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Well this is funny - I couldn't tell the difference in a triangle test, filtered tap water vs Lotus Water "Light & Bright"! Not a true test since the first shot waited 4 minutes before tasting side by side. I stirred and blowed on shot 2 until they were both 122°F, which I thought was better than tasting at different temperatures. So they were both older and cooler than I normally drink, not a great comparison. I think instead I'll randomly and blindly choose water to brew with, drink at my normal time and temperature, and guess each time. If I can be right more often than chance, I could call it significant. Without having the ability to pull shots at the same time this will have to do. It might also be the case that my normal water is similar to *this* water and trying this recipe side by side with a totally different water might have a noticeable difference E: the shots were also 31s vs 36s, so more testing definitely needed BrianBoitano fucked around with this message at 19:33 on Sep 11, 2022 |
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Sep 11, 2022 19:14
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BrianBoitano posted:Well this is funny - I couldn't tell the difference in a triangle test, filtered tap water vs Lotus Water "Light & Bright"! Not a true test since the first shot waited 4 minutes before tasting side by side. I stirred and blowed on shot 2 until they were both 122°F, which I thought was better than tasting at different temperatures. So they were both older and cooler than I normally drink, not a great comparison. To me, this is the expected result for a huge majority of people, including those who are particular about coffee. I applaud your adherence to the scientific method!
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Sep 11, 2022 19:34
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I have this conversation a lot with customers, mostly around installing PIDs or upgrading their machine, but water treatments come up occasionally as well. It's a waste of time and money if you're not even doing the basic stuff like grinding your own beans, buying fresh coffee, dosing by weight, etc. Consistent coffee is about controlling variables; start with the low-hanging fruit.
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Sep 11, 2022 20:16
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Yeah. This was partially because I like Lance and wanted to support him, and I love sciencing out on my hobbies. Basically the value in the purchase is there even if I never see a meaningful difference 
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Sep 11, 2022 20:59
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I measure my coffee with a sundial.
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Sep 11, 2022 21:53
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Measure with calipers Mark with chalk Cut with axe
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Sep 11, 2022 22:36
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I usually make my own fancy water to prevent scale build-up (and because the tap water here is nasty), but I'll throw in filtered water if it's morning and I'm feeling lazy. I enjoy the process even if I'm just making snake oil to throw into the tank.
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Sep 11, 2022 22:44
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Jestery posted:Measure with calipers lol my favorite thing to toss out in a slack chat ("Measure with micrometer" is my version)
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Sep 11, 2022 22:51
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Spiggy posted:I usually make my own fancy water to prevent scale build-up (and because the tap water here is nasty), but I'll throw in filtered water if it's morning and I'm feeling lazy. I enjoy the process even if I'm just making snake oil to throw into the tank. Same. I use a BWT filter pitcher for espresso, and it's mostly for scale prevention than taste. I'm not sure I could taste a difference.
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Sep 11, 2022 23:07
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After getting some useful advice about grinders in this thread I discarded it all and got a Lagom mini. More than I wanted to spend, but it's perfect for my daily use. I drink at most two cups of coffee a day, and always with (plant) milk. My process now is weigh the beans, give them a water droplet, grind in the lagom, run a couple of single shots of water through the portafilter/brewhead, dry the portafilter, wdt and tamp the coffee, and brew. I've got a breville bambino and preheating definitely helps. This all looks incredibly convoluted to outsiders apparently! But it satisfies the desire for ritual, makes pretty drat good coffee, and is chronic pain friendly. I owe a lot to reading this thread to refine which bits of process I think will add the most value given that I'm not trying for light roast god shots.
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Sep 12, 2022 16:08
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Idlewild_ posted:After getting some useful advice about grinders in this thread I discarded it all and got a Lagom mini. More than I wanted to spend, but it's perfect for my daily use. I drink at most two cups of coffee a day, and always with (plant) milk. My process now is weigh the beans, give them a water droplet, grind in the lagom, run a couple of single shots of water through the portafilter/brewhead, dry the portafilter, wdt and tamp the coffee, and brew. I've got a breville bambino and preheating definitely helps. This all looks incredibly convoluted to outsiders apparently! But it satisfies the desire for ritual, makes pretty drat good coffee, and is chronic pain friendly. I owe a lot to reading this thread to refine which bits of process I think will add the most value given that I'm not trying for light roast god shots. I mentioned the Lagom Mini a couple weeks back. How do you like it? What did you have before? Its definitely an under the radar option that seems pretty good and versatile if you aren't grinding a ton of coffee every day. Its on the list of stuff I am considering to replace my old Capresso for pour over, and the fact it can do espresso too is nice in case I get sick of or break my Sette.
