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Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

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CaffeineFiend
Senior Member

Joined: 30 Nov 2011
Posts: 55
Location: Elmwood Park, NJ
Expertise: I live coffee

Espresso: Quick Mill Silvano
Grinder: Baratza Preciso
Drip: Bonavita
Roaster: Redbird Coffee Co.

Posted Fri Mar 23, 2012, 4:12pm Subject: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

Sup Geeks: I've had my espresso for some months now and definitely loving it. Learning so much from the importance of a hot cup--and even a hot spoon for stirring sugar into espresso, to dosing, tamping, temp surfing, the whole nine. I have my Baratza Preciso set with the hopper marker one notch past the 10 and the micro setting turned all the way to the left. This seems to give me decent timing however the shots do come out just a tad faster than 25 sec. per double shot: granted I do put a scoop of sugar in. It's about as thick as a rat's tail: regular rat not NYC subway rat. I've tried having the hopper marker on the 10 but it chokes the machine and takes too long to pull a shot. I'm sure there are threads on here somewhere about this but I didn't see any that were what I was looking for, so if anyone is thinking "you newb check the threads" feel free to post the link followed by snooty comment: it would still be helpful ; ). As for anyone else with the Baratza Preciso: i'd love to hear how everyone else is setting theirs. I also read some disturbing reviews of the Preciso crapping out over time from adjusting back and forth between drip and espresso grind: is this true? I don't grind fresh coffee daily--i usually grind for the week because if my grinder woke up my baby at 6am my girlfriend would put my junk in that grinder. I was just using leftover grinds from espresso dosing but I find the coffee tastes a bit watery and lacks texture when ground that fine. Looking forward to hearing all your responses: thanks for reading.

"Coffee should be black as Hell, strong as Death, and as sweet as Love."

sn_85
Senior Member

Joined: 1 Dec 2011
Posts: 131
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Quick Mill Andreja Premium
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Sat Mar 24, 2012, 2:41am Subject: Re: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

There's no universal "best setting". Everyone's setup is different as you know. Your shot timing depends on a lot of things like how much you dose, how hard you tamp, type and age of beans, your machine, humidity etc. No one is going to have the exact same parameters as you so it's pretty useless for me to sit here and tell you that 10E is the best setting for you. I have the Preciso and an Andreja Premium and I can tell you that switching between beans means finding a whole new grind setting. All you can do is just experiment with the grinder setting til you get it to where you want. Have you tried putting it to 10 and putting the micro all the way to K? For my setup I have the macro anywhere from 10-11 and the micro just depends on the beans. As well, there's really no reason you shouldn't be grinding daily. You go all the way to spend $1000 on the machine and $300 on the grinder and somehow grinding right before brewing is too much of a disturbance? It doesn't make sense to me. You might as well do it right if you're going to drop $1300 on a setup. The Preciso is a pretty quiet grinder compared to your more commercial machines, it's not going to wake up a baby. The pump on the machine is probably much louder than the grinder. Unless the baby is sleeping in the kitchen (where the machine and grinder are I assume) then it's not going to be loud enough to wake up the baby. Leave the room, close the door, grind, brew, and the baby won't even notice a thing.

mr_pedro
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Feb 2012
Posts: 31
Location: Baltimore
Expertise: I love coffee

Posted Sat Mar 24, 2012, 3:17am Subject: Re: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

So you moved the macro adjustment 1 notch and kept the micro adjustment the same and that was to big of a step? Have you considered using the micro adjustment to get a setting in-between? From what I have read the full range of the micro adjustment equals 1 notch of the macro adjustment. It is going to take a while though before you find the right settings if you keep grinding for the entire week. Also are you weighing your baskets to have consistency in the dose? Small variations in dose will also have big impacts on how fast it flows.

CaffeineFiend
Senior Member

Posted Sat Mar 24, 2012, 6:31am Subject: Re: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

I don't make cappuccino in the morning I make drip coffee before work. I do grind daily right before I pull a shot when I make espresso: but for drip I grind in advance. No the baby doesn't sleep in the kitchen though I'm fully aware of the sarcasm. The baby's room is on the other side of the thin apartment wall: so yes--you can hear it quite clearly in his room. I have played around with the micro settings also: the setting I have now has been ok: I just decided to see if I can fine tune the settings to see if I get better results: so I'm in the process now of trying different settings. I moved the micro adjustment prior to making the next step with the hopper but it still wasn't just right. I haven't weighed my dose: perhaps I should but I usually just set the grind timer the same every time--then if need be I occasionally grind some more I the basket is lacking.

