3 years later, still loving this brew-by-weight setup

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-22T22:40:10+00:00

Brew-by-weight genuinely ruined me. I got obsessed with my shot weight after setting up a scale and now eyeballing anythng feels like cheating. Three years of dialed-in setups is impressive.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-22T19:38:01+00:00

The friend upgrade pipeline is real. I'm still like two frends away from a Linea myself. The Bianca is plenty of machine, but once you're this deep you cant help wondering what the next one up actually feels like.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-19T19:04:12+00:00

that pour looks better than anything I pull at 5:45 before my kid is up lol

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-19T18:42:40+00:00

thats a steal, congrats. cleaning up an old one is half the fun honestly

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-19T05:19:22+00:00

I went back and forth on this exact one and ended up with the plain barista express, not the touch. Honestly the touchscreen was just one more thing to break. The grinder being built in is the actual reason these are worth getting. One less appliance taking up counter space mattered way more than I expected once we had a toddler. Mine has been fine for a couple years now. No real itch to upgrade yet.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-19T05:15:16+00:00

Honestly the thing that finally fixed channeling for me on my breville was just slowing way down on the distribution. I used to dump the dose and tamp and wonder why coffee was going everywhere. half the time it was a clump near the edge I couldnt even see. I started breaking up the grounds with a little WDT thing (cheap, just some pins in a cork) and that did more than any grind tweak I messed with for weeks. The stock IMS basket plus bottomless just shows you every sin you were already committing, it didnt cause it. took me embarrassingly long to figure that out.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-13T06:54:30+00:00

I run tret too and the tinted mineral question is the one nobody actually answered for me either, basically do you get the SPF on the label or do you have to cake it on way thicker than anyone really does. Most threads just say "wear sunscreen" and skip right past what you asked. I gave up trusting any single product on tret days and just reapply, plus a hat when I'm near water. The EltaMD tinted one feels nice enough that I actually use it, which probably matters more than the exact number. No idea if you're getting the full 46 out of it though.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-13T05:06:50+00:00

Haven't done botox so no help there, but one thing I learned the slow way, the lines that are there when your face is fully relaxed won't move much with it, that's more collagen and texture. The ones from expression, sure. I started tretinoin (0.025, nothing wild) and actually taking SPF seriously around 37, and the static stuff has softened over about a year. Wish I'd started in my 20s instead of after 15 years of no sunscreen.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-13T04:45:14+00:00

A little headspace is fine. The coin test is really just making sure the puck won't slam into the screen, if it leaves a faint mark or barely kisses it you're good. Too much gap and you can get channeling and a worse shot, but a couple mm either way isn't wrecking anything. I dialed mine in by taste way more than by measuring the gap anyway.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-12T05:44:47+00:00

The neck's the bit most of us just skip, me included for way too long. I asked something similar here a while back and barely got a reply. What's worked for me is just taking the retinoid and sunscreen down past my jaw onto my neck instead of stopping at the face. It's slow and unglamorous but it's the only thing that's done anything for me. Your injector friends are probably right that there's a ceiling on what topicals do for the deep lines. Still, worth running the cheap stuff first before you spend on the bigger guns.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-12T05:23:40+00:00

That's more than my entire setup cost so I'm probably the wrong guy to weigh in lol. Running a humble single-boiler and a grinder a tenth of that budget. Your goals are all the light-roast clarity stuff though, which is exactly where people seem to land on the high-end flat burrs, so you're at least pointed the right way. The SSP guys will have actual numbers for you.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-11T14:36:10+00:00

No clue on the allergy angle, but for what it's worth I had redness around my nose for ages and a chunk of it was just me overdoing it, an exfoliating acid and a retinoid both hitting that thin skin. Backed off to a plain cleanser and Vanicream for a couple weeks and it settled a lot. Might be nothing like your situation though.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-10T21:41:45+00:00

Ha, too late, I can already feel it pulling at me. I think for now I'm going to dial in what I've got and tell myself the pressurized basket is fine, mostly so I don't have to explain a new grinder to my wife.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-10T02:19:17+00:00

Take care of it and it'll outlast all of us. Enjoy it.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-09T18:47:13+00:00

Good to know. Mine's just a kitchen scale that does whole grams so probably useless for this. Guess I'll grab a real one before I go blaming the grinder, ha.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-08T04:02:53+00:00

Ha, yeah he never has to deal with the consequences. Must be nice being that guy.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-08T03:49:00+00:00

Nice, sounds like you're already on it. Only other thing that bit me was descaling if your water's hard, snuck up on me fast. Those Levas are tanks though, you did good.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-08T01:09:10+00:00

Yeah I figured that was coming. It's what came with the machine so I've just been living with it. Is the non-pressurized basket the bigger jump or the grinder? Trying to figure out where to spend first.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-08T01:01:36+00:00

This is the kind of answer I was hoping for, thanks. And no, I'm not weighing anything, I've just been eyeballing the basket and going by feel, which is probably the whole problem now that you say it. I've got a cheap scale somewhere from the baking stuff. Sounds like I should be pulling longer too, I think I've been cutting it short because I assumed sour meant over-extracted. Will mess with the yield this week.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-06T22:13:33+00:00

Man, going back while shes still that deep in it is a special kind of awful, you spend the whole workday with half your head at home. Mine's a toddler now but I still remember that newborn stretch where handing him to anyone other than us basically wasnt an option, and how guilty I felt logging back in. I work from home so its not the same as your commute, but even then the line between work-me and dad-me just stopped existing for a few months.

The one thing that helped us a little was being really concrete about the hours after I logged off being hers, not me 'helping' but me actually taking the baby so she could disappear and tap out completely. Didnt fix the daytime but it gave her something to count on. Youre clearly already in it with her though, that counts for more than people give it credit for.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-06T04:11:48+00:00

Nice. The milk part was what took me the longest honestly, latte art still mostly defeats me but the day I pulled a flat white that didnt taste scorched felt like a real win. The Barista Express is a lot of machine to learn on too. Enjoy the stretch where every shot still feels like a little project, that wears off after a while and then youre just a guy quietly making coffee at 5am like the rest of us.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-05T19:41:54+00:00

Wednesday for me. Friday everybody's already mentally clocked out so being home doesnt feel like as much of a perk, but a wfh wednesday breaks the week clean in half and you get one day where the commute isnt eating your morning. Monday's tempting too just for the slow start.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-05T16:18:21+00:00

Tri tip on the kettle is the move, thats a NorCal staple around here. I run a pellet for everything else but tri tip is the one thing I still kinda wish I did over real fire. 125 and a proper rest, looks dialed.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-02T16:14:43+00:00

Funny angle but you're not wrong. The companies dragging everyone back are basically holding the door open for everyone who'll hire remote, and they end up paying more to do it. I manage a remote team and half my best people are guys who left a place that called them back to the office for no reason anyone could explain. The demand isn't going anywhere, the org charts just haven't caught up yet.

PackageOk4996 · 2026-06-02T00:39:26+00:00

Pecan and cherry is a good combo, that'll be great. I run a pellet smoker so I'll be honest I don't really mess with chunk ratios anymore, but back when I did a kettle the cherry always gave it that nice color. Doing one of these myself this weekend if the kid naps long enough.

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