espresso making mags?

Taking my PSIA level 2 this season, so I definitely feel ya MontuckyFried.

When I was a kid I would really fight the gatekeepers hard, but as a middle-aged dad I’ve learned that I can understand, even demonstrate things that I don’t necessarily subscribe to.

Tgapp- I got a friend who owns a pretty big and well esteemed roastery and a couple coffee shops. He won’t drink milk in coffee ever, too sweet he says. And he’s known for being a good taster/judge. I love it, but I also know I can pull a pretty bitter and/or sour shot and balance it with the milk.

I’m actually a bit of a tart in that I focus as much on pouring the Rosetta as anything else.

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Originally Posted by lowsparkco

Taking my PSIA level 2 this season, so I definitely feel ya MontuckyFried.

When I was a kid I would really fight the gatekeepers hard, but as a middle-aged dad I’ve learned that I can understand, even demonstrate things that I don’t necessarily subscribe to.

Tgapp- I got a friend who owns a pretty big and well esteemed roastery and a couple coffee shops. He won’t drink milk in coffee ever, too sweet he says. And he’s known for being a good taster/judge. I love it, but I also know I can pull a pretty bitter and/or sour shot and balance it with the milk.

I’m actually a bit of a tart in that I focus as much on pouring the Rosetta as anything else.

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Ha I literally am incapable of pouring a Rosetta, maybe that's what explains my dislike of milk drinks.

Honestly though it's not so much a dislike as it is the fact that I like lighter coffee that I can both brew and pull shots on, and that coffee tends to not hold us as well in milk drinks. If I consistently had darker/more developed coffee on hand I'd make a fuckton of milk drinks. As it is I love them but they feel like a special, occasional treat.

Used to be a whole milk or die kinda guy but lately I've been loving oatmilk capps.

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I started out falling in love with cappuccinos in France. Then I can home, late 90’s, and realized that no one knew how to make them.

Latte’s were becoming America’s milk drink, so I acquiesced and changed my drink.

I rocked a La Pavoni lever for many years and you had to really stretch as much air as possible into the milk to get microfoam. Now using the single boiler Rancilio you have to almost try not to introduce air to keep it smooth enough to pour latte art. I’ll jump on my desktop later and post some pics. Mine are rarely real symmetrical. It’s just fun to play with, and when you get it wrong and make the foam too stiff it’s kind of like a cappuccino, yay.

I get some of the barista oat milk from time to time for my wife or guests. I like it better with a mocha or some flavoring. It’s hard when you have the same drink every morning do acclimate to anything else.

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Originally Posted by tgapp

Ha I literally am incapable of pouring a Rosetta, maybe that's what explains my dislike of milk drinks.

Honestly though it's not so much a dislike as it is the fact that I like lighter coffee that I can both brew and pull shots on, and that coffee tends to not hold us as well in milk drinks. If I consistently had darker/more developed coffee on hand I'd make a fuckton of milk drinks. As it is I love them but they feel like a special, occasional treat.

Used to be a whole milk or die kinda guy but lately I've been loving oatmilk capps.

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Hah. I can’t even roast to dark. I usually end up spiking or crashing it after the time I’m used to and I either pull it as it goes to 0 ROR or as the temp rises and end up with medium at most.


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Roast preference has been cyclical over the 25 years I've been making espresso at home. Funny, when I first purchased the Europiccola there was so little whole bean espresso available that manufacturers and the original coffee forums "yahoo groups" recommended that you go out and buy a can of Illy ground espresso to hone in your dose and tamp. The idea was that their grind was pretty much perfect and the standard for espresso, by today's standards with lighter roasts it was quit coarse and certainly would not choke an EP not matter how much you overloaded or elephant tamped it. As far as roast preference I think back to Howard Schultz's biography as the first time I really understood the idea of "waves" of coffee. To keep it brief, he argued that the original big ground coffee distributers, think Folgers, were pushing a light roast to keep the water volume and weight in the grounds to make more money. Selling a little bit of extra water would theoretically add up over millions of tons of coffee. That turned into the great "second wave" of Starbucks over-roasting coffee to be more "old world european." I don't know if the great gatekeepers are ready to call the drift back to more medium and slightly darker roasts for milk drinks a "fourth wave." Probably not. But, as for a home setup, I do like lighter S.O. coffee, I used to roast a lot at home usually buying some great coffee from farms I was familiar with from when I lived in central America. Really light coffee is hard on grinders and ultimately the flavor can lean towards being grassy and almost like a tea. I've definitely drifted towards a bit darker, a bit longer more astringent extraction, knowing it's going to get a bunch of delicious sweet milk poured into it. If I was drinking neat like some of you, I'm sure I'd feel differently. Side note: I went to Scotland not that long ago and got into tasting a bunch of small batch whiskey, the bartenders were real keen on titrating it with an eyedropper of flat bottled water. The idea being that as you water it down different flavors become more prevalent.

