Please help with 4g Spaziale S5

Jono

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Dec 7, 2009
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We usually use Vibiemme machines but recently put one of these into a high volume cafe site, approx 40 - 50 kg per week, because Vibiemme couldn't make us a machine to the customers specs (they wanted lever steam taps and high cut for large t/a cups).

Problem is that we have the machine setup as we would normally and although the extraction looks really good the crema disspates quicker than I have ever experienced before, lasting less than 30 seconds on a double handle split pour (i.e. 2 cups under) before big holes start appearing. The crema looks really nice initially, but blondes a bit quicker than I'm used to and also is quite gassy/bubbly.

Machine is running about 5 - 6 bar inlet pressure, around 9 - 10 bar under extraction (from the actual machine guage, not a true portafilter gauge).

Grouphead water temp around 92 - 93 degrees C.
The Double handle holds about 17g - can't seem to get anymore in than this - I would rather have 18g +.
Boiler temp is currently about 119 degrees but I have tried a lot of diff temps and can't seem to get much improvement.

Have tried several different Mazzer grinders inc brand new Major, Super Jolly and even a brand new Robur... all pretty similar effect.

The blend we are running is a new one for us, a medium roast of brazil cerrado/new guinea A mix with 10% robusta. The taste of the coffee is pretty good but this crema dissipation problem is really annoying. We have tried other blends and seem to get the same effect. The coffee we used today was 4 days old, but we have tried older coffee also. We are using foil bags with degassing valve, packing almost straight after roasting (once cooled) and degassing in the bag.

The cafe is really hot and weather here is very humid at the moment so I guess this will be having some influence. Today the temp in the cafe was about 31 degrees C, and really humid. Does anyone know if this would cause speed up crema dissipation on it's own?

Any help would be hugely appreciated as I have been working in coffee industry for well over 10 years and never encountered anything like this, would like to think it isn't the fault of the machine as it cost a lot!
 
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