How To Brew The Best Coffee On Your Coffee Machine

When most people think of coffee, it's made on a machine like this

Stationary in most households and used several times a day. 

What many people don't know, is that it's possible to enhance the quality many times by following some simple and easy steps.

The single most important of all things is, fresh coffee that's freshly ground. There's nothing that's more important than that, if you want the best cup from your coffee maker. Doesn't mater if it's a cheap or super expensive machine. It's fresh coffee that maters. A coffee grinder doesn't have to be expensive. As long as it's a burr grinder, then your better off than pre ground coffee. 
A bur grinder has two burrs that crush the beans in a size of your choice. Most cheap grinders has a blade, that blends the beans. This type of grinder/blender is not good enough. The partikels will end up in many different sizes, leaving you with an uneven extraction of the coffee.

Blade grinder                                                                                                









                                                                                           

                                                                                                           Burr grinder




Some people just want their morning fix without weighing and grinding coffee. We understand that as well. 

In that case there are other ways to improve your coffee. These steps should be done if you grind your own coffee as well. 

Use bottled water. It may seem ridiculous to buy a bottle of water to make some coffee, but there are more than one point to this. 

• You will end up with a better and more clear taste in the cup.

• It will spare your machine for a lot of scale, and a lot of descaling 

• If you choose not to use bottled water, make sure you pour water on from a clean pitcher, and not from the machine pitcher. Explanation further down in the post. 

Rinse your filter thoroughly with plenty of water. There's a lots of flavor and other nasty stuff in the filters from fabrication. 

When your brew is finished, drink it within 20 minutes, or pour it to a thermos, when it's on the heater the aromas quickly go harsh and bitter. 

With any kind of coffee brewing, clean equipment is of great importance. Coffee oils are bitter, and as they build up, they will leave a bad flavor. 

Clean your machine every two month if you are sure no oils are in the water. Clean every week if you use the coffee pitcher to refill water. Every two weeks you should clean the pitcher and all plastic parts, that's in contact with coffee. Descale every week if you dont use bottled water. With bottled water every third month should  do. 

To clean the machine, use Urnex Cafiza. It's a soap made especially for coffee oils.

Here's a full review on Cafiza 

Just add 3-5 gr to the water in a full reservoir, and turn the machine on. When it's done, repeat three times with fresh and clean water and end the session with a pot of coffee, which you then pour to the sink. Now your machine is clean, and ready to make the best coffee possible. 

Just made a photo session from a cleaning of the coffee machine at my workplace. It has never been cleaned with Cafiza - just regular soap once in a while.

This picture displays the main issue with using the coffee pitcher to fill the reservoir. Everytime you fill the pitcher and pour it in the reservoir, a small amount of coffee and coffee oils ends up in the reservoir, and will build up in the system as the coffee brews. 

Build up coffee oils in all the plastic parts, and in the pitcher can'd be avoided. But it can be taken care of.

5 grams of Cafiza in the reservoir with 1 liter of boiling water, I cleaned the reservoir with this batch and made a new one to run thru the machine. 

5 grams of Cafiza with 1 liter of cold water in the reservoir and turn the machine on. The reservoir were clean before the solution ran thru, so this color is made by oils from inside the machine. 

First round of clean water

Third round if clean water. Notice the pitcher is completely clean now.

Before Cafiza
















                                                                                                               After Cafzia

How To Install Thermosyphon Restrictor In a Rocket Giotto (HX)

Ever since I bought my Rocket Giotto I have been annoyed with the need and amount of flushing involved.
My pressurestat are set at 0.9-1,1 bar, which gave me an idle temperature of 98-100 degrees Celsius. I flushed about 1,5 oz before every shot. Not only did I use a lot of water, I also spend a lot of time doing it.
So I bought a thermosyphon restrictor.

 A small piece of brass, designed to reduce the water flow to the group head, and lower the temperature. Very simple, inexpensive and relatively simple to install.
After installing it, my machine idles at 88-90 degrees Celsius - and I now flush UP in temperature. Just like a dual boiler. My flush time is 2 seconds. I think the upgrade has been awarding in a very big way.

