(GPGT)Espresso machine hoot

[Lastwishes]

Also, when steaming milk, my milk gets hot way too quickly before much air can be introduced although i am dipping only most of the tip into the milk and a slight bit of the tip just above the milk.
When steaming milk how much to turn the steam knob?
Does it make any difference?

I think the usual practice is to always turn the knob all the way. Also, to get the nice wet froth, or a very foamy one, the trick is to surf the tip on the surface of the milk for a time before submerging the wand into the milk to heat it up. Depending on the strength of your boiler, the timing can vary.

I usually go with 23 seconds surfing the tip if I make a latte, and about 33 seconds for cappucinos. For the silvia, the timing should be faster. Experiment a few times and try to find the sweet spot to get the milk swirling/play with the timing.


@lazy_tiger/chikyblink:
have you guys made lattes with red brick? Don't know if I'm doing it wrong, but I had to aim for a rather long overextraction in terms of timing (about 40 secs) to get a normal tasting espresso.

The espresso I got from is pretty decent, very fruity and exciting on the tongue, and nice cocoa afternotes. Very nice to drink as an espresso.

Making a latte with it however, is somewhat weird. Still getting rather strong citrus notes, which was surprising but not unpleasant. As I'm rather used to very smooth tasting lattes (mostly after the milk, the strongest taste is usually the cocoa taste for most of the beans I've tried, with more subtlety on the fruity notes; I'm getting very strong fruity taste still with red brick), I'm not too sure if I'm doing something wrong, or its just the way the bean's supposed to taste.

I'm using a 19g dose, extraction into approximately 40ml. Didn't go with exact timing, but rather, I went bottomless and watching the striping and stopped the shot once right before the initial signs of blonding.

 

[CTBR]

goose neck helps but i actually prefer using a small old french press. I feel the hario gooseneck kettle still dispenses water too fast. Or my technique actually not that good.

I'm using a brita but I'm not sure how well it filters. Water tastes better and I think coffee esp brews taste better too. SCAA has some standards for water that should be used in coffee and everyone inc manufacturers has different ideas. But it seems the important thing is to have 0 chlorine and minimal calcium carbonate and cannot be too soft too. Some mineral content is still necessary to extract properly.

I was planning on using a water filter like brita/pur too until I read this thread on HB Brita Water destroyed my GS3 (cartridge pitcher type)
Also, this Warning: Chloride & sulfate levels with weak acid cation softeners (e.g., Everpure Claris) as well.
Have you tried measuring your water's pH after filtering?

 

[chikyblink]

@lazy_tiger/chikyblink:
have you guys made lattes with red brick? Don't know if I'm doing it wrong, but I had to aim for a rather long overextraction in terms of timing (about 40 secs) to get a normal tasting espresso.

I don't make lattes. I don't have the proper frothing pitcher size and cups that big.
Also, I don't like so much milk in my espressos. If I have to choose, I'd drink macchiatos when I wanted milk in my shots. But I'll be wasting all that milk for 1 or 2 macchiatos. I drink cappuccinos instead. The amount of milk I froth is just nice for 1 cup so no milk wastage. And it gives me a chance to practice some art too.

For Red Brick I had to go rather coarse on my HG One with 19gm dose and 38-40gm output. But with that level of coarseness I get channeling problems.
With milk I tried to get more body by going finer and pulling double ristrettos.
Maybe you can try pulling tighter shots and using less milk?

 

[Lastwishes]

I don't make lattes. I don't have the proper frothing pitcher size and cups that big.
Also, I don't like so much milk in my espressos. If I have to choose, I'd drink macchiatos when I wanted milk in my shots. But I'll be wasting all that milk for 1 or 2 macchiatos. I drink cappuccinos instead. The amount of milk I froth is just nice for 1 cup so no milk wastage. And it gives me a chance to practice some art too.

For Red Brick I had to go rather coarse on my HG One with 19gm dose and 38-40gm output. But with that level of coarseness I get channeling problems.
With milk I tried to get more body by going finer and pulling double ristrettos.
Maybe you can try pulling tighter shots and using less milk?

I see. My first few attempts was closer to a normal espresso shot, but the results tasted a little flat. After adjusting the grind further, my extraction time for my last attempt went between 45-50 seconds, so I believe I've basically been pulling double ristrettos, now that you mention it.

I'll give it a few more tries. Thanks.

 

[derazor]

Thanks for the information!



