cafeIKE wrote:It's important to have a tamper that allows you to judge level and head space EASILY while tamping.

+1

With my tamper (RB) I have my thumb, index and middle fingers on the outer rim of the tamper top edge- sort of in equilateral triangle position- with the tamper handle mid-palm. When I feel my fingers touch the edge of the basket rim, I stop my gentle downward pressure. Dust off the rim and apply tamp #2 (I'm a no tap, no polish guy). At this point the tamper top edge is a few mm below the basket rim. This seems to leave the perfect headspace for my particular A3. Also allows a quick feedback if my tamp is canted at all by noticing unequal basket contact pressure on my fingertips. I have also found that if any resistance at all is felt when locking the PF into the grouphead that I likely have OD'd the basket. Under the latter scenario, I'm a little more prone to experience the dreaded "espresso grenade" phenomenon...

IMO, one of the beautiful things about the A3 (OK, OK other machines too...) is that it allows one to use all of their senses in preparing the shot. See the beautiful gleaming chrome; touch the basket edge when tamping; listen to the sound of the sizzling cooling flush as it allows you to consistently and easily dial in to any desired temperature; feel the easily locked in PF; watch the perfectly tiger striped cone of espresso pour forth from the bottomless PF into the eagerly waiting Illy cup; swirl, smell, sip and taste one "10 shot" after another...

Wow, Pavlovian response initiated- better go lock my PF into the grouphead to warm up...

cannonfodder wrote:I am the new owner of an Elektra A3 espresso machine.

Well dude, color me green. Very high on my wish list!

cafeIKE wrote:It's important to have a tamper that allows you to judge level and head space EASILY while tamping.

+2

I've found headspace to vary significantly. For example, my current machine (E61 Vetrano) responds much more poorly to overdosing than my Rancilio L7 did. This is particularly noticeable with singles, but also applies to doubles. The A3 may be even more sensitive to overdosing.

Some of my particular biases:
1) The WDT can help with overdosing. After your initial leveling, stir again without the yogurt funnel and re-level. You should be able to remove some grounds from the basket in a reasonably reproducible fashion.
2) Like k7qz, I favor a light initial tamp with a focus on keeping the tamper level. Feeling the rim with your fingertips is a great trick. Ridgeless baskets are especially nice for this, because you can rotate the basket once or twice during the initial tamp to avoid favoring one particular orientation. Then follow up by brushing off excess grounds and a hard (30#) tamp.

Dosing, along with grind and distribution, is one of the most critical aspects of a great espresso shot. I doubt we've heard the final word on this subject.
____
John

We have explored a variety of dosing over the past few posts with the exception of one, the 16 gram dose. As I mentioned in the previous update, my 14 and 15 gram dose were producing a loose puck with no contact of the shower screen after the shot. While that is not necessarily bad, most of my better extractions swell and slightly touch the shower screen after extraction. Having gone this far, it would be irresponsible not to try a 16 gram dose.

So I set my grinder back to 4 to compensate for the slightly thicker puck, clean out the grinder chute and give it a quick two second grind purge to make sure my grinder path is clear of old coffee. I grind and dose my basket to 16 grams, do my distribution, tamp, flush and go.
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That was not too bad. The extraction was a little on the fast side so a grind adjustment is needed. The extraction was still a little uneven but as I stated earlier, that could (and probably is) a problem with the handle side of the portafilter (me). The puck expanded and left a very light and even impression of the shower screen across the surface of the puck. The puck itself was firmer than the 15 gram dose.

I think I have found the sweet spot. Unfortunately, I can not adjust the grind and give it another try as this was the last of this blend. To provide a physical point of reference, I am using a Reg Barber convex tamper. At 16 grams the top edge of my tamper is just slightly below the rim of the basket. That is what I normally use as a point of reference with my daily shots.

I will post an update or two over time but for now we have found the best dose, or more specifically, the best headspace for this specific machine. Now it is a matter of fine tuning the distribution and tamp for this machine. Those skills come with time and practice.

As others have mentioned, we have just scratched the surface of this process. Dosing technique is also a critical variable but that has been discussed at length in other posts. Hopefully others will find this helpful in their endeavor to adjust their espresso machines. If there is one thing you should take away from this it is that you should only change one variable at a time. Make one adjustment, pull a shot, observe what happened, make one minor change and repeat as necessary.

I put away the camera for a day so I could give the shots my full attention. This is a different blend but I have retained the same headspace. I still got a small sprite at the end of the extraction but things are coming along nicely. Especially when you consider that I have only put one pound of coffee through the machine.