First of take of the top.
Remove the tank, sides and rear.
It's a lot easier when the work space is as big as possible.

Locate the pipe, coming from the boiler to the brev head and take it of.

The restrictor is suppose to fit inside the 90 degree bend on the boiler.

Make sure the inside of the bend is clean, if there's a bit of scale on the walls, the restrictor won't fit.
Even though my walls were clean, the restrictor didn't fit. I had to grind it a bit. You should be able to push it inside, but still have a tight fit, so that it doesn't tilt inside.

Install the restrictor with the small end in the bend.

Remount the pipe, lube the ends a bit with food grade lubrication, and be gentle with the tightening.

Turn on your machine and activate the water, do a couple is bachflushes to make sure it doesn't leak anywhere.
When you are certain everything is sealed properly, let the machine heat for 30 minutes.
When it's heated install your pressurestat at 0,9 when it's at the lowest. That way you should end up with a "cold nose" !

With the low pressurestat setting, my steam power went down a little. To compensate for that, I removed the silicone hose inside the steamwand. Basically the silicone hose make sure the metal doesn't heat when steaming, providing you with a no burn steam wand. But at the same time it makes a lot of resistance in the steam.

The easy way is to take of the steam tip, and just pull hard in the hose.

The better way is to take it all apart and lube everything at the same time.

Disassemble the wand from the machine, be careful with the spring.

Take of the ball joint and remove the hose.

Assemble everything in the same order, but lube the Ball joint and spring with food grade lubrication.
Now your wand will rotate flawlessly and still deliver a lot of steam.
But remember its hot now !

As mentioned this is a profitable modification to any HX machine that idles at high temperature. So get going and do the mod.

Enjoy

Home Made Coffee Syrup

During the last three years I have taught my wife to drink coffee. It started with a latte made ​​with a strong 2 oz brew from my Aeropress.

Now, however, she has become so accustomed to the taste that she drinks her latte with a double shot of espresso .

But, from the very first latte, and still going, she always adds coffee syrup in her coffee . She simply can't live, or consume coffee, without it. We have tried .

Coffee syrup is tremendously expensive , considering what it really is. So I decided to try out the production of my own homemade coffee syrup.

My wife's favourite is the vanilla syrup, which very convenient is one of the easiest to make.

It's super easy and cheap to make your own syrup. Furthermore both my wife and I thinks, that the new homemade one tastes better and stronger than the ones we have bought so far.

So, here goes with the recipe

Ingredients:

400 g of white sugar

3 (dl) cups water

1 pinch salt

2 fat vanilla pods

That's it !

Steps:

Split the vanilla bars and scrape out the seeds.

Add bars and seeds in a large pot with the sugar, water and salt.

Turn on the heat and bring the contents to a boil.

Time it. The syrup is ready after 5 minutes of boiling.

Don't stir it, just leave it to boil.

Let the syrup cool slightly in the pan.

Then pour it through a fine-meshed sieve - into a bottle you like.

The taste of this recipe is very sweet, so you don't need to add much syrup in a latte. Furthermore, this way your absolutely sure that it's free of additives.

Notice all the fine vanilla grains floating in the syrup, you wont' find that in the ones you can buy - and don't worry, their supposed to be there.

I haven't tried out any other flavours. But in theory you could add anything you like in the sugar/water mix.

Enjoy

Chemex Bonded Filters In V60

When you brew your coffee on the V60, you have countless opportunities to vary the cup from day to day.

Should you nevertheless get the urge to try something new, Chemex filters are a cheap and very good option.

Chemex filter is thicker than the original V60 filters even when it’s not folded, and if you use the halfmoon technique you get a very thick tip at the bottom, therefore the coffee is filtered in a completely different way.

It's very evident in the cup you brew. The coffee is very round, smooth and mild. If you are into the deep notes with lots of chocolate, it’s a great option to use the thicker Chemex filters.

Because if the many thick layers of filter, the acidity level becomes low. I like my coffee deep and strong, and if you already have a favorite chokolate note coffee at your V60 - you are defiantly going to enjoy that same coffee, brewed with Chemex filters. 

