Rise from the ashes, ye thread, and brew me an answer.
So, advice needed please: I haven't used my coffee grinder for quite awhile. I'm not sure if I talked about it here or not but I had a cockroach problem last year/earlier this year and it really, really grossed me out. I've mostly rebuilt my coffee setup now but I'll get to that in a separate, future post. The last thing I need to do is clean and re-setup my coffee grinder (Baratza Virtuoso+).
I don't think the cockroaches ever got into to the grinder, but I want to clean it. What would everyone advise?
This is what I'm thinking:
- Uncooked rice in the grinder itself. This is what I typically see recommended. Or do you all really recommend those cleaning tablets over just uncooked rice?
- Either a slightly dampened paper towel with a little bit of soap or maaaaaybe a 70% isopropyl wipe on the outside of the surface of the grinder (not inside anywhere).
- Wash the basket thingie that collects the grinds with soap and dry it
- Maybe wash and dry the plastic cone on top you put the beans in but it may be enough to just wash the outside
Rise from the ashes, ye thread, and brew me an answer.
So, advice needed please: I haven't used my coffee grinder for quite awhile. I'm not sure if I talked about it here or not but I had a cockroach problem last year/earlier this year and it really, really grossed me out. I've mostly rebuilt my coffee setup now but I'll get to that in a separate, future post. The last thing I need to do is clean and re-setup my coffee grinder (Baratza Virtuoso+).
I don't think the cockroaches ever got into to the grinder, but I want to clean it. What would everyone advise?
This is what I'm thinking:
- Uncooked rice in the grinder itself. This is what I typically see recommended. Or do you all really recommend those cleaning tablets over just uncooked rice?
- Either a slightly dampened paper towel with a little bit of soap or maaaaaybe a 70% isopropyl wipe on the outside of the surface of the grinder (not inside anywhere).
- Wash the basket thingie that collects the grinds with soap and dry it
- Maybe wash and dry the plastic cone on top you put the beans in but it may be enough to just wash the outside
Any thoughts?
The Virtuoso uses metal burrs so do not use water anywhere near the inside. What I would do is
1) dump any beans you have in the hopper since you haven't used it in a while
2) Take the hopper and catch basket out, clean both of those with soap and water
3) take the top burr out and brush the whole thing out really well
4) I've run rice through my grinder before and it doesn't hurt it and can help push through some of the gunk your brush couldn't reach. If you have some old or expired coffee, run it through afterward to help push the last bit of rice out. It shouldn't affect flavor at all if you don't but looks weird seeing little white specks in your grind
5) put it all back together. If you're worried about the outside being super gross, I'd moisten a rag with a 10:1 dilute bleach solution and wipe down the outside just in case.
Rise from the ashes, ye thread, and brew me an answer.
So, advice needed please: I haven't used my coffee grinder for quite awhile. I'm not sure if I talked about it here or not but I had a cockroach problem last year/earlier this year and it really, really grossed me out. I've mostly rebuilt my coffee setup now but I'll get to that in a separate, future post. The last thing I need to do is clean and re-setup my coffee grinder (Baratza Virtuoso+).
I don't think the cockroaches ever got into to the grinder, but I want to clean it. What would everyone advise?
This is what I'm thinking:
- Uncooked rice in the grinder itself. This is what I typically see recommended. Or do you all really recommend those cleaning tablets over just uncooked rice?
- Either a slightly dampened paper towel with a little bit of soap or maaaaaybe a 70% isopropyl wipe on the outside of the surface of the grinder (not inside anywhere).
- Wash the basket thingie that collects the grinds with soap and dry it
- Maybe wash and dry the plastic cone on top you put the beans in but it may be enough to just wash the outside
Any thoughts?
The Virtuoso uses metal burrs so do not use water anywhere near the inside. What I would do is
1) dump any beans you have in the hopper since you haven't used it in a while
2) Take the hopper and catch basket out, clean both of those with soap and water
3) take the top burr out and brush the whole thing out really well
4) I've run rice through my grinder before and it doesn't hurt it and can help push through some of the gunk your brush couldn't reach. If you have some old or expired coffee, run it through afterward to help push the last bit of rice out. It shouldn't affect flavor at all if you don't but looks weird seeing little white specks in your grind
5) put it all back together. If you're worried about the outside being super gross, I'd moisten a rag with a 10:1 dilute bleach solution and wipe down the outside just in case.
Rise from the ashes, ye thread, and brew me an answer.