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Sep 12, 2022 17:52
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Idlewild_ posted:After getting some useful advice about grinders in this thread I discarded it all and got a Lagom mini. More than I wanted to spend, but it's perfect for my daily use. I drink at most two cups of coffee a day, and always with (plant) milk. My process now is weigh the beans, give them a water droplet, grind in the lagom, run a couple of single shots of water through the portafilter/brewhead, dry the portafilter, wdt and tamp the coffee, and brew. I've got a breville bambino and preheating definitely helps. This all looks incredibly convoluted to outsiders apparently! But it satisfies the desire for ritual, makes pretty drat good coffee, and is chronic pain friendly. I owe a lot to reading this thread to refine which bits of process I think will add the most value given that I'm not trying for light roast god shots. How’s the noise? one of the best features of the p64 is how quiet it is and i’m curious if they were able to do as well with the mini
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Sep 12, 2022 17:57
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Anyone have some recommendations on getting beans that really bring out the berry notes in the bean? I'm happy to ship to myself, but would love a solid rec that I know has them. I mainly do pourover if that helps.
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Sep 12, 2022 17:57
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Carillon posted:Anyone have some recommendations on getting beans that really bring out the berry notes in the bean? I'm happy to ship to myself, but would love a solid rec that I know has them. I mainly do pourover if that helps. I find that light roasted natural process Ethiopians give me the most discernable "fruit" flavor generally (my palate isn't good enough to discern individual tasting notes usually but I can get as far as "this tastes like fruit!" with those).
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Sep 12, 2022 19:16
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Carillon posted:Anyone have some recommendations on getting beans that really bring out the berry notes in the bean? I'm happy to ship to myself, but would love a solid rec that I know has them. I mainly do pourover if that helps. if you want strawberry just buy whoever's selling naturals from Shantawene station, e.g. https://happymugcoffee.com/products/ethiopia-sidamo-natural-shantawene. when they have stuff from halo bariti in stock that tends toward black/blueberry as well any ethiopian natural with a weird process is probably also going to taste insane. tend to be too much for me but stuff like https://www.blackwhiteroasters.com/collections/all-things-coffee/products/demerso-ethiopian-24 will certainly have in-your-face, unmistakeable fruit flavors
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Sep 12, 2022 19:47
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Best I ever had was this: https://bhbcoffee.com/products/ethiopia-mormora-natural-organic You can buy green beans from them too! Disclaimer: I ended up investing in this company, so if this is against the rules please let me know. I own less than 1% of the company, I just wanted to be involved since I like it so much. Use code THANKYOU for 10% off...
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Sep 12, 2022 20:14
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also Colombia in particular is a hotbed of weird experimental processes that lead to a lot of Fruit Candy type flavored coffee, for example https://www.cosmicdustcoffee.com/shop/caldas-colombia lot of places also sold weird fruity experiments from El Vergel in Tolima and Jairo Arcila and Edwin Norena in Quindio
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Sep 12, 2022 20:36
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Kenya is another country that tends to produce very highly regarded fruity coffees. Think raspberries, blackcurrants etc.
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Sep 12, 2022 20:49
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The Ethiopian beans I've seen locally tend to have some sort of berry flavor listed on them, but usually it's blueberry and not my jam. Cherry tho? Load me up.
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Sep 12, 2022 21:00
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Is it called "natural" in America? Here we say "berry-dried" as opposed to “washed“, and increasingly we specify anaerobic or semi-anaerob ferments etc as you would for wine. I had a great anaerobic berry-dried from Nyamasheke, Rwanda that was all red berries, good clean acidity and no funk, but I will usually go with washed just because you can so easily end up with muddled or boozy coffees otherwise.
