Just interested in what others are doing:

For your most typical shots, what's your grounds dose, liquid weight, and shot duration? And are you doing anything interesting with pressure, grind, etc?

Like my typical shot seems to have settled on 20 g grounds, 45 g liquid, about 40 sec duration (varies by coffee, I go until blonding). 9 bar, pretty fine grind. I seem to like the slower, two steps short of choking sort of pulls.

I tend to pull my shots in the style of Slayer.

Pre-brew at 1.5-2ml/s until the basket wets on the bottom and then gently increase the pressure by setting the flow to what would be a ~10ml/s water debit. I let that go until the flow rate begins climbing and I taper off the pressure to maintain about 1-1.5g/s falling into the cup. I cut the shot based on weight in the cup and it varies by bean. I shoot for a 30 second shot or so after the basket wets, and I really dont care too much how long that takes.

My favorite for milk drinks right now is 14.5g doses of Dragonfly Crema Dolce pulled at 202°F and extracted as above, cutting the shot between 28 and 30g in the cup. This blend is ok pulled straight, but it is absolutely wonderful when profiled.

I've also got a Columbia Gesha on the bar for straight shots and I dose that around 18g and pull wonderful shots (at the same grind setting as the little doses of DCD) closer to 204°F and I usually end up with 36g shots (I fill a standard shot glass, and it just so happens to be about 36g on the nose).

How's that Elektra treating you?

Cheers!

- Jake

7g coffee (Strada basket); 16g liquid out; ~10 second PI; lever profile. With very light coffees, I lift the lever to the catch point after a few seconds PI, and let the bottom wet before releasing the lever. I adjust the grind to achieve the taste I like (but I also keep an eye on the measured extraction yield).

I aim for around 18g dose, if nothing else to conserve beans, and adjust grind around that. I am increasingly gravitating toward the 1:1 or 1:1.5 brew ratio for straight espresso (around 20 to at most 30g out). At that brew ratio, maybe at most 30s total shot time including 8s pre-infusion. (I'm not sure we ever settled the question of how much pre-infusion counts toward total time.)

I may stretch that to like 40g for a milk drink if I can get that before it gets too blond, on the theory that maybe I'm getting more caffeine without affecting taste in milk.

Hi Jake. Elektra Maxi #1 is treating me well. All the little seeps and leaks are resolved. I have not made progress on the PID or pressure profiling but do have almost all of the parts. I am having some odd behavior from the pump when brewing (pressure gauge initially shows low/unstable pressure in the 4-6 bar range before stabilizing at 9 bar) and I think my pressure regulator may be restricting flow, something to look at. I also have replacement post-1997 type steam and hot water valves ready to install, when I get around to it. I've added a darkroom timer for the Macap MXP grinder, as a convenience, and am thinking about converting the grinder to doserless for more convenience - or maybe just looking for another grinder.

Elektra is now a valued member of the family. Sunday night my daughter turned the machine off before going to bed, unaware that it lives on a timer, so Monday morning my wife's now-required latte in bed was made with French press coffee and the resulting complaints were shrilly ungrateful indeed. I have on occasion been required to mass produce milk drinks for ladies who lunch and Elektra barely yawns at the workload.

Elektra Maxi #2 has been passed on to my roaster friend, who is working on installing it in his roasting shed. Free green beans are duly flowing my way, accompanied by a free Behmor roaster which I have yet to find time to use. My hope is that he develops a roast that will pull well in the unmodified Elektra Maxi, since up until now his "espresso roast" has been too lightly roasted for best results in this old-school machine.

A couple of other machines have come to my garage for work. So far two Estros (Profi and Vapore) and the accursed Grindmaster.

And I continue to work on latte art, with hints of progress but still quite un-impressive results. The microfoam is okay, I think, but I'm not good at making the transition from the milk sinking under the crema surface to the milk spreading out on top of the crema. It happens unpredictably, not reliably.

Now I'm starting to look for a starter lever machine like a La Pavoni Europiccola.

I don't really do "typical"--I always adapt parameters to suit the coffee and roast I am just working with. Currently much of my gear is out of use as we are still getting set up in a new house, but I'm using my Strega with an HG-1 at the office. This week shots have been made using Dragonfly Leam Hammer, pulled hot (no flush) at 20g in 40 out. I let the chamber fill and then let the puck soak for about ten seconds before releasing the lever. The results are rich, complex and delicious.

For cappuccino:

Nicoletti espresso blend
20 gm dose
line PI while I take out milk & pour into pitcher (or until I see drops on basket bottom, if I happen to look)
40 gm out in 40 sec

For restrettos, I grind the same dose finer to pull 30 gm in 40 sec. Temp at Eric's thermometer tip is 202-3 & pressure is 9 bar.