u/After_Fall — reddlx

Busy pop up event. Linea Mini. Double vs split ?

I have first popup event coming up and will make up to 120 drinks within 2 to 3 hours. (Updated numbers here from the initial version).

Equipment: Coffee cart,LM, E65S GbW grinder, Acaia Scale connected to Mini, plumbed in (5G water source),7G gray water tank(x2), rinser, knock box ,sync, mini fridge, cooler for the ice, all fits inside the table.

My usual flow: Medium roast beans. 21.5 G coffee > 40 G extraction >Into 8 to 10 oz cups for milk based drinks.

Option 1 ,Split - Am I losing intensity on milk based drinks? Do I need to come up on the Grind weight ? say 22.5G into a portafilter? What should be the proportions for 8 oz latte drinks without making it too milky?
Option 2, standard double shot, however , that would obviously slow things down by a lot.

Thoughts ?

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u/After_Fall — 3 days ago

▲ 5 r/LaMarzocco

Border line obsessed home Barista going to Italy for vacation. Ideas?

I am pretty sure this is perfect place to address this...

Nothing makes me happier then to watch my grinder spit out fluffy beautiful grinds followed by paint coming out of my White Mini each morning or any part of the day. Now that I gave full background on myself, I wanted to ask for fun places/shops related to espresso while my wife and I are in Rome , Florence , Tuscany and maybe few other places (not decided yet). Vacation starts in a week.

I did order Museum guided tour at Accademia del caffè espresso in Florence towards the end of our trip. Anything else that is a must for people like us(home Baristas that lose their minds in their espresso "journey" ?

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u/After_Fall — 9 days ago

▲ 102 r/LaMarzocco

Linia Mini paired with Mahlkonig E65W GBS

I am not a professional. The setup is used at home. Enjoying home Barista title for the last 15 years.

Recently upgraded my setup to Linia Mini and paired it with Eureka w65 grinder. Started having issues 3 months later with the grind by weight functionality. It was very inconsistent and had to be serviced. While in service , I had the chance to upgrade to the next w75 model which I regretted not getting from the beginning. Thinking about spending close to 2K for w75 model led me to look at Mahlkonig E65W GBS model. I am sure I had a lemon with w65, but with all the issues I had with it, I did convince myself to spend extra money and go for Mahlkonig. Now that I have it for few weeks, I can share my experience with it.

Definitely gives well made ,commercial quality tank vibes. It was much bigger in size than I anticipated. Pretty much half the size of the Linia Mini. Removing short (optional) hopper is a task with my setup. I have to remove the top cover. Remove the hopper , and slide it out on angle so that I don't have to move grinder out from under the cabinets. It's not bad but inconvenient.

Grinding beans:

It is honestly dream fluffy grinds coming out of that thing. Every single time. Weight is spot on or off just by .1g. I don't even bother validating testing weight anymore. Super consistent.

How does this translate into cup of coffee:

It's very tough to say comparing to Eureka w65. I am using the same beans I did before. Maybe better but can't say I am blown away with the drastic change.

Some small issues to note

I am dealing with some channeling issues. If I use distribution tool I have no problem. Not sure why as grinds are 10 out of 10 fluffy and have no clumps at all. Playing with different dial in combinations at this time.
Connectivity - I have Eero router and there were issues getting it online. Issue may have been specific to Eero router and it was documented here in the reddit community. It was resolved with messing with it for few hours and playing network administrator games.
some sync and assisted dialingin functionality is pretty cool, I appreciated the tech put in. However, it felt gimmicky. It did work as advertised but I was not impressed with the amount of tries it needed to self adjust. Tried few times and then went with the manual process.
I have to purge some coffee each morning to get rid of stale deposits left over from previous day. No a big deal. Just 2 or 3 grams.

Overall, I am enjoying both Mini and the grinder quality. I feel like both would be running solid for years even with heavy use. Hope this helps if anyone was on the same path.

u/After_Fall — 16 days ago

▲ 2 r/LaMarzocco

Plumb in question for mini

If you plumb in mini with the Flojet BW5000 Series and use 5 Gallon water bottle, how does the machine know if the jug is empty ? Mini will continue run dry because there is no sensor in play like it is with the build in reservoir ? I know Flojet it self has an auto shut off function I am just not clear how Mini will react to this scenario. Thoughts ?

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u/After_Fall — 2 months ago

▲ 17 r/LaMarzocco

Loved having Bianca V1 and used it for 6 years. Was time to upgrade and still be able to get decent value for it. Took LM delivery about 3 weeks ago. Besides my wife getting Lattes delivered to bed (regular day to day thing even with Bianca), I also do the same for my 18 year old daughter now :). Italian accent kicks in upon delivery. Very happy. Did I think Its overpriced ? yes. 5k is where it should be. And it was around that price just over a year ago. Does it feel like an upgrade. Yes. Am I waking up in the better mood knowing I am about to enjoy pulling a shot ? yes. If I could not afford LM, I would still upgrade and get Bianca V3. Hope this helps someone who is on the same path.

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u/After_Fall — 4 months ago