So, advice needed please: I haven't used my coffee grinder for quite awhile. I'm not sure if I talked about it here or not but I had a cockroach problem last year/earlier this year and it really, really grossed me out. I've mostly rebuilt my coffee setup now but I'll get to that in a separate, future post. The last thing I need to do is clean and re-setup my coffee grinder (Baratza Virtuoso+).
I don't think the cockroaches ever got into to the grinder, but I want to clean it. What would everyone advise?
This is what I'm thinking:
- Uncooked rice in the grinder itself. This is what I typically see recommended. Or do you all really recommend those cleaning tablets over just uncooked rice?
- Either a slightly dampened paper towel with a little bit of soap or maaaaaybe a 70% isopropyl wipe on the outside of the surface of the grinder (not inside anywhere).
- Wash the basket thingie that collects the grinds with soap and dry it
- Maybe wash and dry the plastic cone on top you put the beans in but it may be enough to just wash the outside
Any thoughts?
The Virtuoso uses metal burrs so do not use water anywhere near the inside. What I would do is
1) dump any beans you have in the hopper since you haven't used it in a while
2) Take the hopper and catch basket out, clean both of those with soap and water
3) take the top burr out and brush the whole thing out really well
4) I've run rice through my grinder before and it doesn't hurt it and can help push through some of the gunk your brush couldn't reach. If you have some old or expired coffee, run it through afterward to help push the last bit of rice out. It shouldn't affect flavor at all if you don't but looks weird seeing little white specks in your grind
5) put it all back together. If you're worried about the outside being super gross, I'd moisten a rag with a 10:1 dilute bleach solution and wipe down the outside just in case.
The "hopper" refers to the cone at the top above the burr that you put your beans in before grinding, right?
I have to take a look and see how to take the top burr out - I can't remember when I assembled it.
Thank you!
Yes it does, and the baratzas are pretty easy to work on as well
+2
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Inquisitor772 x Penny Arcade Fight Club ChampionA fixed point in space and timeRegistered Userregular
Baratza explicitly design and sell their products with the expectation that people can maintain them on their own, including disassembly and cleaning. You can find documentation here: http://baratza.com/troubleshooting/
Generally speaking you want to avoid using water anywhere there is metal because it WILL rust. You can also just straight up call them and they will help you.
Baratza explicitly design and sell their products with the expectation that people can maintain them on their own, including disassembly and cleaning. You can find documentation here: http://baratza.com/troubleshooting/
Generally speaking you want to avoid using water anywhere there is metal because it WILL rust. You can also just straight up call them and they will help you.
I did not realize how much more annoying it would be to descale a single-cup coffee maker (i.e. my Keurig) versus one that can make a full pot.
I bought this Impresa descaling solution. The instructions are to pour half a bottle of the solution into the reservoir and fill the rest of the reservoir with water. Then use the brew function with maximum size cup setting until you get a low water warning. Then wait 30 minutes. The do it again with just water. Then wait 30 minutes again. Then do it a final time with just water.
My reservoir holds 78 oz of water and my machine can make up to a 12 oz cup. That means I have to "brew" 18 cups. And I need to run to a sink each time to dump the water (my keurig is in my bedroom). That is a crazy amount of time and effort.
Uhhh you know that thing you need to do, but have been putting off because its a ton of work?
Well, I can confirm that changing burrs in a Rancilio Rocky is a PITA because of the design. They aren't flat on the bottom, they have a recessed area that collects fine coffee grounds and compresses it into coffee ground cement. I had to scrape all of that out with a bamboo skewer, which was FUN! I'm guessing I've put at least 250 pounds of coffee through the grinder so the burrs were dull as well. I must have pulled who 3+ ounces of ground coffee and whole beans outta the thing. I need a better grinder.
I also had the joy of replacing the power switch, pressurestat, and power cord in my espresso machine recently. I've got some parts on order to do a complete replacement of the grouphead valves and gaskets, as well as the portafilter gasket and shower screen. I probably need to descale the thing at some point but it's a heat exchange boiler design so I'm not looking forward to it.
Maintaining equipment is fun!
At least I'll get better coffee out of the process.
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
Uhhh you know that thing you need to do, but have been putting off because its a ton of work?