"Coffee should be black as Hell, strong as Death, and as sweet as Love."

mr_pedro
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Feb 2012
Posts: 31
Location: Baltimore
Expertise: I love coffee

Posted Sat Mar 24, 2012, 7:25am Subject: Re: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

Adjusting the grinder also changes the speed at which grinds come out of it. If you are eyeballing the dose, you can easily have a couple of grams variance from shot to shot (at least untill you gain enough experience). Enough to offset the fine grinder adjustments, this could have you keep adjusting the grinder and never hitting your target flow. So, from what you wrote so far it seems like a consistent dose by weighing your basket should be your first goal.

sn_85
Senior Member

Joined: 1 Dec 2011
Posts: 131
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL
Expertise: I love coffee

Espresso: Quick Mill Andreja Premium
Grinder: Baratza Vario

Posted Sat Mar 24, 2012, 12:04pm Subject: Re: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

Imprecise technique is going to lead to imprecise results, which is what I think is going on here. If you're just eye balling you could be putting anywhere from 16g - 18g in the basket everytime. A difference in .5g is going to lead to changes in your grind setting. The timer on the preciso is far from accurate. It just measures out 10 second blocks so again, everytime you use the timer the actual grind time is going to vary greatly. It's different from the Vario where you can set up the timer digitally down to the exact tenths of a second. What I would do is buy a digital scall for $20 and just measure out how much you need each time and grind only that amount. That way you can be more consistent in how much you're dosing to get that 25s you want.

pilot25
Senior Member

Joined: 7 Jan 2012
Posts: 93
Location: MD

Espresso: Rancilio Silvia
Grinder: Preciso

Posted Sat Mar 24, 2012, 4:33pm Subject: Re: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

I have the Precision also and have good timing but blonding at 17-18 seconds every time. I keep the dose the same and tamp pressure but am confused. I have the Silvia and can only think the temp is the problem. I have no idea. I just got this grinder and am having the same crappy results as with a crappy grinder.

mr_pedro
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Feb 2012
Posts: 31
Location: Baltimore
Expertise: I love coffee

Posted Sat Mar 24, 2012, 5:05pm
Subject: Re: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

pilot25 Said:

I have the Precision also and have good timing but blonding at 17-18 seconds every time. I keep the dose the same and tamp pressure but am confused. I have the Silvia and can only think the temp is the problem. I have no idea. I just got this grinder and am having the same crappy results as with a crappy grinder.

Posted March 24, 2012 link

How many days since the beans were roasted?
For the Silvia one thing to look for is the brew pressure. It could be that the pressure is too high, meaning you are having to grind too fine. You can check that during the brewing there is an amount of water going back into the tank roughly the same volume as the shot.

pilot25
Senior Member

Joined: 7 Jan 2012
Posts: 93
Location: MD

Espresso: Rancilio Silvia
Grinder: Preciso

Posted Sun Mar 25, 2012, 5:45am
Subject: Re: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

mr_pedro Said:

Posted March 24, 2012 link

How should I do that? Just take the return hose out and watch the amount that flows out of it? Adjusting the pressure isn't an easy task, is it?

Beans are fresh. less than a week.

mr_pedro
Senior Member

Joined: 13 Feb 2012
Posts: 31
Location: Baltimore
Expertise: I love coffee

Posted Mon Mar 26, 2012, 7:17am Subject: Re: Baratza Preciso--Best Setting for Espresso Grind

It is called the Over Pressure Valve (OPV), mine had an adjustable OPV, so all you need to do is unscrew the top off and use a wrench to turn a bolt on the OPV. Yes, to check you have the right setting you can just take out the return tube and collect the water in a measuring cup during the brew. Originally mine was not returning any water under normal brew flow, meaning it was set to a pressure of 12~14 bar. Here is a link with some pictures of how it looks like: Click Here (www.home-barista.com)

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