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Permalink Reply by Bill Warnock on June 4, 2009 at 6:23pm

well if it cant keep up with demand do a test and let me know how it works out. get some one grp lm boilers (just barley bigger) and see if the 110v heating element fits in then make the boiler fit in the machine. btw its just a tad bigger like .3L for one of them but i think they are both bigger.

and let me know how it works.......man I dream too much!

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Permalink Reply by Jason Shipley on June 4, 2009 at 6:35pm

I'm really hopeful our plan is to do a black tie service, latte art on traditional size drinks. My hope is with a bit of theater and the digital controls we'll be good to go. If it works and things go well next weekend the machine will pay for itself by the end of summer. I have 2 festivals that we vend at over the summer that the difference in electric fees alone will be like $1000.

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Permalink Reply by Jason Shipley on June 14, 2009 at 6:33pm

Had our first event with the new machine last night, it worked very well even just running off of the internal reservoir had no problem serving at a wedding of 150. We are opening a new cafe for a client the next two weeks but I can't wait to have some time to play with the programmable features some more, the level of customization is astounding.

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Permalink Reply by Mike McGinness on June 15, 2009 at 8:22am

Only had a chance to play with a pre-release GS3 briefly. Sweet machine, congrats! No doubt it'll do very well moderate volume gigs. Who knows, if larger festivals find one group to limiting you may have to get a second GS3:-) Then you could do either one larger event or two small events at the same time...

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Permalink Reply by Jason Shipley on June 20, 2009 at 4:34pm

I love this machine, it is simply amazing between the temperature control and ability to program precisely the pre-infusion the only problem is going to be all the playing and tasting it will take before I'm satisfied that we have the perfect shot. This machine truly takes us to the next level in our espresso program.

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Permalink Reply by N. Freeman on June 20, 2009 at 8:00pm

Jason, it took me three hours to set up the machine including the water drain and fresh water plumbing, pre-infusion, brew temperature to match the espresso coffee I use (201 f) and all the toys I wanted to function, such as the timer showing how long it takes to make a shot - much better than using a stop watch. What ever times you set for pre infusion and the slack time between the pre-infusion and the start of the draw is included together with the timer. Example - I use a one second pre-infusion and a two second slack time and an average of a 29 seconds for a 14.5 to 15 gram double shot. My total time will show 32 to 33 seconds.

I spent more time adjusting the conical grinder for a 29-30 second actual shot than setting up the LM GS/3 which included using a scale for each shot and at least a pound of coffee. Now! every espresso is almost automatic and the only variable is how fast I can steam the milk. This machine has the burn wand and is almost as fast as my Iberital machine and it makes a better quality froth with a high protein milk than any machine I have owned or used. The other machine has a right hand steam wand and switching to a left hand wand was alien.

The coffee shot always appears to have a perfect color with no or very little yellow and with exceptional crema. Also, I have been satisfied with the draws using the three shot naked portafilter made by La Marzocco (an extra). The only problem observed is tamping with a 57mm custom tamper and the spring ring indentation in the double basket. It required at least 14.5 to 15 gram of coffee to be able to tamp above the ring. The include LM plastic tamper with a 56.75mm diameter and a larger convex shape does better and the one shot end of the tamper makes a perfect press using the single basket. With the single I just overload the basket cup in the bottom of the basket - tamp and then shake out the loose coffee above the cup. You will like it and using it portable will require less setup time.

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