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Sep 13, 2022 01:50
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I have the Kinu M47 Simplicity and it grinds beautifully - the reason I switched to the Lagom mini is just chronic pain - otherwise it was perfect. I feel like the lagom is a good option for my use case but I don't like it as much. Nothing empirical, and some of it may be I have to brew a few more shots and fuss with the dialing in. But right now even using the same wdt tool and tamper, and a coffee I've brewed with before, I've got some out of control channeling happening. The noise is... quiet but horrible. Very high pitched. I asked my partner what she thought and she said it sounded fine, and then I said maybe the worst bits were out of her hearing frequency and she nearly decked me for calling her old. So your mileage may vary. She's very particular about noise so that's one vote of approval. Practically speaking it has a perfect form factor to replace the Kinu in my kitchen space, and the adjustment mechanism is very easy. I feel like it doesn't always catch the last few beans in the hopper and that may be a user error on my end or it may just be like that - I've only had it a few days and I'm still adjusting to it.
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Sep 13, 2022 01:59
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thotsky posted:Is it called "natural" in America? Here we say "berry-dried" as opposed to “washed“, and increasingly we specify anaerobic or semi-anaerob ferments etc as you would for wine. i don't think it's particularly an american thing, pretty much everyone selling coffee in english says it, including most scandinavian/european roasters i've seen 'dry process' is also out there and used interchangeably by some. neither are very useful terms but what can you do eke out fucked around with this message at 02:07 on Sep 13, 2022 |
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Sep 13, 2022 02:01
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Idlewild_ posted:I have the Kinu M47 Simplicity and it grinds beautifully - the reason I switched to the Lagom mini is just chronic pain - otherwise it was perfect. Interesting, thanks. I do find i sometimes get a bean stuck to the walls of the hopper with the p64 and i assume it’s because the finish on the anodizing is not quite slippery enough. Darker roasts seem to be more prone, so i usually pop the lid off and check if i’m grinding a coffee like that. The lagom burrs are not preseasoned i believe so your channeling may improve after the first few kilos you put through it - some people buy a big cheap bag of costco beans to season burrs but that’s wasteful and it would be a big hassle on a little grinder with a little motor like the mini. Too bad about the noise though. The p64 is a huge massive thing so i’m not surprised the mini sounds worse, but it’s disappointing all the same.
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Sep 13, 2022 02:29
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I finally took the plunge and upgraded my grinder to a Niche and all I can say is wow. What a difference it has made in shot consistency. It’s easily the best upgrade I’ve made in terms of impact. It’s also much more quiet, which everyone in my house appreciates.
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Sep 13, 2022 02:31
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hypnophant posted:
Ahhh that is good to know. Yeah, it's just going to have to get seasoned as I drink coffee. What a tragedy to have to drink delicious cup after delicious cup of coffee until it gets even better with time.
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Sep 13, 2022 03:37
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thotsky posted:Is it called "natural" in America? Here we say "berry-dried" as opposed to “washed“, and increasingly we specify anaerobic or semi-anaerob ferments etc as you would for wine. You want natural process, light roast. Avoid gif stuff that says lime/lemon as that’ll lend more acid/sour then berry. Stuff that notes strawberry/blurberry/watermelon I find to be the best.
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Sep 13, 2022 03:50
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the acaia scale arrived today. it has an annoying beep though, so I need to figure out how to turn that off. otherwise a nice size, very responsive, and the display is easy to see even with a decanter on it
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Sep 13, 2022 16:28
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ulvir posted:the acaia scale arrived today. it has an annoying beep though, so I need to figure out how to turn that off. otherwise a nice size, very responsive, and the display is easy to see even with a decanter on it Look up the manual. You can definitely turn off the bleep in the settings menu.
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Sep 13, 2022 17:11
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How worried should I be about scaling in my espresso machine if my tap water is extremely soft? Water report for my area (1000ug/L = 1 ppm): I was planning on just using brita filtered water in the machine, and I suppose doing a descaling from time to time. Is this not The Way? I know Brita doesn't really do a good job of filtering out minerals. e: the pH is generally around 7.60 so fairly alkaline as well. VelociBacon fucked around with this message at 18:21 on Sep 13, 2022 |
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Sep 13, 2022 18:18
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You should descale fairly regularly.
