Biggest Wave Ever Surfed

gor86 says:

Do you waste a lot of water by letting it run?

del says:

Gail, you my main homeslice girl. Thanks for the tutorial.

John says:

My Silvia V1 suddenly started brewing very sour / bitter coffee. I
made no other changes (Same coffee, same grind, same brew time). I
decided to check the temperature of the water by removing the
porta-filter, and allowing the hot water to run into a small glass jar
with 2 different thermometers in it.

The Temperature didn't climbed above 180 degrees F. I did the same experiment using the steam wand to run hot water into the glass jar. I waited until my heating light just went out, and ran hot water through the steam wand into the glass jar. Again, the thermometers never climbed above 180. I've always heard that the ideal temperature to brew espresso was 195 to 205 degrees.

Just to test the thermometers, I put some water in a pan, turned my stove on and measured the temp until the water reached a roaring boil. The thermometer read 210 degrees so the thermometers are pretty accurate. Any Rancilio experts out there? Is my Boiler shot? I descaled it and ran my test over. Again, only 180. Could my thermostat is off. When I switch to steam, it does in fact product steam at the want, and not just water. This makes me think that the boiler is capable of reaching 212 degrees to make steam. So I'm leaning toward an issue with the temperature control.

Josh Eaton says:

Let's say you're not steaming at all, just making a shot of espresso. Do you still need to surf or can you just let it heat up from a cold start until the light goes off and then wait 30 seconds?

K John says:

Just curious if on the gaggia classic, afteryou've poured out a cup from the steam/pump, do you switch off the steam button as well as the pump and wait? or do you keep the steam button pressed while waiting for the light to turn off?

Nigel Alcorn says:

My method:
Steam -> run water through wand to clean and preheat cup -> run water through group until light comes on -> grind + tamp -> light goes off somewhere -> flush group until I stop hearing/seeing water flash to steam -> brew.

I like the flushing method because it doesn't require me to keep any keen awareness of how long the brew temp light has been off since, and enables you to pull the shot relative to when your grind and tamp is done. I may experiment with doing just a wait though!

CoffeeGeek says:

Now… where have I seen this information in a video before 😀

Just kidding. Good to see this kind of info shared and shared again, since it helps people with single boiler machines to understand more and more how these machines work and what makes good espresso.