Yesterday's pour - maybe slightly above average for my art. Definitely not like a real high end shop.

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I have a small scale, and know the weight of the filter and the cup I like to use for espresso.
I picked up some Italian dark roast from spoons and spice in sugar house. A 12 second grind at setting 10 on the sgp gets me about 16gms of coffee in the filter. That turns into usually around 40gms of espresso when I press the double shot. Tastes quite good. Also makes a good Americano in half a cup of hot water.
I keep seeing that 1-2 ratio you talking about tgapp, but mine always pour more than that, and if I get it to pour less with a bit finer grind or tougher tamp, it gets overextracted. I think.

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Originally Posted by basinbeater

I have a small scale, and know the weight of the filter and the cup I like to use for espresso.
I picked up some Italian dark roast from spoons and spice in sugar house. A 12 second grind at setting 10 on the sgp gets me about 16gms of coffee in the filter. That turns into usually around 40gms of espresso when I press the double shot. Tastes quite good. Also makes a good Americano in half a cup of hot water.
I keep seeing that 1-2 tlrationyou talking about tgapp, but mine always pour more than that, and if I get it to pour less with a bit finer grind or tougher tamp, it gets overextracted. I think.

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Yeah 1:2 is just a very easy starting point. Myself and others here drink 1:3 or more, but it's easy for those shots to be the result of channeling without you realizing it.

The roast level of coffee is just preference - no right or wrong answers there - but you do need the coffee to be somewhere between 5 and 12-18 days off roast in order for it to properly extract. Most coffee from a grocery store will be significantly older than that, and thus incapable of properly swelling and forming a puck. That's why most folks who get into espresso will buy coffee from a roaster where they can reliably get coffee in that "extraction window".

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Messing around with a manual and it's still hit or miss. Best results is 20 grams of coffee, 95 grams of water for a 50 to 55 gram shot.

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^^ are you getting it hot enough? I have the heated flair 58 but didn’t realize for a bit that I should still do 2 pre-heat water drops immediately before the shot. If you have a good temp probe, test your water temperature to develop a protocol. I also started using boiling 212 water because of the heat loss.

I got the DH64 with SSP burrs and am super super happy with it. I had a somewhat crappy but espresso designed grinder and can’t believe the difference in going to the DH64. I put a lb of coffee through it to “oil” the burrs and have done almost another lb of shots, but the burrs aren’t even fully broke in yet. (SSP says to put 3-5kg through to break it in, but I wasn’t willing to sacrifice that much coffee).


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Yes I use a temp probe and two pre heats is a minimum to keep the temp up. I prefer light roasts at low heat so it's not a problem if I'm pulling shots with temps between 200 and 195.

Interesting. I always get sour or heavily acidic shots with low temp light roasts.


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As good as my 4am art gets with a 1 week old

congrats on both!

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Originally Posted by neufox47

Interesting. I always get sour or heavily acidic shots with low temp light roasts.

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I'm using Ethiopia Dry Process beans and try to keep the extraction 1:2 or lower and no longer than 30 seconds. There is a fine point where it will be too bitter or sour but when I get it just right it's the most flavorful drink I've had. I've tried roasting the beans past first crack but all I can taste is the bitter roast from those shots.

I have some Guatemalan beans coming soon that should have more Robusta DNA and are Wet processed which makes a good espresso.

https://www.sweetmarias.com/green-co...guatemala.html

Broke down and ordered a fancy WDT as well as a little funnel for the portafilter. My espresso game has been on the decline to the point I’m losing a little pleasure in the cup, so something’s gotta change.

