Astra Gourmet
Anybody uses astra gourmet for catering. If so, are you consistently pulling good shots and do you start with crema?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Richard Penney on
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I have used one. I ran the machine at a higher bar/temperature when I needed to pull many drinks and steam milk at an event. 1.1 bar at home and 1.3 at an event. Obviously I had a longer flush at an event when I restarted the drink line. The machine really needs an hour, and more if you can get it, to get to a stable temperature. Get a good steam wand tip as the milk may stretch faster than heat!! Here is a mod that I made to mine to allow resetting the pressurestat without machine dis-assembly, photo.
Decide whether to use a Flo-master pump and 5 gal. bottle or use it as a reservoir machine. It is a lot less hassle to not carry the big bottle and pump. If yours has a drain tube from the drip try you will have a big bottle to drain into but the reduced hassle of that tray is worth it. The drip tray is a bit shallow on mine so I had to use a bar cloth in it to keep from overflowing. Have a small hand pump to drain the reservoir if you use that method. Use good quality water!!!!
I found that the day of the event would make a big difference in the shots. Coffee would be dry or damp, The grinder output would be fluffy or lumpy, I would be happy or grumpy.
Plan on a few sink shots before all is going well! - Attachments:
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Permalink Reply by Ricky Roxas on
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I think you're right about giving it at least an hour. I only had mine for a week and it's pulling great shots except yesterday when we pull our first shot of the day. The shots looks great but the taste is flat, same great tasting coffee we had the night before. I only waited for 20 minutes since the manufacturer suggest that that's all it takes. Also the pressure gauge shows the machine is ready in 15 to 20 minutes. Good feed back, thanks Richard!
Richard Penney said:I have used one. I ran the machine at a higher bar/temperature when I needed to pull many drinks and steam milk at an event. 1.1 bar at home and 1.3 at an event. Obviously I had a longer flush at an event when I restarted the drink line. The machine really needs an hour, and more if you can get it, to get to a stable temperature. Get a good steam wand tip as the milk may stretch faster than heat!! Here is a mod that I made to mine to allow resetting the pressurestat without machine dis-assembly, photo.
Decide whether to use a Flo-master pump and 5 gal. bottle or use it as a reservoir machine. It is a lot less hassle to not carry the big bottle and pump. If yours has a drain tube from the drip try you will have a big bottle to drain into but the reduced hassle of that tray is worth it. The drip tray is a bit shallow on mine so I had to use a bar cloth in it to keep from overflowing. Have a small hand pump to drain the reservoir if you use that method. Use good quality water!!!!
I found that the day of the event would make a big difference in the shots. Coffee would be dry or damp, The grinder output would be fluffy or lumpy, I would be happy or grumpy.
Plan on a few sink shots before all is going well!
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I have been thinking about this further. And this morning a possible answer dawned on me! I had to vent my Cremina lever machine, even though it has a vacuum breaker cap. It is still way faster than venting it a few times by hand to get it to temperature from a lower true temperature..
I think a part of the difficulty that I have found with many machines is that the "Vacuum Breaker" may close before releasing all the "false pressure." That means that the pressure inside the boiler may be partly from heat expanded air and the pressure reading is not really the true temperature of the super-heated water. Try opening the steam wand when you see the pressure at whatever setting that you use and then close it. If the pressure drops and slowly comes back up that was a false pressure reading. It may take a couple of vents to get to full pressure in a short time.
Remember that there is a few pounds of brass in that group and portafilter. A good place to buy a cheap!! temperature strip that will allow you to know when the group is up to temperature is:
target="_blank">http://www.orphanespresso.com/Pennys-Hot-Shot-Group-Strip-Thermomet...
Disclosure= I found that item and Orphan Espresso also sells some of my products...
-Richard
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First thing tomorrow, as soon as the gauge shows it ready I will try to release some steam more than I usually do and see what happens. In fairness, manufacturer suggest to release some but question is how much. I'll let you know.
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What is the group's ideal temperature?
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I like to have the group about 202º for the first shot. The ideal temperature for a group is based upon the coffee being used. The temperature of the group is set by barista's experience with the machine by cooling flush of yeah many seconds. That flush uses water from the HX and draws water from the supply reservoir/plumbin making the water in the HX for the next shot cooler and also sets a temperature for the group. The group temperature is not as important as the temperature of the water coming through the group to make the shot, it only needs to remain constant enough so that the barista may time the flush to make the water temperature correct for the coffee being used.
That is why a Barista is not a barista!
-Richard.
PS. Alba and Richard at Astra are really great folks and will answer questions and assure that you are able to get the most out of that machine. They helped me during the rebuild of my older machine and change to the newer double gauge.
Ricky Roxas said:What is the group's ideal temperature?
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