolith FlatSSP. They had a refractometer and they did blind taste testing with a range of coffees from medium to super light. They made a spreadsheet, but the highlights:

Extraction yield:
-Monolith was generally highest
-Niche was second highest
-NOT-aligned Forte with ceramic burrs was last
(the NOT-aligned Forte could not grind fine enough with the steel burrs which were ALSO brand new and not seasoned, so not tested here)

BUT

Taste:
-Monolith and Forte were tied at the medium roasts
-Monolith started edging out the Forte as the roast got lighter
-Niche was not a player here. Forte was better than Niche in every blind test every roast.

Interesting note: This NOT-aligned Forte is the very one that went on to become the namesake Alicorn of this thread.

So what remains unknown: Over in the Vario alignment thread running concurrently to this one, that Vario has the Forte grind chamber and upper burr carrier (the key Forte bits), AND now has the Alicorn alignment thanks to Jake. AND Jake has a set of steel Ditting burrs, to begin testing with when he gets a chance. The steel burrs are brand new, so they will have to be seasoned. We are eagerly awaiting his results. The wildcard here is that they are brew burrs being pressed into duty for espresso. But then again the look to be a super unimodal design so they might be pretty good with light roasts and pre infusion. We'll see.

-Peter

November 14th, 2019, 4:02 pm

So your friend prefers the taste produced by flat burrs over conical burrs. Got it.