sherds Junior Member Joined: 21 Mar 2013 Posts: 5 Location: Cleveland Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 8:07am Subject: Help with oily beans in a super automatic
I'm stuck. We're hooked on our super automatic (Gaggia Brera) and also Starbucks Gold Coast Blend. It's dark and oily, and super automatics hate beans like this. I've tried lots of others, but they just aren't rich enough. We typically just make regular coffee, about 8 oz at a time, and have the machine set for the richest blend possible.
Problem is that the grinder gets gooked up (technical term) and after 2.5 years about every 5th cup the machine thinks there are no beans and dumps the grounds into the dredge drawer. Talked to the vendor (Whole Latte Love) and the importer, tried all their suggestions (but for using drier beans).
Do I just buy a new machine every few years or has someone solved this?
Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 8:26am Subject: Re: Help with oily beans in a super automatic
even though I'm giving advice on a superauto and charbucks- no offence, you could try putting some weight on the beans. oily beans have trouble with the angle of alot of superauto hoppers and will not feed burrs properly. try loading your hopper with less beans and put a glass or something else that will fit in hopper on top of beans, only other option is to stand there while its grinding and pour beans right in to burrs.
calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,632 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 8:55am Subject: Re: Help with oily beans in a super automatic
You will not like this but.. oily beans are either very old or burnt or both. When roasted to this level you are tasting the roast and not the beans. This is fine and everyone should drink what they like but you can just buy some French roast or Espresso roast (notice no mention of bean quality or where they came from, only the roast level as there is little difference between cheep and expensive beans when burnt to a crisp) and call it a day. No need to spend the money at CharBUCKS for their beans when stale beans from the Supermarket will do.
As to the feed problem, yes you will continue to have issues. About the best you can do is to clean all you can reach then run something like GRINDS through the machine to soak up some of the rancid oil that coats the rest of the grind path.
scanfield Senior Member Joined: 21 Nov 2011 Posts: 168 Location: Texas Expertise: I like coffee
Espresso: La Nuovo Era Cuadra Grinder: Baratza Vario
Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 9:10am Subject: Re: Help with oily beans in a super automatic
calblacksmith Said:
you can just buy some French roast or Espresso roast (notice no mention of bean quality or where they came from, only the roast level as there is little difference between cheep and expensive beans when burnt to a crisp) and call it a day. No need to spend the money at CharBUCKS for their beans when stale beans from the Supermarket will do.
Maybe you missed the part where sherds said he has tried lots of different beans but prefers Starbucks Gold Coast Blend. You might not taste the difference, but he obviously does.
Your advice to try some GRINDS is good. I'd be curious to know if that helps him at all. I have a feeling though that he would need to run GRINDS through fairly frequently and end up wasting a lot of coffee in the process. I have a Vario grinder and GRINDS works very well on it, although I find I have to readjust the grinder after using it.
Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 10:34am Subject: Re: Help with oily beans in a super automatic
Hello. If you have determined that every 5th cup clogs it up, maybe just put 4 cups of beans in the hopper. After they are gone use a lighter roasted coffee for a couple cups, then go back to the 4 cups of the darker beans in the hopper. The lighter beans may take care of any crud in there and you will still have a decent 2 cups of coffee during that process.
I would refrain from using any grinder cleaners in through the hopper as one would do with a regular grinder. It will cause a mess inside of your superauto. I speak from experience on that one, I had a Krups superauto and it died due to it. :(
Len
"Coffee leads men to trifle away their time, scald their chops, and spend their money, all for a little base, black, thick, nasty, bitter, stinking nauseous puddle water." ~The Women's Petition Against Coffee, 1674
Super-Autos CAN NOT use GRINDZ or any other grinder cleaner as once ground it will fall into the brewing unit and try to brew a coffee. You can do some serious damage to your brewing unit and machine by doing this. Take it in for service, or if it is out of warranty, you have to remove a whole bunch of screws and almost disassemble the entire machine to get to the burrs.
CMIN Senior Member Joined: 14 Jun 2012 Posts: 500 Location: South FL Expertise: I like coffee
Espresso: Crossland CC1 Grinder: Baratza Preciso
Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 12:10pm Subject: Re: Help with oily beans in a super automatic
yeh I didn't think you could use GRINDZ or Rice to clean a superauto as it would just assume it was beans and try to brew it.
Sherds - easy fix, get a semi-auto/quality grinder/fresh roasted beans lol. Or if you want to keep the superauto, get rid of the Charbucks, disregarding that the coffee isn't "rich"... what your tasting is stale, burnt beans that gives the flavor so many assume is a "rich or strong" coffee. Stand alone grinders can get gunked up with oily beans, and running oily beans through a superauto is even worse as you have the oils in the grinder, out the grinder, path, brew etc. Order fresh roasted beans (no reason not to considering Charbucks beans aren't cheap and your paying for stale burnt ones at that lol). I'm sure if you actually tasted a fresh roasted "dark roast" from a roaster who knows what their doing you will find plenty that have very little hints of oil, and a medium roast would work best in the superauto.
I've never used a Superauto except for espresso, and it was awful, didn't even realize you could get 8oz coffee at a time like your doing. Can't imagine how that would taste good with the way a Superauto extracts the puck? If your drinking that much you'd be better off buying a good drip machine (Brazen etc) or a cheap Pour Over (Chemex) or even an Aeropress.
calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,632 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 1:21pm Subject: Re: Help with oily beans in a super automatic
There you go, one more reason to not like SA machines. You can't clean the grinder properly.
Yes I saw the comment about SB beans, honestly, there isn't much difference at all with supermarket crap beans and *$ stale crap burnt beans other than the price and the perceived quality difference. It is not ME that can't taste the difference, I won't go near the stuff as I KNOW there is no difference other than the price. YMMV
In real life, my name is Wayne P.
Feed the newbs, starve the trolls and above all enjoy what you drink!
sherds Junior Member Joined: 21 Mar 2013 Posts: 5 Location: Cleveland Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Thu Mar 21, 2013, 1:58pm Subject: Re: Help with oily beans in a super automatic
Many thanks for the input! - Will avoid Grindz - Have cleaned it about as much as I can without really taking it apart - Hooked on a super automatic, it's just so easy - The every 5th cup error frequency isn't predictable, so can't manage to it - I'll have to find a coffee roaster and go talk to them. Maybe get a small amount of a few different coffees that are bold but not oily.
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