skylark is it me or the beans?
I’ve used those beans many time. If coffee compass blends don’t have any crema, then I really don’t know what do.
As Jake said, a video speaks a thousand words. Doubt the beans are the culprit, but hard to say without seeing anything.
skylark I like the puck screen
I’m not saying you should not use the puck screen. What I suggest is that you go back to the bare minimum to figure out what’s causing it. I’d remove the pre-infusion phase also just to try and diagnose the problem. Dose, tamp, lock. No pre infusion, no puck screen. If you get crema, you know what the possible culprits are. If you don’t, then it’s something else.
Temperature either too high or too low can affect crema, also pump pressure.
Try brewing without preinfusion, see if it makes a difference.
C C ’s beans are usually pretty good for crema.
Do you get any crema ? is it dark / tan does it fade quickly
Thanks to all. I’ll take the points raised and get back. Pump pressure is at about 10.25bar, still as stock. Worth dropping this or not as some say its that way to compensate for less than accurate gauges?? Yes, you’ve hit the nail on the head, crema is lacklustre a nd disappears almost immediately. Looks miserable as in stale beans miserable so I’ll make a couple of tweaks and then move on from CC just as a proving exercise.
If they were stale you would be grinding very fine and the shot would be running quick no pressure.
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
I had this issue when my coffee machine was blocked so not enough water getting to the beans/grind and the espresso was cold too or too cool.
The coffee was pretty shocking to be honest but I put up with it for ages convincing myself it was something I was doing, must have wasted a few kg of beans over a few months.
There’s a thread here about it I eventually solved the problem with the help of guys on here.
As OP’s machine is new I think limescale is not a real concern. I think OP said the espresso tastes ok as well ?
delta76 As
Wasn’t limescale with my machine, we have soft water here, it was a small jet (jicleur) that was blocked.
I bought beans from a few different roasters at the time and all of the beans were poor through my machine, one of the roasters actually sent me free beans after I contacted him thinking it was his beans that were off but of course it wasn’t.
Twotone2 but you did a descale right, didn’t see the mention of gicleur in the thread but i was skimming so I might have missed it.
@skylark with the note that your Elizabeth is using integrated group head and it’s different from E61, it is still a good idea to measure how much water you get out of it in 60 seconds.
also if you have a instant read thermometer, the water that is out of the group head should be at least 80*C
skylark Give C C a ring and speak to Richard, explain what is happening and ask his advice .
delta76 also if you have a instant read thermometer, the water that is out of the group head should be at least 80*C
Measured the water coming out of the Elizabeth group with a k-type temperature probe available with a multimeter and a pre-heated polystyrene cup: I got 87C. I didn’t repeat the test or anything like that. But thought I’d share it. Machine target temp was set at 93C and has been idling for a good half hour.
MediumRoastSteam Interesting. So maybe a quick flush, which on my machine seems to add a few degrees until its again stabilises at 93c, should be a regular occurrence. What i did notice was that any second shot pulled a couple of minutes after the first takes slightly longer to develop which i’m attributing to the drop in steam pressure affecting preinfusion pressure. So, lacking around half a bar of steam pressure compared to the first shot. Make sense?
skylark I have no idea. I just take as it comes to be honest. These machines, grinders and the human behind them are not highly precision devices. There’s a lot going on.
I used to have an E61 and he second shot was always quicker than the first one. Go figure.
My advice to you is, unless you are unhappy with your machine, take the time to get to know it and enjoy it. Key in all the settings from DavecUK, and then stop using any of the features: no pressure-infusion, no this and no that. Just a straight shot. Do that for a couple of weeks. Adjust the temperature up by 5 degrees, than lower by 5 degrees and see if there’s a difference. See what you like the best, adjust the temp accordingly.
Then go about and enable all the features, one at a time.
If you are unhappy with it overall, which at think you are, then just sell it and buy what you want.
As for the lack of crema, all I can say is that pretty much anything from CoffeeCompass will produce a lot of crema. They are roasted on the darker side too. If you are not getting the crema you want, then please share a video of you pulling that shot into a espresso glass or cup, and show what do you mean by the lack of it.
Good luck.
Edit: for reference:
From Foundry. You won’t get tons of crema with this coffee, as it’s a medium/light roast. That was 18.5g in, 45g out in 36 seconds. Temperature set at 94C, 10s bloom pre-infusion.
Adding more pictures to @MediumRoastSteam post, I have used beans medium roasted three months ago (commercial bag from the North of Italy, the best so far has been a month old beans) and the crema has never been different, thick and stable for a couple of hours if I forgot the coffee).
This shot was 18 g/ca. 35 ml in 40 sec inclusive of 10 sec pre-infusion at 2 bars.
My personal experience is that sometimes with a lesser machine (yours is top notch) one can get a shot lacking crema but I suspect with time you would get used to the quirks of your Elizabeth @skylark (pun intended 😉) and you will enjoy it.
Current setup: ACS Vesuvius, Nuova Simonelli Mythos One. Past experience, Nuova Simonelli Apia 1 gr., San Remo Capri 1 gr., Bezzera BZ 35e, Fracino Heavenly. Anfim Super Lusso.
Contact me at: john_yossarian11@yahoo.com
I’ve used beans roasted six months ago and still got crema….how does the coffee taste?
Rob1 The coffee tastes good. Interestingly I have not experienced poor crema irrespective of the age of coffee beans. I believe this is down to a great extent to the the grind and temperature, but I will stand corrected if wrong.
Current setup: ACS Vesuvius, Nuova Simonelli Mythos One. Past experience, Nuova Simonelli Apia 1 gr., San Remo Capri 1 gr., Bezzera BZ 35e, Fracino Heavenly. Anfim Super Lusso.
Contact me at: john_yossarian11@yahoo.com
Did you ever film a vid?
Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -
Cuprajake - me? No. Not for this. I’m just posting it here for reference. To be honest it was an afterthought, and thought it would be useful for the OP to compare with his shots.