Well, I can confirm that changing burrs in a Rancilio Rocky is a PITA because of the design. They aren't flat on the bottom, they have a recessed area that collects fine coffee grounds and compresses it into coffee ground cement. I had to scrape all of that out with a bamboo skewer, which was FUN! I'm guessing I've put at least 250 pounds of coffee through the grinder so the burrs were dull as well. I must have pulled who 3+ ounces of ground coffee and whole beans outta the thing. I need a better grinder.
I also had the joy of replacing the power switch, pressurestat, and power cord in my espresso machine recently. I've got some parts on order to do a complete replacement of the grouphead valves and gaskets, as well as the portafilter gasket and shower screen. I probably need to descale the thing at some point but it's a heat exchange boiler design so I'm not looking forward to it.
Maintaining equipment is fun!
At least I'll get better coffee out of the process.
:bro:
My machine has been out of commission since early December and troubleshooting with the retailer over email has been long and painful and now I'm trying to fight for a warranty replacement solenoid valve. At this point we've finally agreed it's likely that part that's seized up and I've directly asked if they will replace it, it would be ~$75 after tax and shipping if my warranty claim gets denied. Only reason holding me back on just biting the bullet was that spare parts are final sale and I didn't want to throw money at something if it wasn't the solution I needed.
Uhhh you know that thing you need to do, but have been putting off because its a ton of work?
Well, I can confirm that changing burrs in a Rancilio Rocky is a PITA because of the design. They aren't flat on the bottom, they have a recessed area that collects fine coffee grounds and compresses it into coffee ground cement. I had to scrape all of that out with a bamboo skewer, which was FUN! I'm guessing I've put at least 250 pounds of coffee through the grinder so the burrs were dull as well. I must have pulled who 3+ ounces of ground coffee and whole beans outta the thing. I need a better grinder.
I also had the joy of replacing the power switch, pressurestat, and power cord in my espresso machine recently. I've got some parts on order to do a complete replacement of the grouphead valves and gaskets, as well as the portafilter gasket and shower screen. I probably need to descale the thing at some point but it's a heat exchange boiler design so I'm not looking forward to it.
Maintaining equipment is fun!
At least I'll get better coffee out of the process.
:bro:
My machine has been out of commission since early December and troubleshooting with the retailer over email has been long and painful and now I'm trying to fight for a warranty replacement solenoid valve. At this point we've finally agreed it's likely that part that's seized up and I've directly asked if they will replace it, it would be ~$75 after tax and shipping if my warranty claim gets denied. Only reason holding me back on just biting the bullet was that spare parts are final sale and I didn't want to throw money at something if it wasn't the solution I needed.
:bro:
Yeah, the valves are expensive. Is that something that fails often on the model of your machine? On mine, the pressurestats fail basically every 2 years. They are like $50 and the machine is unusable until it's been replaced. It's an easy fix, about 5 minutes of work and just a pain to even have to do.
I had to buy parts from about 4 different websites because 2021 and the company that made my machine (Crem) got bought out by a Chinese company and all part production is apparently moving there. So certain parts were out of stock at every place. Fun!
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
Yeah, the valves are expensive. Is that something that fails often on the model of your machine? On mine, the pressurestats fail basically every 2 years. They are like $50 and the machine is unusable until it's been replaced. It's an easy fix, about 5 minutes of work and just a pain to even have to do.
I had to buy parts from about 4 different websites because 2021 and the company that made my machine (Crem) got bought out by a Chinese company and all part production is apparently moving there. So certain parts were out of stock at every place. Fun!
No, I think it's mostly that I believed that the resin filter was doing a good enough job of softening my hard water but now it seems like it wasn't and some scale got in. I'm going to try one last descale procedure and then one way or another get a new solenoid. New procedure going forward once everything is working will be to cut my tap water 50/50 with distilled, which should bring my TDS from ~180 ppm to 90 which should be easily handled by the machine and the softener filter.
Yeah, the valves are expensive. Is that something that fails often on the model of your machine? On mine, the pressurestats fail basically every 2 years. They are like $50 and the machine is unusable until it's been replaced. It's an easy fix, about 5 minutes of work and just a pain to even have to do.
I had to buy parts from about 4 different websites because 2021 and the company that made my machine (Crem) got bought out by a Chinese company and all part production is apparently moving there. So certain parts were out of stock at every place. Fun!
No, I think it's mostly that I believed that the resin filter was doing a good enough job of softening my hard water but now it seems like it wasn't and some scale got in. I'm going to try one last descale procedure and then one way or another get a new solenoid. New procedure going forward once everything is working will be to cut my tap water 50/50 with distilled, which should bring my TDS from ~180 ppm to 90 which should be easily handled by the machine and the softener filter.