Bought from espressocoffeeshop lor haha i was the one who pmed u about that website.
Very fast they took to ship out my my silvia and macap m4, only one day but the delivery service they use, tnt was pretty slow and my shipment even split into two different parcels and the silvia was in singapore while the m4 was in belgium....G enerally a pretty bad experience. Luckily their customer service not bad, call already answer within one to two minutes





Now i have another problem, after playing around with the M4, i am trying to get a brew ratio of 1:2.
I am using 14g dose but am getting close to 60g of liquid in 25seconds.
I want to go finer however when i turn the macap's worm gear finer, the two burs are touching each other already (called the zero point i think).
Hence how do i go finer??
However, when i use another bean, the brew ratio is much lower, i get about 30g of liquid from 14g of dose with the same setting on the m4.
Does the bean affect grinding settings so much?
The difference is in flow is huge!

I tot u got the m4 only didn't know you got the silvia also.
First thing's first, you need to zero the m4 before any use. use a market to mark Z

 

[derazor]

Yep, maybe need to season the m4 first.
How often do i need to open up the burrs and clean the burrs?
Its super leh chey to open up the grinder...
Also, i probably need to buy a vacuum cleaner to clean the burrs. Any recommendations?
I bought the beans from blend new... I think they are a home roaster judging by the packaging and shipping and payment methods (They only accept paypal and bank transfer)
First impression is that the beans aren't too good. Have to keep trying haha, barely even familiar with making espresso so much less am i able to judge the quality of the beans. Its my first bag of beans not counting the free bag given when i bought the silvia.

Yup, i think my tamping is the problem. Dont really know how much 30 pounds is.
Gonna use a bathroom scale tmr to try out!

The double basket is a little small... 14g...
Realised that i couldn't fit the portafiler in when its too full! Haha!

On a side note, luckily i bought a scale that the chef steps people were using, really good to tell how the shots are!
Really good investment imo.

The stock 14g basket is ridged so you can't OVERTAMP. I'm using 16g coffee.

 

[derazor]

Also, when steaming milk, my milk gets hot way too quickly before much air can be introduced although i am dipping only most of the tip into the milk and a slight bit of the tip just above the milk.
When steaming milk how much to turn the steam knob?
Does it make any difference?

use the smallest pitcher size.
normally i dip like 2s at the surface then all the way down liao till too hot and remove the tip

 

[Lazy_Tiger]

I was planning on using a water filter like brita/pur too until I read this thread on HB Brita Water destroyed my GS3 (cartridge pitcher type)
Also, this Warning: Chloride & sulfate levels with weak acid cation softeners (e.g., Everpure Claris) as well.
Have you tried measuring your water's pH after filtering?

Woah thanks for the link. Guess I need to check this more carefully. I considered buying a water test kit online but honestly I haven't been really doing much reading on water. The issues about pH gH tds and all the different minerals confuse me.

 

[prozaizxc]

I tot u got the m4 only didn't know you got the silvia also.
First thing's first, you need to zero the m4 before any use. use a market to mark Z

When i adjust to a finer grind i don't hear the burrs touching and that noise. I only cannot continue turning the worm gear and its stiff so i can't go any finer and yet, haven't reached the zero point...

 

[DriftKing]

When i adjust to a finer grind i don't hear the burrs touching and that noise. I only cannot continue turning the worm gear and its stiff so i can't go any finer and yet, haven't reached the zero point...

Hmmm.. did you put in around the same amount of beans in the hopper each time you grind? I find that the weight of the beans in the hopper will affect how much it push down on the beans below them.

As for bean it does, different roast, age of the beans and size of the beans will affect how the grinder grinds.

For e.g, Columbian beans are huge and flat, often need to adjust the grind to grind finer everytime I used them last time.

For the silvia, do take alot of practice to get it right. Owned a PID'd silvia before, hell it is still bloody hard to froth it well. Try to temperature surf to get drier steam if your's is not PID'd, and purge the steam wand just a little before you froth. I can tell you I've read lotsa forums about silvia and it is almost voted the most difficult to froth.

 

[derazor]

When i adjust to a finer grind i don't hear the burrs touching and that noise. I only cannot continue turning the worm gear and its stiff so i can't go any finer and yet, haven't reached the zero point...

u need to ZERO it before you start grinding

 

[prozaizxc]

Hmmm.. did you put in around the same amount of beans in the hopper each time you grind? I find that the weight of the beans in the hopper will affect how much it push down on the beans below them.

As for bean it does, different roast, age of the beans and size of the beans will affect how the grinder grinds.

For e.g, Columbian beans are huge and flat, often need to adjust the grind to grind finer everytime I used them last time.

For the silvia, do take alot of practice to get it right. Owned a PID'd silvia before, hell it is still bloody hard to froth it well. Try to temperature surf to get drier steam if your's is not PID'd, and purge the steam wand just a little before you froth. I can tell you I've read lotsa forums about silvia and it is almost voted the most difficult to froth.

Actually there was a screw that connected the hopper to the top of the dial and that screw eventually cycled to the worm gear causing the dial to be stuck at the worm gear so I couldn't turn the dial finer haha. Solved that problem and eventually found the zero point and then made a half decent espresso. Gonna try again tomorrow!

