Elektra Microcasa a Leva: How the portafilter popping off turned out to be a blessing in disguise
-
boren
- Posts: 1117
- Joined: 14 years ago
It's not uncommon for old MCaL machines to have their portafilter pop off during extraction. The only remedy I found is to hold the portafilter in place during the shot. I have this issue in my machine and I've see many other reports.
This is quite annoying when you make a cappuccino and want to steam milk in parallel to coffee extraction, but it turns out that this annoyance actually helped me discover a way to produce better coffee. As many would agree, the optimal pressure (not sure what's the equivalent temperature) to brew the coffee with this machine is around 0.8, but the optimal pressure to steam the milk is 1.0+. If the machine is new you can steam and brew at the same time, but depending on how you set the pressostat either the coffee will be brewed too hot and bitter, or the milk will take too long to steam and will not have the best texture.
The solution is to not do both at once, and use the optimal pressure for each activity. Here's how I do it:
Stage 1 - Preparation
- Turn on the machine and wait for the pressure to reach 1.0
- Pull some hot water into the cup to both warm it up and warm the grouphead and portafilter
Stage 2 - Reduce temperature for optimal brew
- Turn the machine off and then take your time doing the following:
- Grind coffee
- Pour milk to a jug
- Tamp, polish etc
- Optional: Insert any other short activity - related or unrelated to making coffee (depending on how much water is in the tank, and how long it takes water to cool to optimum temperature)
- Let pressure go down to 0.8
Stage 3 - Pull the shot and increase temperature back for optimal steaming
- Turn the machine back on and don't wait for pressure to increase (i.e. don't wait for temperature to increase)
- Pull the shot, while holding the portafilter in place to prevent it from popping off
Stage 4 - Steam the milk
- By the time the shot is done, pressure will rise back to 1.0. Wait until it does, but not long enough for the heater to turn off
- Steam the milk
This gives markedly better coffee than what you get when both steaming and brewing are done at the same time using the same pressure setting.
Anyone else doing something similar?
This is quite annoying when you make a cappuccino and want to steam milk in parallel to coffee extraction, but it turns out that this annoyance actually helped me discover a way to produce better coffee. As many would agree, the optimal pressure (not sure what's the equivalent temperature) to brew the coffee with this machine is around 0.8, but the optimal pressure to steam the milk is 1.0+. If the machine is new you can steam and brew at the same time, but depending on how you set the pressostat either the coffee will be brewed too hot and bitter, or the milk will take too long to steam and will not have the best texture.
The solution is to not do both at once, and use the optimal pressure for each activity. Here's how I do it:
Stage 1 - Preparation
- Turn on the machine and wait for the pressure to reach 1.0
- Pull some hot water into the cup to both warm it up and warm the grouphead and portafilter
Stage 2 - Reduce temperature for optimal brew
- Turn the machine off and then take your time doing the following:
- Grind coffee
- Pour milk to a jug
- Tamp, polish etc
- Optional: Insert any other short activity - related or unrelated to making coffee (depending on how much water is in the tank, and how long it takes water to cool to optimum temperature)
- Let pressure go down to 0.8
Stage 3 - Pull the shot and increase temperature back for optimal steaming
- Turn the machine back on and don't wait for pressure to increase (i.e. don't wait for temperature to increase)
- Pull the shot, while holding the portafilter in place to prevent it from popping off
Stage 4 - Steam the milk
- By the time the shot is done, pressure will rise back to 1.0. Wait until it does, but not long enough for the heater to turn off
- Steam the milk
This gives markedly better coffee than what you get when both steaming and brewing are done at the same time using the same pressure setting.
Anyone else doing something similar?
