Batch brewers

BrendaninBrooklyn

Anecdotes are mostly useless. One in isolation by an anonymous poster as above especially so. Numbers are meaningful. You can estimate numbers by looking at owner’s threads on H-B. As people rarely post just to say how wonderful something is, these are mostly questions and complaints too. However, as you can see for yourself they are mostly trivial.

I had a problem with one of our Pietro hand grinders recently. LH skipped a step when describing an otherwise simple modification. Ten minutes became two days as a result. If you just looked at my posts and similar you might think the grinder was at fault when it was user-misdirection by LH that was the issue.

I’ve been trying to help a non-English speaker with his similar Pietro problem across the last week. His posts would make one think the grinder has a problem when it is really the language barrier that is the issue.

As regards the Ode v1 to v2, since you are a fan of James, you may wish to revisit his reviews of both back-to-back. Burrs were the big change. Of the rest, the interior angles of the hopper was the biggest. At the time we thought about buying a v2 and decided against as our extant burr-swap already produced excellent results.

You likely spend more on automobiles than kitchenwares; how many have you owned that had retrofittable updates?

BrendaninBrooklyn

dfk41

Melitta ! yes, we have a Melitta-clone among our gear and it works very nicely.

BrendaninBrooklyn

delta76

One more thought. James H has been invoked here several times as an authoritative source. I respect him, occasionally enjoy his videos, and have happily purchased two editions of his Coffee Atlas.

That said, he is far from infallible and therefore equally far from authoritative.

While many of his judgements could be discussed, the no-questions-blooper was his complete failure to comprehend the Niche Duo and with the passage of time, his failure to never re-visit it.

He is very intelligent, knows much, but a thorough teardown is more valuable to determine build quality, maintenance requirements, probable longevity.

Adrianmsmith

BrendaninBrooklyn levers (real ones – no pumps),

Evo2 is superb since pumpectomy

BrendaninBrooklyn

Adrianmsmith

I have never seen a point to pumps in levers for domestic use. For me, the simpler the better. As Odyssey Argos has a seven-month queue, we ordered one last week figuring we’ll be able to return home, unpack, and settle in before it arrives.

Our espresso-herd will be the Argos, a Robot, and our 9Barista v2 Pro, plus Flair Wizard steamer. This is as much complexity as we will ever need. More time enjoying coffee; less time on maintenance.

BrendaninBrooklyn

Adrianmsmith

Is there some reason ACS do not offer the Evo2 as a manual lever?

dfk41

BrendaninBrooklyn Is there some reason ACS do not offer the Evo2 as a manual lever?

I am speaking out loud here so do not take it as gospel Brendan. The Evo project came about for 2 reasons. ACS already had 2,3 and 4 group Vostoks but no one group. The V is enormous and would not fit onto a normal kitchen bench.

Dave was really bullied over on cfuk by a herd of members, of which coincidentally the ringleader was in bed at that point in time with Londinium. Dave always though that the Londiddly machines represented exceptionally poor value for money, both from a value and a technical side.

Dave asked Paolo to build him a one group using an ancient Vesuvius case as a prototype. This was to complete the family lineup and to stick two fingers up at a certain group. The Evo 2 was a development of Dave’s thinking, progressing the Evo 1 on by making use of electronic wizardry.

I think it is still possible to order an Evo 2 without much of the electronic stuff, but the idea of following a traditional lever was never on the table

BrendaninBrooklyn

dfk41

David, thank you. This makes sense and clarifies the product line “why”.

Adrianmsmith

BrendaninBrooklyn

( @dfk41 thanks again for the history )

My interest is firmly spring lever and am fascinated by its design and how it delivers repeatability time after time. A smear of 111 every 10 months or so is the full “required” maintenance so far.
The pumpectomy gives it extra repeatability and pre infusion is much tamer, perfectly so. My main interest was just to remove the reservoir tank.
To me the control it gives and the auto dump, end of shot, is the game changer. Call me idle. Precisely !!

I may have said previously but the only use of the safety sleeve is to provide a sleeve with a better design shower screen fitting once the flow is sorted out with additional holes. The “safety” side is not in my honest opinion ever going to be required.

I’m not so sure for me personally a direct lever would be interesting but i can certainly see the attraction.

I cant comment about ACS as I’m just someone who purchased 3 of their machines second hand.

I just like to get out of bed, go to the kitchen, grind 21g of beans, steam some milk and pull my shot on Top of the milk.

Absolutely zero faff
Zero waiting for anything as my alarm turns the machine on so i don’t even have to wait at all, even if that would only be 15 mins!.

Least faff i can imagine from any comparable machine.

The main thing that put me off a decent was the water situation but obviously it isn’t an issue for so many users😎 and it would be in front of any e61 style machine in the future if i get bored of the evo2 😁 never say never!!

BrendaninBrooklyn

Adrianmsmith

The Odyssey Argos has interchangeable direct and spring levers, that and the 58mm interchangeable with a 49mm step down basket, gives us four machines in one tiny footprint, and with PID control is more coffee-lab than we are ever likely to make full use of.

Assuming we can start using ours in December, then by this time next year we may have a preference for one configuration. The experiments will be fun.

This is likely the last coffee gear we ever acquire. Tea is much simpler !

dfk41

I am still mulling this topic over. I am enjoying my Aromaboy but it would be nice to have something with a larger capacity for when needed. I do find on my Aromaboy that sometimes I have to stir the bed of coffee to make sure it is evenly saturated, which in turn, makes me think that the superior water distribution of the Aiden and Sage Luxe can only help.

I know folks like to say how good the product that they own (or desire ) is. Unfortunately I do not know anyone locally with either so I have to form my opinions from what I can read or watch. I can see the advantage that the Aiden has in the flexibility to customise a shot but that has never been me. I am not one for playing or understanding enough about the various parameters you can tweak….which seems to lead me back to the Sage. Set it up and stick some water in and press a button…..luckily, my birthday is not until November and to appease the mrs I will be buying it then. This in turn leaves me plenty of time to further explore the Aromaboy then the Switch and to see if I can find another. The Xbloom was annoying and the Hiroa Hikaru interesting but expensive and not that well thought through!

BrendaninBrooklyn

Chemex; French Press ;-)

dfk41

BrendaninBrooklyn Chemex; French Press ;-)

Faff for the Chemex……I have several french presses and have not mastered them……I dislike silt as well……over the years I think I have tried the majority of brewing methods and like the Aromaboy because it is simple with grind being about the only thing to think about. The Sage also falls in to that camp but if you want to change things you can

LMSC

I would still like to buy a batch brewer for 5 - 6 cups. We often make 4 cups in two batches. Since we have a Decent at home, we can now make 2 batches of 2 cups simultaneously.

I would buy the Fellow Aiden, if they were to update it addressing JH’s comments. Furthermore, I don’t want a built-in grinder on either a brewer or an espresso machine.

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