Cool, I think im gonna cut it off at you five, I gotta find my list of beans real quick but do you guys want espresso or normal? I have a couple options of each
I swing both ways. Though practically might take too long to get espresso dialed in with dose and grind, unless you're sending 2 pounds or more.
It takes you 2 pounds of coffee to dial in for espresso?
Srsly?!?!?!
I'm usually sorted after 3 or 4 shots from a new bag, less than 1/5 of a standard 250g bag o beans.
what girder are you using? Maybe I lucked out!
I use a Baratza Vario grinder and a Rancilio machine. I dose and grind by taste, shooting for a 30 sec double in a naked portafilter. Grind varies with humidity and age of beans...
Thats VERY similar to my setup. Biggest difference is probably the naked portafilter and the variable humidity. The humidity works against you and the portafilter is you intentionally making things harder for yourself (with good reason, I'm sure).
My Vario is branded Mahlkonig, not Baratza, because I got it here in the UK, but AFAIK it's identical to yours.
I went for the Gaggia Classic instead of the (I assume) Silvia for the faster startup time (at the cost of longer recovery time between shots)
And, I'm in London, so humidy doesn't really vary at all.
So I dial in then as the beans age I just modify my tamp pressure. I might occasionally adjust the grinder one click mid-batch if the tamp pressure is not enough to compensate.
How are you liking the bottomless portafilter? How long have you had it? How long did it take to get used to it? Would you consider going back to a standard PF after you've learned all that is learnable from the bottomless one?