Congrats doebedoe! Mine just turned 6 months. That first week is so special! Truly life changing. Pop on over to our parenthood thread too! Lots of new dads over there.

Without reading the thread, what is the best hand grinder for <$100? <$200? What is the sweet spot?

After waiting almost a year for a good sale I have a Pulcina moka pot. My home coffee game has improved significantly but it is also clear that the step size on my cheap burr grinder is too course.

Sorry tgapp for not doing your coffee justice. It wasn’t you or the beans, it was me.

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Originally Posted by ghosthop

Without reading the thread, what is the best hand grinder for <$100? <$200? What is the sweet spot?

After waiting almost a year for a good sale I have a Pulcina moka pot. My home coffee game has improved significantly but it is also clear that the step size on my cheap burr grinder is too course.

Sorry tgapp for not doing your coffee justice. It wasn’t you or the beans, it was me.

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Nah dude you're good, and I can always roast you more. Grinder is always the weakest link in the game. I fucking hate my grinder right now.

Lotta mags (myself, now SFB, jackattack) are on 1zpresso hand grinders, I would strongly recommend them. Great build quality, consistent grinds, etc. their product line is a clusterfuck that I can't make sense of, so just find out whichever model has a great espresso burr. All of their grinders are between $100 and $250.

Ethiopia Yirg Reko Onancho, 19g in, 55g out, 37seconds. Like candied orange dipped in chocolate.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a0e6706eb7.jpg

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I was coming here to say the same, 1zspresso has been well received since their inception. Not sure if they make grinders specifically for certain retail establishments or why their line up is all over the place. The ultra is $130 or so on Amazon and one of the reviews is clearly a real coffee guy and he specifically mentions moka pot, that’s what I’d look for. Reviews where people are having good results with your specific brew method. Too often folks out run their coverage, “great for espresso, I mean I only brew French press but it says so right on the box!”

I have a 1zpresso "something or other" and I love it. Their line is an absolute clusterfuck and it's only gotten more confusing since I bought mine two years ago.

If you find a 1zpresso grinder that you want but don't feel like waiting a month for manufacture and delivery from Taiwan, my experience purchasing a zp6 from Rogue Wave in Edmonton was top-notch, and I cannot recommend them enough.

https://roguewavecoffee.ca/collections/grinder

ETA. Along with brew type, be sure to look at hopper capacity. One of the reasons they have so many offerings is that they all have a different form factor, from very small <20g up to 40g.

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So stoked you're rocking that Yirg as espresso. I felt like a heathen at first, but it's been my favorite SO espresso for the past year or so.

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Originally Posted by tgapp

Ethiopia Yirg Reko Onancho, 19g in, 55g out, 37seconds. Like candied orange dipped in chocolate.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...a0e6706eb7.jpg

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Anyone using paper filters in the bottom of their portafilter? I’m getting them mainly to filter out the cafestol (which is shown to raise bad cholesterol), as I’ve been drinking a lot more espresso now that I have my new grinder. Anyone else use them and any negative effects or changes to brew needed?


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All of the different grinders I think are redundant and the reviews and types are all over the place, I ended up with a Timemore Chestnut Slim free off Amazon with points and had it in two days. Grinds all the way down to Turkish and has three settings for espresso.

https://honestcoffeeguide.com/timemo...rind-settings/

I have a Timemore and bought my brother a 1zpresso C2. Both are solid IMO for pour over/ aeropress, etc. I think with either you’ll be really happy as long as you get one that fits your preferences.


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Originally Posted by neufox47

Anyone using paper filters in the bottom of their portafilter? I’m getting them mainly to filter out the cafestol (which is shown to raise bad cholesterol), as I’ve been drinking a lot more espresso now that I have my new grinder. Anyone else use them and any negative effects or changes to brew needed?


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my son was telling me paper in the bottom of the porta-filter is all the shit nowdays altho he pointed out he does have the bottomless porta-filter on his breville

Never tried paper.

Anyone else notice that the quality of their shots diminish if they neglect back flushing?

I try and do it weekly, but often go about two weeks. Pulled a channeled mess yesterday, back flushed, today nearly perfect shot.