Is your softener filter an in-tank one or external one? Mine has the in-tank but they want it to be cycled every 50 shots. I didn’t do that, because its an enormous pain to do and the things cost like $30 so buying new was out of the question.
I’m using the BWT coffee filters instead, and they are supposed to help with scale by substituting some of the calcium for magnesium.
Q: "IS YOUR COFFEE KETO FRIENDLY?"
A: Absolutely! We do not use sugar or sweeteners in our flavors, and each brewed 8oz cup has approximately 2 calories, 0g carbs and 0g sugar!
Q: "ARE THERE ANY SUGARS OR ADDED SWEETENERS IN YOUR COFFEE?"
A: Our coffees do not contain any sugars or artificial sweeteners.
The nutritional info of our coffee per 8ox cup is as follows:
If all that's true, then how do they produce a coffee product that tastes and smells like Caramel Apple, Strawberry Shortcake, or Chocolate Raspberry?
The reason I'm asking is I basically quit salt and sugar. But I had all these bags of Bones Coffee before I quit all that (quite a few bags, actually). I just want to make sure these things aren't going to mess up my diet, which it sounds like they won't, but I don't understand the quantum mechanics behind sweet flavored coffee that doesn't use sugar or sweeteners.
Please explain and please use complex chemistry diagrams that I will not understand. Thank you.
No idea about how they make it sweet but something like stevia wouldn’t be considered “artificial”. Without an ingredient list it’s impossible to tell.
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
Q: "IS YOUR COFFEE KETO FRIENDLY?"
A: Absolutely! We do not use sugar or sweeteners in our flavors, and each brewed 8oz cup has approximately 2 calories, 0g carbs and 0g sugar!
Q: "ARE THERE ANY SUGARS OR ADDED SWEETENERS IN YOUR COFFEE?"
A: Our coffees do not contain any sugars or artificial sweeteners.
The nutritional info of our coffee per 8ox cup is as follows:
If all that's true, then how do they produce a coffee product that tastes and smells like Caramel Apple, Strawberry Shortcake, or Chocolate Raspberry?
The reason I'm asking is I basically quit salt and sugar. But I had all these bags of Bones Coffee before I quit all that (quite a few bags, actually). I just want to make sure these things aren't going to mess up my diet, which it sounds like they won't, but I don't understand the quantum mechanics behind sweet flavored coffee that doesn't use sugar or sweeteners.
Please explain and please use complex chemistry diagrams that I will not understand. Thank you.
From their website:
The ingredients are as follows: 100% Arabica Coffee, Natural & Artificial Flavors.
There are bunches of natural and artificial flavors which trick your brain into thinking things are sweet (like vanilla extract, mint, chocolate). There are some things you can do with quality beans and good roasting know-how to coax flavors out of just pure coffee (blueberry, cocoa, toast, nuts all come to mind right away) but this company seems to be 100% into flavoring their coffee.
In espresso news, my machine is still dead, still fighting with retailer to get it fixed Going on 5 months now without a working machine and I'm really sad/angry about it.
I cut cappuccino out of my diet too bust I still have my machine. Every once in awhile I have a glass of almond milk.
Health-wise there's really no difference between having a cup of coffee (which is healthy) plus a cup of unsweetend almond mile (which is only like 30 calories and is relatively healthy with good nutrients) or using almond milk to make a cappuccino, is there? I mean is there any reason to think an almond milk cappuccino is unhealthy? I wouldn't be adding any sugar or anything else.
I cut cappuccino out of my diet too bust I still have my machine. Every once in awhile I have a glass of almond milk.
Health-wise there's really no difference between having a cup of coffee (which is healthy) plus a cup of unsweetend almond mile (which is only like 30 calories and is relatively healthy with good nutrients) or using almond milk to make a cappuccino, is there? I mean is there any reason to think an almond milk cappuccino is unhealthy? I wouldn't be adding any sugar or anything else.
No there is no difference. Milk tends to taste sweeter when heated and frothed but i don't know if this will apply to almond milk and its not going to have an appreciable effect on the health value
Does anyone have recommendations on good whole bean decaf? My stomach gets too irritated with regular coffee (although there is a nearby place that sells bottles of cold brew that is smoooooth and doesn't cause me any issues, go figure).
