Hi Guys, I have been making and drinking espresso for several years now. During much of that time I have been using Illy E.S.E. pods and a Gaggia Coffee Classic or similar level machine. My recent purchase of a Brewtus AND trying freshly roasted coffee has totally altered my perception of what I ‘thought’ was good espresso. I have tried beans from several roasters including Intelligentsia, Coffee Klatch, Paradise Roasters, etc. I am still amazed at just how much I was missing from a taste standpoint. At present my fav is Belle and Klatch Decaf blends.
When I first started using my machine about two months ago I was weighing both the beans AND the shots as they were being pulled. I utilized a small MyWeigh Scale with a 0.1g accuracy. I found that with fresh beans typically aged 5-7 days or older post-roasting I would have to pull nearly 3 ounces (volumetrically) to obtain 2 ounces of coffee fluid by weight. The copious amounts of crema is the likely reason for this (I think). The coffee would settle to a little over 2 ounces of fluid volume. Oh, I should add that I have been using a bottomless portafilter and a triple basket with my Brewtus. A typical pull would consists of 18g coffee and take ~30-35 seconds. I was noticing some slight blonding towards the end of the pull. Recently, I have been reading the posts that mention pulling 1.5-2 ounces by volume, not weight and including the crema in this measurement. Gauging the shot so it would yield 2 ounces by volume instead of weight allowed me to go slightly finer in the grind setting and achieve the coffee volume of 2 fluid ounces (visually) in 25-30 seconds using the same 18g of beans. The actual weight of the shot was ~1.5 ounces. As the crema separates and settles the actual level of visual volume decreases from the 2 ounce line down to just over 1.5 ounces. This lower volume of fluid using the same starting weight of coffee beans also eliminated any blonding near the end of the pull. The result was, as one might expect, slightly improved taste and significantly better body. That is not to say that the shots mentioned in the previous paragraph were bad, they were not. These were just better. Sort of makes me feel like a Caveman who after being thawed from thousands of years of hybernation invents the wheel only to discover that 21st century man already hand one! Regards, Joe --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Brewtus" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
