Hi Strietman Users,


I have a few questions that hopefully some more experienced users will be able to offer some insight on.

1. What are your preferred baskets and doses for light roast as well as more traditional medium roasts?
2. Have you found temp settings that you are really happy with? So far, I have noticed some great results at lower temperatures (85-88) even with light roasts.
3. How much resistance do you typically feel during pre infusion? Obviously, this is hard to convey in words...
4. How long do you take to raise the lever and have you found this matters?
5. Measured from initial resistance felt, how long are your shots?
6. Do you use get better results with a puck screen or papers?
7. Any general workflow or brewing tips with this machine?

My primary machine is a Decent with which I can get great results very consistently. Some of the shots I have pulled with the Strietman are terrific but it seems like consistency has been difficult for me. I'll get one shot that tastes a bit thin and flat, one with a metallic bitterness too it and one that's extremely sweet and nice (albeit much different from my favorite Decent shots). Despite these classic under or over extracted characteristics, most of my shots have fallen in the 19-23% EY range (8.5 to 10.5 TDS using 1:2 ratios. The grinders I'm using are a Kafatek MC4 with Shurikones and MAX SLM. These Strietman CT2s are certainly beautiful and built very well and the addition of the SWORKS twist and lock funnel greatly enhances workflow, in my experience.

Any advice would certainly be appreciated. I realize getting the best from a direct lever machine is a bit of an acquired skill... which is part of the appeal.

Jonathan

Your best course of action would be to search the Lever topics for CT1 and CT2. There's hundreds of detailed replies and maybe half a dozen threads. Should cover all your concerns.

D.

Thanks, I have done searching but will look deeper.

Slow lever rise and then hold at top for sec or two for any air bubbles then finger oreinfuse

As for light roast the puck depth is much deeper in a 49 so to make a comparable shot lower dose and run long.

I am into light roast espresso but that means higher pressure and large flat and there I bump up the dose

The one thing you will be surprised to find is how applying pressure for the shot is very easy but it's probably occurring at a lower pressure than it feels. Maybe that is good for your light roast recipe but perhaps not for other use cases.

Thanks Jason. The majority of the time I'm working with really light roast (Sey, TW, my own, etc). However, every now and then I want to pull a more developed coffee for the contrast. So do you use the 14 or 18 gram included IMS baskets?

Hi Jonathan,

I just got a Strietman CT2 and have a Decent DE1. Things I've found so far:


- This post is quite helpful for gauging pressure with an analog scale placed under the CT2:

User Experience with the Strietman CT2

Before doing this I was guessing the pressure level and was somewhere around 11 bars or so, making the resulting brew a tad bitter. Bringing things back to the standard 9 or 6 bar range helped tremendously.

- I use a Bentwood V63. With the 18g basket in the CT2 I have to grind around 20-30um coarser to hit the same pressure with a near equivalent dose in a 58mm basket in the Decent DE1.

Temperature hits your set level 10-20 seconds after the red light is on. Obviously, you have to go through a sufficient number of cycles when the machine is first switched on.

- Here's a post about a light roast, by Wouter, on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/EspressoStriet ... 821984215/

I have Luna Bermudez from Manhattan Coffee Roasters, so will see how well I can get that dialled in.

Some answers for your questions:

1) I'm currently using the 18g basket, with a 16.5g dose for a medium roast blend. As pointed out by someone in the user experience thread, if the top of the Strietman tamper is below the rim of the basket, you should have sufficient headspace.

2) I'm using 86-88c for medium roasts. I have not tried a light roast on the CT2 yet.

3) I use analog scales and aim for 10KG on the lever with a grind allowing a 1g/s flow rate at that level, which should be 6 bar - if the calc from the user experience thread is correct.

4) I take 6-8 secs to pull the lever up. If you do it quicker, it will affect the amount of water below the piston and perhaps the amount of air trapped there.

5) About 24-30 seconds for the medium roast I mentioned above.

6) I haven't tried a puck screen or filter paper on top. I would not expect a filter paper on top of the puck to make much difference overall. A puck screen might if it hits the shower head and compresses the coffee bed more than without.

7) I'm still learning also. Will share anything I find.

-Raja

Raja, this is terrific feedback. I appreciate the detail very much. Particularly, you confirmed what I believed to be true about needing coarser grind setting than what would work on the 58mm baskets in the Decent for equivalent doses. I have been keeping roughly the same grind setting I used for 18 grams on the Decent and using it for 14 grams on the Strietman. Perhaps this is approximately similar to your 25-30 micron difference.

Interested to hear how things work for you with the Luna.

Thanks,
Jonathan

No problem. I hope it helps.

Overall, I'm finding the CT2 more forgiving than the decent. And good shots have a blend of body and complexity I've never managed to achieve on the decent. However, yes, the decent can be very consistent once you've got things dialled in. Perhaps things will be better for us once we establish more experience. What I will say is that I really enjoy the process of pulling a shot on the CT2; it's an art.

It's nice to have the contrasting experiences for sure. So far, I've actually had better luck on the CT2 with extremely light roasts but haven't managed the same level of body and depth as I can get on the Decent for more developed coffees.

You may want to use an analog scale under the ct2 to check pressure and flow rates are at equivalent levels and then also play with dose to get the right amount of headspace.