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Does anyone have recommendations on good whole bean decaf? My stomach gets too irritated with regular coffee (although there is a nearby place that sells bottles of cold brew that is smoooooth and doesn't cause me any issues, go figure).
You could always try cold brewing yourself if you still want the caffeine/don't want to search for a coffee you like. Cold brewing (and well, day old coffee in general) tends to be a bit less acidic and so might sit better on your stomach.
I would suggest that most places with good regular will also have good decaf. So whatever your brand of previous coffee that you liked
You could always try cold brewing yourself if you still want the caffeine/don't want to search for a coffee you like. Cold brewing (and well, day old coffee in general) tends to be a bit less acidic and so might sit better on your stomach.
I would suggest that most places with good regular will also have good decaf. So whatever your brand of previous coffee that you liked
I have cold brewed before (we have a Toddy system) but even that still gives me issues. Dunno.
I have been trying brands I've used before, just seeing if anyone has any that really stand out. I liked Equator's Decaf so far. Passenger decaf was alright. I'm trying one by Audubon that's pretty decent.
Does anyone have recommendations on good whole bean decaf? My stomach gets too irritated with regular coffee (although there is a nearby place that sells bottles of cold brew that is smoooooth and doesn't cause me any issues, go figure).
You could always try cold brewing yourself if you still want the caffeine/don't want to search for a coffee you like. Cold brewing (and well, day old coffee in general) tends to be a bit less acidic and so might sit better on your stomach.
I would suggest that most places with good regular will also have good decaf. So whatever your brand of previous coffee that you liked
I have cold brewed before (we have a Toddy system) but even that still gives me issues. Dunno.
I have been trying brands I've used before, just seeing if anyone has any that really stand out. I liked Equator's Decaf so far. Passenger decaf was alright. I'm trying one by Audubon that's pretty decent.
Does anyone have recommendations on good whole bean decaf? My stomach gets too irritated with regular coffee (although there is a nearby place that sells bottles of cold brew that is smoooooth and doesn't cause me any issues, go figure).
If it is acidity that has been bothering you, you might try looking for coffees that focus earthy/chocolate notes. This would put you more into medium-dark roasts. Absolutely avoid anything light roasted. Anything with fruit notes will usually be fairly acidic as well. If the caffeine is bothering you avoid anything with robusta in it.
I don’t have any specific recommendations because single origin light roasts are what I lean towards for coffee.
Steam - Synthetic Violence | XBOX Live - Cannonfuse | PSN - CastleBravo | Twitch - SoggybiscuitPA
.Anything with fruit notes will usually be fairly acidic as well.
noooooooooooooooooooooooooo
As a counterpoint, for me at least, fruit-acid is quite different from "stomach-pain-acid", where it tastes "acidic". I've got a nice Ethiopian at the moment that's quite fruity, berries, etc, but while it's got that nice fruit tang to it, it's definitely not the "acidic" sensation some beans can give.
Other elements to look into are grind/brew process, as with the same bean I can definitely alter how much acid expresses itself (anywhere from "what fruit?" to "this tastes like a car battery") by a couple grinder clicks/length of extraction.
Very anecdotally, I've found African/Indonesian beans to go "fruity" with less risk of "burny" than S./Cent. American beans, and I've still been going with some light roasts. (Not "green" light, but definitely in the "specialty single-origin coffee" lightness arena.) I also tend to find natural process beans to be less likely to go burny on me than washed, but I have absolutely nothing scientific to back that up in any way, and maybe I just like them better or something.
Now all that assumes it's not just the caffeine doing it to you, right, but all may not be lost in the world of fruity coffee varietals.
+1
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Zavianuniversal peace sounds better than forever warRegistered Userregular
I recently got a pour over coffee maker and an electric kettle, it's perfect for brewing a cup or two of coffee. It's the first time I've ever tried pour over, it's surprisingly fast combined with the kettle, easy cleanup and perfect for me since I only drink a cup or two in the morning. I just need to get a decent grinder and I should be set for my morning coffee
Recently I've been doing the lazy pourover approach more often than I probably should:
I have a gooseneck kettle and v60 cone and whatnot, but sometimes that just feels like too much effort. The coffeemaker does heat water to the right temperature and gradually sprinkle it over the grounds, after all, just not quite as carefully as if I'm doing it by hand. (and given I then put milk and sugar in, I'm not sure if I can tell the difference in taste)
I've decided to try cold brew and my first batch is ready this morning.
So you don't drink this straight, right ?
