rweakley Senior Member Joined: 29 May 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Spring Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Fri Oct 30, 2009, 3:50pm Subject: Can't get a good pull, new problem.
I don't know what is going on here. I got out of the espresso brewing thing for a while, because the only place I knew of that locally roasted their beans sold them by whole pounds only, and there was no way of going through that much before they went too stale for espresso. When the beans were fresh, they always gave a good pull and an even puck. I recently found a new place that weighs however much you want. So I can get a 1/4 pound at a time now and have good espresso. Now to describe the problem. When I pull a shot on the Solis Crema SL 70, the liquid runs clear seamingly way too early, and the puck is wet. Prior to my "break" in using my espresso machine, I would also hear a distinct change in the pump that sounded as if it were working harder to push the water through the powder as pressure built up. Now I the pump never sounds as if it is under load, the water just simply starts flowing through, with no indication of pressure. The epsresso has a good crema, but I attribute that ONLY to the freshness of the beans, not because of good pressure. I think if I could find the source of error, my espresso would have better flavor. I use the Baratza Virtuoso grinder that was altered at the distributor to allow for a smaller grind size, and a nice heavy tamper that corresponds to the basket size. I have tried altering the grind size (I took out the piece that makes it "click" between grind sizes, so that I can have infinitely small adjustment). I have tried lighter tamps and heavier tamps, but to no avail. The puck is always lumpy and wet and sometimes forms a dome shape to the top. I tried taking off the screen of the grouphead to clean, but this didn't work either. The alteration that the distributor did is held in place by a tiny metal screw in a plastic slot, and that's the only thing I haven't checked. So that may be out of calibration, but I haven't seen a visible indication of such (in grind size). I don't really want to take the grinder apart again, unless I really need to. It was a PITA. Please help! This is driving me nuts. Thanks, Randy
rweakley Senior Member Joined: 29 May 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Spring Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Fri Oct 30, 2009, 8:06pm Subject: Re: Can't get a good pull, new problem.
*Update*, though nobody seems to care with no responses...Anyways, I ran some vinegar and water through the machine followed by much clean filtered water, took apart the grinder and gave it a solid cleaning as well as recalibrated it to its finest settings according to the Baratza website's instructions. I will post my results tomorrow morning or afternoon sometim. Happy Halloween!
Posted Sat Oct 31, 2009, 3:27am Subject: Re: Can't get a good pull, new problem.
rweakley Said:
Anyways, I ran some vinegar and water through the machine followed by much clean filtered water, took apart the grinder and gave it a solid cleaning as well as recalibrated it to its finest settings according to the Baratza website's instructions.
You may be right, it seemed to do (most of) the trick. I ran a pull this morning, and I heard the familiar "under pressure" sound from the pump, and the liquid remained dark for much longer. I still got a somewhat sloppy puck, but at least the coffee was good! Oh, and quite a bit more crema to boot :) On another note, I'm in the military, so I move around a lot...I hope I can find local roasters in all the places I live! It's nice to have such fresh beans.
Machines w/o 3way solenoids yield soupy pucks; just nature of the beast. your Solis doesn't have a 3way IIRC. The 3way solenoid releases both the pressure and excess water atop the puck when the brewing stops. Don't worry about the puck as having a 3way solenoid won't make the coffee taste any better.
rweakley Senior Member Joined: 29 May 2008 Posts: 8 Location: Spring Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Mon Nov 2, 2009, 3:13pm Subject: Re: Can't get a good pull, new problem.
Interesting. I haven't heard of this before. So at what level is this included on a machine? The Silvia? Just curious...not for upgrade though, I like my Solis just fine. It would be cool to have a bottomless portafilter though! Maybe I can find a machine shop one day to drill out the bottom of mine, like I've seen in another forum.
jester747 Junior Member Joined: 4 Nov 2009 Posts: 5 Location: Tampa, FL Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Achille Gaggia, Handpresso,... Grinder: Kyocera hand grinder,... Roaster: BM+HG
Posted Fri Nov 6, 2009, 11:33pm Subject: Re: Can't get a good pull, new problem.
rweakley Said:
I got out of the espresso brewing thing for a while, because the only place I knew of that locally roasted their beans sold them by whole pounds only, and there was no way of going through that much before they went too stale for espresso.
You don't have to use them all at once... I buy multiple one pound quantities of freshly roasted beans (different types to try different beans), wait a couple of days from their roast date, then portion them into about 1/8 pound portions into ziploc snack baggies, which are then placed inside a true freezer proof airtight container (the ziplocs by themselves will not do) and place the container in the freezer. I remove the needed baggie from the container (leaving said container with the rest of the baggies in the freezer) preferably several hours before needing them to let them thaw before ever opening the baggie to avoid condensation issues, but even when using them straight out of the freezer I have not experienced problems. They taste just as fresh as if never frozen. Keep in mind though, that once frozen many find that they go stale a bit faster than if not. Something like 7-10 days after thawing, versus the 10-14 that's usual. But I go through 1/8 pound in a day or two usually, so this is far from being an issue for me. The reason I break them down into baggies, is that if I just had the beans in the container, then opening the container to remove the beans needed would expose the rest of the beans to warmer air and risk condensation issues which will really really mess up your beans.
So, when you travel to those other cities you mentioned, buy fresh in decent sizes... no need to buy such small quantities... actually, you can buy 5 pound bags since shipping costs really start making sense at that weight.
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