The procedure is the same for both filters. The Chemex filter is folded and placed in the V60. Grind your coffee as you would on V60 and brew exactly the same way as usual.

One thing i did change, was the length of the filter, i cut a suiteable piece off with a siscor.

Because the filter is so much thicker, you get a cup where the oils are less prominent. This method is in my view not very good for beans with high acid content, as it is almost working against each other.

I used a 1 cup V60, and as seen in the pictures below the fit is not perfect. Even so, it holds and brews just fine, because the filter is so thick, that it doesn’t need to rest against anything.

But be carefull to fill it up to much, it will get softer and weaker.

The conclusion I can draw is, that it’s the filter that makes the big difference and the V60 represents only a simple holder without purposes.

By looking at pictures of the Chemex pitcher, I’m pretty curtain that the angle is also 60 degrees.  

It is a beautiful coffee brewer, so buying it is defiantly also an option

It is certainly a unique opportunity to brew in a new way, without having to spend a lot of money using your V60 for the purpose.

Besides the V60, i have found that my waterpitcher is a super option for 500 ml brews as well ! Only imagination sets the limits :)

Home Made Super Jolly Doserless Funnel

So I finally had the finances to upgrade my grinder. For a long time I have been longing for a Mazzer.

At German Ebay I found a very good looking Super Jolly, and I won the auction at a satisfying price compared to many other sites with used goods.

The grinder is a doser model, I decided to make all the doser mods as a start; elvinator, sweeper, inverted cup etc.

But no matter what I did, it seemed to make a big mess, and I really like the convenience of doserless.

I starting looking for at conversation kit, and found some websites with all the parts, but the price were at least 220$ for the kit. That’s way more than I would ever spend on a piece of aluminum !

Link

I searched other coffee forums and came across a link to pictures involving this….

Link

It’s a fudge funnel, and it’s almost the same size as the original Mazzer Mini funnel, just 1 cm bigger in diameter, but that’s not a problem.

A Danish guy already had made the modifications to his major. Inspired by this project, and the fact that the fudge funnel costs 17 euro, I ordered the funnel from Germany. They call it a liqueur funnel.

Cutting and Shredding

First thing is to take of the handle. It’s jointed on with little point weldings. The trick is to get at sharp flat headed screwdriver in between the funnel and the handle. As soon you get a little opening, put the screwdriver to one of the sides and give it a good bash with a hammer. When one welding is cut open, the rest will come easily.

When I took of the doser, I drew the chute and screw holes on to some transparent paper. This way I can easily draw over the places to cut and drill.  

I placed the paper so that, the upper edge of the funnel is 5 mm under the edge of the grinder.

When the holes are drawn to the funnel, use a metal drill. Make sure it’s sharp; otherwise it will melt quickly against the stainless steel. 

 It’s time to make the exit hole against the chute. I used a jigsaw with a metal blade, and it worked just fine with no problems. Before I started cutting, I drilled a 10 mm hole to make room for the blade.

Now it’s time to make the exit hole in the funnel – how big to make it, is a matter of opinion. It took of about 15 mm in the length, but later on I have taken an additional 15 mm because the coffee came to close to the exit and produced a little static. To cut it off I used the jigsaw again, but I would recommend a angle grinder instead, with a thin disc in it.

To finish of I used a fine metal file, to take of all the sharp edges and make a nice finish.

I was able to reuse the gasket from the doser, but after some trial and error taking of the doser several times it broke. I haven’t put in a new one, and I can’t seem to feel a huge difference without the gasket.

Mount the new funnel to the grinder and start shooting. Some grinders need a static grid or another device to slow down the coffee; it usually depends on humidity and types of coffee. Right away I could see I needed one. 

I was also able to use the original lid from the doser, but because the diameter in the funnel is a bit bigger, the lid now goes inside, instead of resting at the edge. I attached some knobs to put under chair legs for the lid to rest on.

I am super happy with the result. It looks just as good, as an original funnel from Mazzer in my opinion. And the quality of the end product is really god as well!

Silence your Silvia

Another simple mod for Silvia is to make it a bit more silent ! She does scream a bit the old lady.

It doesn’t take much cash to do this mod, but I do take some time to disassemble the machine.