No?
The question mark is because you can but most people who follow “recipes” use a lot more coffee than is necessary in order to make cold brew. IE they make double or triple strength coffee then dilute it. You entirely can just make regular strength coffee in your fridge and drink it the next day.
The reason the recipes exist as double/triple(or higher) strength is that it’s very difficult to store a commercial amount of water in a fridge overnight. By making the coffee much stronger storage space is limited. And these commercial recipes promulgate.
This is typically not an issue at home where you’re going to store a pitcher regardless of how much you are going to drink. So a larger/stronger batch means your coffee sits around longer which is pretty inconsequential for cold brew.
So add as much water as you want to your concoction.
Could you offer any guidance on how to make regular strength coffee. I have a two quart vessel from Amazon and the instructions asked for two cups of ground coffee or 170g which seemed fucking insane, but I'm new to this.
Could you offer any guidance on how to make regular strength coffee. I have a two quart vessel from Amazon and the instructions asked for two cups of ground coffee or 170g which seemed fucking insane, but I'm new to this.
That's a ratio of ~11:1, try something more like 15-17:1 (110-125g coffee). It is a lot of coffee but also consider that 2 quarts of water is nearly 6.5 standard 10 oz "mugs" of coffee. The cold/tepid water also doesn't extract as much flavor as hot water does (though it is good at pulling out caffeine, which mostly just needs water + time) so you do need a fair bit more coffee to get the taste right.
Apologies for mixing imperial and metric units all over the place, when talking coffee I usually think of fluids in oz and weight in metric.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
edited May 2022
The basic formula to start with for machine coffee is 10g (2TBSP) of ground beans per 6oz of water. That might be a little strong but can start there.
So 64oz (2qt) /6oz is about 11 coffee cups.
11 * 10g is 110g of grounds, or 22 TBSP, which works out to about 1.4c if I did that right
So 2c is probably a little high. I do 6 TBSP for 48oz of water which might be on the lower side.
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Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
So, advice needed please: I haven't used my coffee grinder for quite awhile. I'm not sure if I talked about it here or not but I had a cockroach problem last year/earlier this year and it really, really grossed me out. I've mostly rebuilt my coffee setup now but I'll get to that in a separate, future post. The last thing I need to do is clean and re-setup my coffee grinder (Baratza Virtuoso+).
I don't think the cockroaches ever got into to the grinder, but I want to clean it. What would everyone advise?
This is what I'm thinking:
- Uncooked rice in the grinder itself. This is what I typically see recommended. Or do you all really recommend those cleaning tablets over just uncooked rice?
- Either a slightly dampened paper towel with a little bit of soap or maaaaaybe a 70% isopropyl wipe on the outside of the surface of the grinder (not inside anywhere).
- Wash the basket thingie that collects the grinds with soap and dry it
- Maybe wash and dry the plastic cone on top you put the beans in but it may be enough to just wash the outside
Any thoughts?
The Virtuoso uses metal burrs so do not use water anywhere near the inside. What I would do is
1) dump any beans you have in the hopper since you haven't used it in a while
2) Take the hopper and catch basket out, clean both of those with soap and water
3) take the top burr out and brush the whole thing out really well
4) I've run rice through my grinder before and it doesn't hurt it and can help push through some of the gunk your brush couldn't reach. If you have some old or expired coffee, run it through afterward to help push the last bit of rice out. It shouldn't affect flavor at all if you don't but looks weird seeing little white specks in your grind
5) put it all back together. If you're worried about the outside being super gross, I'd moisten a rag with a 10:1 dilute bleach solution and wipe down the outside just in case.
This video I found should be very similar to the model you have and does a good walkthrough of the steps needed.
Thank you!
The "hopper" refers to the cone at the top above the burr that you put your beans in before grinding, right?
I have to take a look and see how to take the top burr out - I can't remember when I assembled it.
Thank you!
Yes it does, and the baratzas are pretty easy to work on as well
For examples, see these videos:
Generally speaking you want to avoid using water anywhere there is metal because it WILL rust. You can also just straight up call them and they will help you.
Thank you!
I bought this Impresa descaling solution. The instructions are to pour half a bottle of the solution into the reservoir and fill the rest of the reservoir with water. Then use the brew function with maximum size cup setting until you get a low water warning. Then wait 30 minutes. The do it again with just water. Then wait 30 minutes again. Then do it a final time with just water.