Yea, it's super hard to froth milk especially when I use so little cause the 14g dose that the Silvia's double shot basket can fit is too little so I put less milk if not it's too milky. Frothing so little milk is hard as it gets hot quickly and it's harder to get to the "w" spot

 

[Tomspe]

hoot ah hoot

 

[CTBR]

Woah thanks for the link. Guess I need to check this more carefully. I considered buying a water test kit online but honestly I haven't been really doing much reading on water. The issues about pH gH tds and all the different minerals confuse me.

Just to add further to the confusion The Search for the Perfect Water

Advice from bezzera's local distro was Singapore's tap water is soft enough to not require a water filter although it does help keeping the water cleaner.

 

[derazor]

Actually there was a screw that connected the hopper to the top of the dial and that screw eventually cycled to the worm gear causing the dial to be stuck at the worm gear so I couldn't turn the dial finer haha. Solved that problem and eventually found the zero point and then made a half decent espresso. Gonna try again tomorrow!

Yea, it's super hard to froth milk especially when I use so little cause the 14g dose that the Silvia's double shot basket can fit is too little so I put less milk if not it's too milky. Frothing so little milk is hard as it gets hot quickly and it's harder to get to the "w" spot

Glad you can zero in.
I bought the biggest cup at papa and buy the smallest pitcher from Amazon. Milk you fill till the mouth , slightly below half can liao.

 

[Lazy_Tiger]

Also, when steaming milk, my milk gets hot way too quickly before much air can be introduced although i am dipping only most of the tip into the milk and a slight bit of the tip just above the milk.
When steaming milk how much to turn the steam knob?
Does it make any difference?

Best to turn on full blast. The milk must be as cold as possible. I chill my pitcher in the fridge too. The air must be introduced as early as possible. don't be shy to introduce alot. Once the milk gets to body temp you can't really add any more air into the milk and get the air to integrate well. This is when you can plunge your steam tip slightly lower and maintain the swirl to break down the large bubbles and integrate the already created bubbles into the milk to create micro foam.

I find the silvia actually easier to steam than a two hole tip VBM.. Maybe because there is more lead time to steam.

 

[Lazy_Tiger]

Just to add further to the confusion The Search for the Perfect Water

Advice from bezzera's local distro was Singapore's tap water is soft enough to not require a water filter although it does help keeping the water cleaner.

Yah man. The faq gets very technical. The quick and dirty way to to just use volvic but thats going to cost a bomb in the long run.

I suppose a filter is still absolutely necessary for plumbed in machines because of rust and sediment in the waterline. Well who knows? I was using tap water in the silvia for years and the silvia didn't break down at all.

 

[Lazy_Tiger]

@lazy_tiger/chikyblink:
have you guys made lattes with red brick? Don't know if I'm doing it wrong, but I had to aim for a rather long overextraction in terms of timing (about 40 secs) to get a normal tasting espresso.

The espresso I got from is pretty decent, very fruity and exciting on the tongue, and nice cocoa afternotes. Very nice to drink as an espresso.

Making a latte with it however, is somewhat weird. Still getting rather strong citrus notes, which was surprising but not unpleasant. As I'm rather used to very smooth tasting lattes (mostly after the milk, the strongest taste is usually the cocoa taste for most of the beans I've tried, with more subtlety on the fruity notes; I'm getting very strong fruity taste still with red brick), I'm not too sure if I'm doing something wrong, or its just the way the bean's supposed to taste.

I usually don't drink milk cos i'm lactose intolerant. Usually espressos or add water for americanos. I think the rest have suggested to reduce the milk or make a double ristreto to make the espresso stronger. Maybe you can try a different blend that gives you the taste you want with milk?
Toby roasts quite dark and has strong cocoa notes. may want to give it a try.

What kind of milk are you using? I am getting good results with full fat greenfields and pura.

 

[Lastwishes]

Usually meji/farmhouse.

I think I prefer the squaremile stuff as espressos rather than lattes, which is fine. It is interesting to try something new, but I'm not sure if I'll order them again.

Tried sweetshop as a espresso as well, and I quite liked it. Very intense flavors from the first sip, not sure how to describe it other than a flavor explosion of citrus and sweetness. Exciting and I don't mind the aftertaste. Less chocolatey than red brick, but there is still a hint of that. If you're looking for a balanced taste, I think it might not be for you (although, keep in mind that I usually don't drink espressos, so take the above with a pinch of salt).

Seems even less suited for milk drinks, so I may make a exception for sweetshop and prepare the rest of it as espresso/affogatos.

 

[chikyblink]

I only buy meji, greenfields or pura. I'll see which of these has the longest expiry date and buy that.

Your description of sweetshop fits exactly like the jailbreak from hasbean, which I'm currently drinking.

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