Kitt, Thanks for your thoughtful response. It occurred to me that I could hire the barista to come to my home but your suggestion of taking mine to the coffee shop is much better in that it allows A/B comparisons. What separates our shots is that his have such a phenomenal clarity of flavor which allows me to perceive a myriad of flavors that are simply missing in mine where the palate is more homogenous and simple. His machine is a beautiful La Marzocco and it seems fitting that it's output would surpass that of a Brewtus, but it does it so so handily that my home shots now seem lackluster. It will be interesting to see what kind of results this barista can eke out of my Brewtus. I won't spring for the GS/3 yet!
Tanks again, Dan On Mar 27, 2011, at 2:44 PM, Kitt Johnson wrote: > Dan, You asked > "have experience using a loftier machine than the Brewtus and if the results > they achieved were noticeably superior. > > I have used a few other machines, notably a few of the LM machines and then a > number of other shop machines (not every shop seems to be able to afford an > LM.) I have not found them noticeably superior. I also seem to recall > seeing a few comments on forum boards by baristas who have a Brewtus saying > that they did not find it deficient. > > A more likely cause of your disappointment may be that your machine is not > set-up quite the same way that the shop machine is, or your technique is not > well suited to their blend of coffee. You do have the opportunity to do a > little testing by throwing your machine in the back of the car, filling your > reservoir from his dispensed water supply and having the barista prep a few > filter baskets that you can pull together. The latter will eliminate the > grinder, volume distribution and tamp from the variables, hopefully leaving > you with just machine issues. > > What you particularly need is the testing equipment to verify that your > dispensed temperature matches his and that your pressure matches his. You > can not assume that just because your PID reads the same number that he says > he is using, the dispensed temperatures exactly match the number on the > gauge. Only something like a Scace (That can perform the same test on both > machines) can tell you if the machines are really the same. Absent test > equipment, your barista may be able to tweak your machine's settings by taste > to bring your experience more in line with his shop results. > > KittJ > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Dan Hagelin > To: [email protected] > Sent: Sunday, March 27, 2011 1:52 PM > Subject: Man or machine? > > I have a PID’ed and well maintained Brewtus V-II, ... I’m not a complete > rooky. I suspect (and hope) ... > > > -- > 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. -- 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.