My reservoir holds 78 oz of water and my machine can make up to a 12 oz cup. That means I have to "brew" 18 cups. And I need to run to a sink each time to dump the water (my keurig is in my bedroom). That is a crazy amount of time and effort.
Well, one more cup of coffee and I'll do it.
Well, I can confirm that changing burrs in a Rancilio Rocky is a PITA because of the design. They aren't flat on the bottom, they have a recessed area that collects fine coffee grounds and compresses it into coffee ground cement. I had to scrape all of that out with a bamboo skewer, which was FUN! I'm guessing I've put at least 250 pounds of coffee through the grinder so the burrs were dull as well. I must have pulled who 3+ ounces of ground coffee and whole beans outta the thing. I need a better grinder.
I also had the joy of replacing the power switch, pressurestat, and power cord in my espresso machine recently. I've got some parts on order to do a complete replacement of the grouphead valves and gaskets, as well as the portafilter gasket and shower screen. I probably need to descale the thing at some point but it's a heat exchange boiler design so I'm not looking forward to it.
Maintaining equipment is fun!
At least I'll get better coffee out of the process.
:bro:
My machine has been out of commission since early December and troubleshooting with the retailer over email has been long and painful and now I'm trying to fight for a warranty replacement solenoid valve. At this point we've finally agreed it's likely that part that's seized up and I've directly asked if they will replace it, it would be ~$75 after tax and shipping if my warranty claim gets denied. Only reason holding me back on just biting the bullet was that spare parts are final sale and I didn't want to throw money at something if it wasn't the solution I needed.
:bro:
Yeah, the valves are expensive. Is that something that fails often on the model of your machine? On mine, the pressurestats fail basically every 2 years. They are like $50 and the machine is unusable until it's been replaced. It's an easy fix, about 5 minutes of work and just a pain to even have to do.
I had to buy parts from about 4 different websites because 2021 and the company that made my machine (Crem) got bought out by a Chinese company and all part production is apparently moving there. So certain parts were out of stock at every place. Fun!
No, I think it's mostly that I believed that the resin filter was doing a good enough job of softening my hard water but now it seems like it wasn't and some scale got in. I'm going to try one last descale procedure and then one way or another get a new solenoid. New procedure going forward once everything is working will be to cut my tap water 50/50 with distilled, which should bring my TDS from ~180 ppm to 90 which should be easily handled by the machine and the softener filter.
Is your softener filter an in-tank one or external one? Mine has the in-tank but they want it to be cycled every 50 shots. I didn’t do that, because its an enormous pain to do and the things cost like $30 so buying new was out of the question.
I’m using the BWT coffee filters instead, and they are supposed to help with scale by substituting some of the calcium for magnesium.
https://www.wholelattelove.com/products/bwt-3-pack-of-replacement-magnesium-filter-cartridges
They work pretty well. I also flush the tank with the hot water wand to remove any precipitate from the boiler. Seems to work pretty well.
https://www.bonescoffee.com/
https://bones-coffee-company.myshopify.com/pages/faq#chaos
From their FAQ:
If all that's true, then how do they produce a coffee product that tastes and smells like Caramel Apple, Strawberry Shortcake, or Chocolate Raspberry?
The reason I'm asking is I basically quit salt and sugar. But I had all these bags of Bones Coffee before I quit all that (quite a few bags, actually). I just want to make sure these things aren't going to mess up my diet, which it sounds like they won't, but I don't understand the quantum mechanics behind sweet flavored coffee that doesn't use sugar or sweeteners.
Please explain and please use complex chemistry diagrams that I will not understand. Thank you.
https://theroasterie.com/blogs/news/how-is-flavored-coffee-made
No idea about how they make it sweet but something like stevia wouldn’t be considered “artificial”. Without an ingredient list it’s impossible to tell.
From their website:
The ingredients are as follows: 100% Arabica Coffee, Natural & Artificial Flavors.
There are bunches of natural and artificial flavors which trick your brain into thinking things are sweet (like vanilla extract, mint, chocolate). There are some things you can do with quality beans and good roasting know-how to coax flavors out of just pure coffee (blueberry, cocoa, toast, nuts all come to mind right away) but this company seems to be 100% into flavoring their coffee.
In espresso news, my machine is still dead, still fighting with retailer to get it fixed
I cut cappuccino out of my diet too bust I still have my machine. Every once in awhile I have a glass of almond milk.