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There is not much to show when it comes to steaming milk. The A3 is the absolutely best steamer there is, without getting into multi group commercial machines. But even then, you need a three group to best it.

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That is a very systematic analytic methodology you have shown us here, intense in documentation too. Quite impressive.

I know I am bypassing your intentions with this article but, would you agree that a way to short cut the long process would be if you showed us how much you actually fill the basket? Since the Elektra is very sensitive to dose, maybe it's easier to adjust grind and tamp while keeping time constant.

I'm asking for pictures of your 16 grams after tamping and possibly also one with the Reg Barber sitting in, since so many of us has one.

Br Stefan, in love with a T1

sk wrote:I'm asking for pictures of your 16 grams after tamping and possibly also one with the Reg Barber sitting in, since so many of us has one.

What is important to take from CannonFodders excellent work is the methodology, not numbers. All but the methodology is next to meaningless except for his machine with his coffee on that day.

Saturday I cleaned the Macap M4 after the morning shots. I have indelibly marked the burr carrier so I can return to the EXACT setting before cleaning. I also have the Zero position marked and always verify after cleaning.

Drip with the missus on Sunday, so no shots.

Monday morning I choked the machine with the same coffee, grinder setting and two taps of the PF on the counter as Saturday. When I tamped the first shot, I thought "This feels like a LOT of coffee." It was my first sink shot in a very long time. Shot #2 was two turns back and 1 tap. Better. Shot #3 required the two turns back, no taps. It was about 1mm lower than "normal", yet the puck had a full imprint of the shower screen as always. Yum.

The variables that changed :
Coffee two days older.
Grinder sparkling clean with no detritus
Weather
Barista two days closer to the great reward.

cannonfodder wrote:There is not much to show when it comes to steaming milk. The A3 is the absolutely best steamer there is, without getting into multi group commercial machines. But even then, you need a three group to best it.

... 11 ounces nicely steamed to the quote "try that with your 1.5 liter"

"But, sir, I only need 4 ounces!" There may be some uses to our space challenged boilers

sk wrote:That is a very systematic analytic methodology you have shown us here, intense in documentation too. Quite impressive.

I know I am bypassing your intentions with this article but, would you agree that a way to short cut the long process would be if you showed us how much you actually fill the basket? Since the Elektra is very sensitive to dose, maybe it's easier to adjust grind and tamp while keeping time constant.

I'm asking for pictures of your 16 grams after tamping and possibly also one with the Reg Barber sitting in, since so many of us has one.

Br Stefan, in love with a T1

I understand you desire to fast track, and under normal conditions I would have gotten from step A to step Z much quicker but went with baby steps just for this thread. As cafeIKE points out, the numbers are pointless. I tried to stress that in a previous post, do not get fixated on the numbers because they will be all but worthless. Even if you owned the same machine and grinder, your dose weight may be different as well as grind settings, although the headspace would be very close.

I had decided to vary the dose, then change the grind and repeat the same dose bracket. You could apply the same process to grind changes while using one dose, or the same dose and grind and vary the tamp. The trick is to only change one variable at a time.

Variables such as experience, weather, blend, blend age, preinfusion rate, input pressure, pump pressure, tamper to basket fit, tamp pressure, tamper piston geometry, distribution and portafilter basket (an often overlooked critical variable) will render the 'use X, and Y and Z and you will get a good shot' useless unless you owned an A3 and Cimbali Grinder. Then you could use those numbers as a possible starting point to the process.

As to the depth of the piston in the basket, that would depend on the basket you are using, it does make a difference. The top of the piston was just slightly (1/32 inch?) lower than the top edge of the basket. I will try to remember to take a photo tomorrow morning just for the sake of doing. I will be out of town the remainder of the week on business.

They key is the process, small singular changes, observe and adjust that one variable, repeat.

another_jim wrote:"But, sir, I only need 4 ounces!" There may be some uses to our space challenged boilers

I normally only do 4-5oz of milk for my drinks, but fast steaming a bucket of milk was more impressive.

It is more difficult to do small amounts of milk. Not because of the reduced stretch time but because the machine wants to create such a vortex that even with the tip close to the bottom of the pitcher it sometimes exposes the tip and blows bubbles, or it blows milk out of the pitcher..

I really like this machine. In a pinch you can even steam the wrinkles out of your shirts or heat the house. I put a thermocouple between the upper and lower cup warmer drip tray, 160F!