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Sep 13, 2022 18:23
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:You should descale fairly regularly. Thanks. I've seen this sentiment expressed but I've never seen any specifics about what regularly implies. If you're making 2-3 shots a day, is it indicated to descale once a month or so? More if you're using a steam wand I guess since evaporation surely promotes scaling? Appreciate any insight anyone has on this.
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Sep 13, 2022 18:27
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eke out posted:also Colombia in particular is a hotbed of weird experimental processes that lead to a lot of Fruit Candy type flavored coffee, for example https://www.cosmicdustcoffee.com/shop/caldas-colombia My preferred local roaster Tinker Coffee is carrying a natural (actually double anaerobic) El Vergel right now that tastes overwhelmingly of watermelon, it's crazy.
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Sep 13, 2022 18:54
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If a coffee lacks body and substantial texture, what adjustment do I need to do? I'm using a Clever, 22g of coffee 20 grind setting on the Encore, 300g of water, 2:35 steep time, ~25 second draw time. Also tried, 20g of coffee 22 grind setting on the Encore, 320g of water, 2:35 steep time, ~10 second draw time. Am I even going about the right way in making my adjustments?
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Sep 13, 2022 19:43
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VelociBacon posted:How worried should I be about scaling in my espresso machine if my tap water is extremely soft? Water report for my area (1000ug/L = 1 ppm): I’m in nyc which has extraordinarily soft water and descale basically never. if you notice how long it takes scale to form in a new kettle, that’s probably a good length amount of time to descale the things you can’t see as well
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Sep 13, 2022 19:50
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obi_ant posted:If a coffee lacks body and substantial texture, what adjustment do I need to do? This "coffee compass" can be pretty useful in diagnosing your brew, although you have to know enough to be able to taste the descriptions around the edge of the ring: https://www.baristahustle.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Coffee-Compass.pdf I think it could use a little refinement, since IMO "dull" and "muted" kinda mean the same thing, but they're in two very different parts of the compass and require different adjustments to compensate for. But it's a good starting point to help you learn how to adjust based on the flavor
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Sep 13, 2022 20:00
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RichterIX posted:My preferred local roaster Tinker Coffee is carrying a natural (actually double anaerobic) El Vergel right now that tastes overwhelmingly of watermelon, it's crazy. yeah to me they're similar to seeing some crazy flavored 12% abv beer, i kinda want to try it to see what it's like but i really want a sip not a whole bag eke out fucked around with this message at 21:30 on Sep 13, 2022 |
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Sep 13, 2022 21:26
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VelociBacon posted:Thanks. I've seen this sentiment expressed but I've never seen any specifics about what regularly implies. If you're making 2-3 shots a day, is it indicated to descale once a month or so? More if you're using a steam wand I guess since evaporation surely promotes scaling? Appreciate any insight anyone has on this. The upside is that the boilers are ridiculously cheap (like $25 retail) so they're not cost-prohibitive to replace if it comes to that. bizwank fucked around with this message at 01:12 on Sep 14, 2022 |
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Sep 14, 2022 01:08
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obi_ant posted:If a coffee lacks body and substantial texture, what adjustment do I need to do? Those seem like super fast draw times to me. Maybe grind finer? I usually do 100g of water, then 25g coffee ground on the finer side, then 150g more water. Steep 2 minutes, stir and wait 30 seconds, then draw time of maybe a minute? It's a variation of Hoffman's recipe. I like it pretty strong.
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Sep 14, 2022 01:36
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Bandire posted:Those seem like super fast draw times to me. Maybe grind finer? Wow, isn’t Hoffmans only 15g?
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Sep 14, 2022 02:00
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obi_ant posted:If a coffee lacks body and substantial texture, what adjustment do I need to do? Generally, if you want to increase body/texture, you need to decrease yield (lower the ratio) or increase extraction (increase drawdown time at the same ratio. What filters are you using? One thing that can gently caress with body is thick filters. IMO, start with grinding finer (try like 17) and keeping the same ratio. 25 seconds drawdown sounds fast, and 10 is way too fast.
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Sep 14, 2022 02:32
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