Just received my ECM Classika with PID and I’m both excited and over whelmed lol. I never used a e61 group head machine with flow control and PID. But with practice i will get it down (hopefully).
Coming from a Breville touch so to me this is a big step up.
Any tips are greatly appreciated regarding pressures, from what i read 9 bar of pressure is recommended for espresso extraction. How about water temp? From what i read 200F is a good spot to be
by squid1984
10 Comments
Hell yes! Nice machine! Love mine every time I use it!
Temp depends on your bean roast…. I have mine set to 201 for light roast right now.
I now pretty much pull every shot at low flow, but that isnt till after I have it dialed in to what I want with a standard, good tasting shot at standard flow. And I am using lightly roasted beans as well…. Pressure itself isnt’ really a targeted goal for me, per se.
Flow doesnt regulate pressure directly, as it is related to the resistance provided by the puck….
There are some excellent videos on using the flow control for various profiles…. Check out the video on youtube for your machine and using flow control, and there is another for 5 recipes using flow control that have a lot of info in them for various types of beans/roasts.
198-200 is great for medium-dark to medium, and easier to extract beans. I find 202 to be great for light roast extractions. Like the other commenter most shots are pulled at low flow after dialing in the grind to a standard 9 bar shot. Spend a little time with a scale and pure water pulls to map out the g/water per second for your flow control knob if you want to play with profiles. Youtube for learning that. I ended up with a pretty general profile of high flow until it starts dripping (about 11 grams/sec) to low flow (about 4 grams/sec and letting grouphead pressure drift to 6bar). Seems to make pretty much everything delicious without overthinking it. Straight 9 bar is usually great too and plenty of people with flow control don’t use it that often. Congrats on the great machine and have fun!
I suggest you open the flow control valve 1 1/2 turns from fully closeed, and don’t touch it until you are comfortable using the other features of the Classika.
Beautiful
So this is a glimpse of the future of where all my money is going to go isn’t it?
I’ve been watching a few YouTube videos on flow, pressures, temperatures and this is becoming overwhelming lol
[6 bar](https://climpsonandsons.com/blogs/journal/exploring-low-pressure-extraction-9-bar-vs-6-bar-espresso) – 7 bar espresso, with pre infusion tastes nice more consistently.
Just play with it, every coffee is going to be different so there isn’t really a hard and fast rule on which pressure you should use. Let your taste buds be the judge. I’ve pulled some shots thinking “yep this is gonna suck” and have been pleasantly surprised. I only drink iced coffees, so I do have the benefit of being able to hide any sour or bitter notes with milk so there’s that.
I tend to use my flow control for low pressure pre-infusions then just open the taps once the puck is saturated. I’ve started with ramping down pressures towards the end of the shot but I’m just getting started toying with that. Honestly I don’t even look at what the gauge shows while pulling a shot but I know it’s over 9 bar most of the time, but I enjoy the shots I get so I don’t really pay attention to that..
I leave my temp at 202, at least according to the PID it hovers around 200-201 when I do that so that’s good enough for me.
Did the same thing. From Breville bambino to an ECM classika 😁
That setup looks *clean*! Huge upgrade.