Providence Senior Member Joined: 20 Jan 2003 Posts: 148 Location: Denville, NJ Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Giotto Premium, La Valentina Grinder: Rocky Doserless Drip: Capresso Team Roaster: Alpenrost
Posted Tue Jan 28, 2003, 2:41pm Subject: How do you pull a single shot on Silvia?
Need some help. When pulling a single shot my filter basket is left with a wet mess - not a puck. I use a La Marzocco single basket, and have tried the La Marzocco double basket. I use one spoon of coffee and tamp.
segfault Senior Member Joined: 16 Dec 2002 Posts: 37 Location: Centennial, Colorado, USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Rancilio Silvia Grinder: Nuova Simonelli MCF Vac Pot: Press: Bodum Drip: Mr. Coffee Roaster: n/a
Posted Thu Jan 30, 2003, 8:58am Subject: Re: How do you pull a single shot on Silvia?
I believe the La Marzocco single basket is a seven gram basket... and most on alt.coffee agree that these are notoriously hard to pull. I have ordered a 9 gram single basket for my Silvia to see how well it works after a long thread on alt.coffee, which basically say that the extra coffee in the 9 gram basket allows a better single pull. I ordered a Brasilia 9gram basket from Crossroads Espresso, and it should be here today, according to UPS.
Then we get to form. You use "one spoon" of coffee. Is that a seven gram spoon? here is what I would do: fill the basket with unpacked coffee, and use a straight edge (I use my coffee spoon handle) to toss any extra into the sink. Then tamp, lock, load, shout "fire in the hole" and see how it goes.
I only have a double La Marzocco Ridgeless filter at the moment, and have never tried pulling a single. (Whole Latte Love didn't ship me the original baskets with a new machine, just the La Marz double. I wonder if this is normal?). So, everything I wrote here is from the research I have done on singles. To be honest, I am pretty happy with the ristrettos out of my double basket, so the Brasilia basket is more for playing around than serious use in my case.
segfault Senior Member Joined: 16 Dec 2002 Posts: 37 Location: Centennial, Colorado, USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Rancilio Silvia Grinder: Nuova Simonelli MCF Vac Pot: Press: Bodum Drip: Mr. Coffee Roaster: n/a
Posted Mon Feb 3, 2003, 7:41am Subject: Re: How do you pull a single shot on Silvia?
Well, I've used the Brasilia 9 gram single basket a few times now with Silvia. I have to say, it pulls a very nice single - I've never tried singles before, and did not have any problems generating a shot at the quality of my best doubles. The puck was well formed and stayed together in the knock box. All in all, a great value, Crossroads Espresso sells it for a mere $4.91USD. (The price has gone up since I ordered mine, I paid only $2.21!) It is the 9 gram single basket from the Century group.
I ordered from this page and then picked part "F00869" from the drop down.
segfault Senior Member Joined: 16 Dec 2002 Posts: 37 Location: Centennial, Colorado, USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Rancilio Silvia Grinder: Nuova Simonelli MCF Vac Pot: Press: Bodum Drip: Mr. Coffee Roaster: n/a
Posted Mon Feb 3, 2003, 7:31pm Subject: Re: How do you pull a single shot on Silvia?
Well, my first advise works well for the double basket, but experience has now shown me that topping up the single overfills the PF and the grinds hit the dispersion screen after inserting the PF. So, I've found that filling it about 1mm from the top and then tamping leaves about the right distance from the dispersion screen, as well as a decent tamp and shot time. If I put in less, I can't get a good tamp, the shot times are too quick, and the results are nasty. So, experiment a little. If you fill it too full, you may not get a good seal between the PF and the group gasket, but it won't make TOO big of a mess. (My wife was out, so I didn't have to hear about it... grin)
Good luck, and just play around with it. If it is too much work to get consistent results, just pull a double into 2 shot glasses and pitch one.
segfault Senior Member Joined: 16 Dec 2002 Posts: 37 Location: Centennial, Colorado, USA Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Rancilio Silvia Grinder: Nuova Simonelli MCF Vac Pot: Press: Bodum Drip: Mr. Coffee Roaster: n/a
Posted Mon May 7, 2007, 7:51am Subject: Re: How do you pull a single shot on Silvia?
For those still looking to source this part, the 9gram Brasilia basket (from the Brasilia Century Solenoid Group parts page), you can buy one from coffeestuff.com (they'll ship worldwide they claim): http://www.coffeestuff.com/censolgroup.html Part number F00869.
No affiliation, etc. I've receive a query, so I thought I'd update this information for the curious.
Note: This is a 58mm basket and should work in most machines. It is the largest basket I've seen for pulling singles. I regularly use an 18gram double basket (instead of the standard 14gram) so this makes my singles orthogonal to my doubles in taste and consistency.
I find if I fill my single basket to the top, no matter how hard I tamp the grinds still comes in contact with the group head screen when I lock in the porta filter.
Seems a single basket is made for no more than 7 grams.
Posted Mon May 7, 2007, 11:50am Subject: Re: How do you pull a single shot on Silvia?
scottyg514 Said:
I find if I fill my single basket to the top, no matter how hard I tamp the grinds still comes in contact with the group head screen when I lock in the porta filter.
Seems a single basket is made for no more than 7 grams.
Psyd Senior Member Joined: 31 Jan 2006 Posts: 889 Location: MON AZ Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Sylvia and Astoria Argenta... Grinder: Rocky and Astoria (Mazzer)...
Posted Tue May 8, 2007, 5:47pm Subject: Re: How do you pull a single shot on Silvia?
I've suddenly found myself responding to oldy-moldy posts, too. Anyhoo, everyone knows that Sylvia is finicky, and the best way to pull a single on her is to use the double basket and the double spout, and only put the cup under one of 'em!
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