A lot of material can be used, if its sound or heat proof in any way, it should do. Most I have heard about used floor insulation. It’s a green mat to put under floorboards. It can be bought relatively cheap in the same store you would buy the floor. Just be sure that its non toxic and can hold against the heat.

I have used insulation from a dishwasher; it’s thicker than other materials, and it was free. 

It is very simple; just remove all the plates you would like to soundproof. What is most important is to get insulation around the pump, that’s the noisiest part.

This is what I did:

Remove the top plate and water reservoir.

Remove middle and back plate to expose the pump. 

At this point you can attach your material with double sided tape, to all the disassembled parts. The thicker a layer you get, and the closer you get the joints, the better a result you get in the end. On the back plate there are not much space, my material were too thick, so I just split it with a sharp knife. To finish off I mounted electrician tape around the edge of the top plate, to remove the resonance made when metal vibrates against metal.

Now you can mount material around the pump. I cut different sized pieces to get as much possible in there. I simply closed it in completely.

Now it’s time to put the machine back together. Just bring together the bits in the same order you took it apart. 

Last I mounted more tape to the edge where the grate lays on top, again to remove resonance.

Conclusion

It is a lot less noise now !!

But it is not silent. The noise has come to a much more low frequency humming, instead of the regular metal screaming noise.

I am very happy with the result. I believe it did a big difference.

Enjoy 

How to adjust the OPV on Silvia – 2010 and up

This is defiantly the easiest and fastest mod that I have ever made for my Silvia. But never the less, I think it might be the most essential so far.

For a while now, I have had some suspicions about my OPV being set wrong (factory setting). My shots wiggled a bit too early and blonded too fast sometimes as well.

Adjusting the OPV is no problem, simply follow this video.
 

But if you like me don’t have the pressure gage in store, here is a method that can be used. I found it on Home-barista.

Use the video above, to know the inside of the machine.

 
Measure the flow in the return line using a pyrex cup while pumping with a blind filter. With a stop watch, time how long it takes to go from the 2 oz mark to the 6 oz mark or 4 oz to 8 oz etc, etc. You\'ll come up with 4 ounces in \"X\" seconds. \"X\" should be between 27 and 28 seconds.

Very simple and accurate. If you get 6 oz in less than 28 seconds, turn the OPV clockwise to tighten the spring inside, decreasing the water flow. If you get less than 6 oz in 28 seconds do it the opposite way.
Keep adjusting till you have the seconds right.

My experience is a better flowing shot, with no blonding or wiggling. You would properly have to adjust your grinder a bit to the new flow.

Highly recommendable to spend 20 minutes, to check if it’s all set correct.

Enjoy

Caspar

Cleaning your grinder with rice

I have heard several times, of the possibility to clean a grinder with white instant rice. As my old Bodum grinder is up for a cleaning, I thought of the rice experiment as a great opportunity.

Usually I just take this grinder apart and clean it manually, because it is really easy to disassemble. I use it only for frenchpress. 

Most common, as I understand, is Grindz for cleaning a grinder and it does a really great job, but it is expensive. There are some things to keep in mind using rice. It has to be instant and white, otherwise the rice will be too hard and the grinder will properly stall. Rice should do a fair job of sucking up the oils, as of what I have read. 

A picture of the burrs before cleaning. As you can see it’s about time.

I set the grinder at espresso setting (this is no way near fine enough for espresso; this grinder cannot be used for espresso brewing.)

I must admit that the noise is a little freighting. But no sign of damage though. Hard steal burrs should cope with rice in my opinion. 

The small well used motor, had a hard time getting thru the rice, I had to add it little by little to prevent stall.

As you can see, the rice powder gets more pure and white as I got along.

End result, looks pretty god, the burrs are clean, and there are no visible oils. It’s only the burrs that gets clean this way, the surroundings has to be cleaned by hand. But as a weekly routine this should do the job just fine. I used a vacuum cleaner getting the last rice powder out, washed the container and hopper and ran thru some beans before using it for coffee. 

I am really excited about this. I am going to use rice as my weekly routine for the next couple of months, and I am sure I won’t feel any difference from Grindz.

Enjoy