The S1 Cafe - Helping Your Espresso Dreams Become Reality

I just pulled the trigger and bought one of Chris's last V2s at the old price. I've begun work on my setup, and I'll post updates here as they happen.

Over the past few days:
The Breville knockbox won the great espresso accessory race arriving two days after I bought it online.

The following day, the Iroast duce arrived from Sweet Marias. Since then, I've roasted three loads, and I've formed a few opinions.
1. I need a new hood for my stove, as its louder than the Iroast.
2. Comparing 24 hour roasted coffee to consumer coffee, is like comparing a stradivarius violin to a souvenir ukulele. They are sort of the same thing, but not really.
3. Roasting coffee is not what I expected it to be. Its better. In every way.

Also, if someone has a good technique for getting the beans out of the roaster minus the chaff, I'm all ears.

logicfix wrote: 1. I need a new hood for my stove, as its louder than the Iroast.

THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE!
There's nothing on Earth louder than the iRoar.

You should try to hear first crack! At least there's not any smoke in the kitchen.

My kitchen hood is "as" loud as my iRoar.
...what 1st crack? :? Coffee cracks?...

For real though, I'm looking into a new roaster (for months and months now) just to save my ears.

It does and is crack!

For the longest time I couldn't hear 2nd crack on that damn roaster, I had to step away at a certain distance to hear it. The hood is so loud also, I have to turn it down just slightly and stand at that magical distance and I can hear every crack.

I've not heard the second crack yet . I'm going off of sight. So far, I've not taken anything past full city.

Looks like you'll break 1000 post before the end of today if we keep this up!

I also had a look at my breaker box. I have one mini breaker open. Thank god.


Now If I can get an electrician to come out and run a dedicated 20A outlet, I'll be in good shape. I've been working for two weeks to get a new outlet, but I guess that the electricians are out doing more lucrative stuff than running an outlet for a "suped up coffee machine" as they put it.

You'll be fine in 15A mode for a while, don't rush into getting a quick 20A circuit put in. It'll take some time for you to adjust to the machine and in a matter of a few weeks you should find someone to do a nice job and unleash the full potential of the Spaz.
My palate cannot handle lighter, brighter roasts of less than Full City+ these days. They tend to get too fruity and acidic for me, I almost blew my skull off with a lighter Full City roast last week. Too much berry, too much sweet tangy tartness for my sensitive little taste buds. It all depends on the bean also, but for french press I don't go darker than a City+.
I'm trying to keep it under 12 cups a day
...now if I can stay under 4 posts a day, that would be a shocker.

logicfix wrote: Looks like you'll break 1000 post before the end of today if we keep this up!

I might turn into a pumpkin...or a chicken.

I'm thinking about calibration/setup isses for the VII. What do you folks recommend? I want to limit "playing" and start pulling good shots. I can tweek things later.

As for quick setups, there really aren't any shortcuts unless you bought a Mazzer. They dial in the grinders at the factory before they leave and they're pretty close to the zero point needed for espresso.
I think you mentioned a MACAP...right? Those require more work by trying to find the Zero on your own.

logicfix wrote: Also, if someone has a good technique for getting the beans out of the roaster minus the chaff, I'm all ears.

If you roast at 400 degrees or below, there's a higher airflow for the lower temps - this causes the beans to move more rapidly and remove the chaff.
Or, you can simply run the roasted beans in basket-type of mesh (used for washing veggies, etc..) on top of a fan facing vertically as you stir the chaff right off. Others have used vacuums and other powerful means but it can hurt the beans if you're not careful, sometimes cooling the beans too fast causes them to crack even more with such quick temperature shifts. Cooling them down fast is good, but sometimes too good for its own good