Health-wise there's really no difference between having a cup of coffee (which is healthy) plus a cup of unsweetend almond mile (which is only like 30 calories and is relatively healthy with good nutrients) or using almond milk to make a cappuccino, is there? I mean is there any reason to think an almond milk cappuccino is unhealthy? I wouldn't be adding any sugar or anything else.
No there is no difference. Milk tends to taste sweeter when heated and frothed but i don't know if this will apply to almond milk and its not going to have an appreciable effect on the health value
Bones mentioned above is good.
https://www.bonescoffee.com/products/bones-coffee-companys-r-i-p-decaf-12oz?_pos=4&_sid=8a4169b89&_ss=r
I would suggest that most places with good regular will also have good decaf. So whatever your brand of previous coffee that you liked
I have cold brewed before (we have a Toddy system) but even that still gives me issues. Dunno.
I have been trying brands I've used before, just seeing if anyone has any that really stand out. I liked Equator's Decaf so far. Passenger decaf was alright. I'm trying one by Audubon that's pretty decent.
I'll try that out!
If it is acidity that has been bothering you, you might try looking for coffees that focus earthy/chocolate notes. This would put you more into medium-dark roasts. Absolutely avoid anything light roasted. Anything with fruit notes will usually be fairly acidic as well. If the caffeine is bothering you avoid anything with robusta in it.
I don’t have any specific recommendations because single origin light roasts are what I lean towards for coffee.
noooooooooooooooooooooooooo
As a counterpoint, for me at least, fruit-acid is quite different from "stomach-pain-acid", where it tastes "acidic". I've got a nice Ethiopian at the moment that's quite fruity, berries, etc, but while it's got that nice fruit tang to it, it's definitely not the "acidic" sensation some beans can give.
Other elements to look into are grind/brew process, as with the same bean I can definitely alter how much acid expresses itself (anywhere from "what fruit?" to "this tastes like a car battery") by a couple grinder clicks/length of extraction.
Very anecdotally, I've found African/Indonesian beans to go "fruity" with less risk of "burny" than S./Cent. American beans, and I've still been going with some light roasts. (Not "green" light, but definitely in the "specialty single-origin coffee" lightness arena.) I also tend to find natural process beans to be less likely to go burny on me than washed, but I have absolutely nothing scientific to back that up in any way, and maybe I just like them better or something.
Now all that assumes it's not just the caffeine doing it to you, right, but all may not be lost in the world of fruity coffee varietals.
I have a gooseneck kettle and v60 cone and whatnot, but sometimes that just feels like too much effort. The coffeemaker does heat water to the right temperature and gradually sprinkle it over the grounds, after all, just not quite as carefully as if I'm doing it by hand. (and given I then put milk and sugar in, I'm not sure if I can tell the difference in taste)
So you don't drink this straight, right ?
No?
The question mark is because you can but most people who follow “recipes” use a lot more coffee than is necessary in order to make cold brew. IE they make double or triple strength coffee then dilute it. You entirely can just make regular strength coffee in your fridge and drink it the next day.
The reason the recipes exist as double/triple(or higher) strength is that it’s very difficult to store a commercial amount of water in a fridge overnight. By making the coffee much stronger storage space is limited. And these commercial recipes promulgate.
This is typically not an issue at home where you’re going to store a pitcher regardless of how much you are going to drink. So a larger/stronger batch means your coffee sits around longer which is pretty inconsequential for cold brew.
So add as much water as you want to your concoction.
That's a ratio of ~11:1, try something more like 15-17:1 (110-125g coffee). It is a lot of coffee but also consider that 2 quarts of water is nearly 6.5 standard 10 oz "mugs" of coffee. The cold/tepid water also doesn't extract as much flavor as hot water does (though it is good at pulling out caffeine, which mostly just needs water + time) so you do need a fair bit more coffee to get the taste right.
Apologies for mixing imperial and metric units all over the place, when talking coffee I usually think of fluids in oz and weight in metric.
So 64oz (2qt) /6oz is about 11 coffee cups.
11 * 10g is 110g of grounds, or 22 TBSP, which works out to about 1.4c if I did that right
So 2c is probably a little high. I do 6 TBSP for 48oz of water which might be on the lower side.
Just watched this video and now I want to try deep fried coffee.
Origin ID: Discgolfer27
Untappd ID: Discgolfer1981
This is life tho
Been making "Cold Brew" for about a year or two now.
Pretty tasty and low-effort. great mixed in with 1 part milk.
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