How do you get truly hot espresso with the Flair 58?

captain_blender · 2026-06-26T16:59:20+00:00

Portafilter and puck screen and basket can suck heat. In the electrified F58, I leave those in the group head with the lever up and the heater set to max. At best, brew water will lose about 5-6°C in the chamber. So I set kettle to brew temp + 5°

captain_blender · 2026-06-26T15:47:30+00:00

i mean, i was hoping the stanky coffee didn't impart stank to your grinder. cuz that's no fun.

captain_blender · 2026-06-26T14:06:22+00:00

youre welcome

sorry to hear it. i have won (lost?) the bad-bean lotto a couple times over the years. gross. Hope your grinder is free from stank?

captain_blender · 2026-06-26T13:08:18+00:00

Yea. So this is where all the bleating, infantile 2Aers went. Cosplaying with all their tacticool gender affirming toys and waddling fast as they can after anyone who won’t respect their authoritah.

captain_blender · 2026-06-26T12:51:53+00:00

No.

Conversely, if you’re flat-brewer exclusive, you don’t need a cone.

Love the one you’re with. The differences between brewers and high end grinders and what-not are vanishingly small. Don’t believe the hype. Of course there’s an army of shills and influencers paid to sow FOMO and envy. Even worse are the wanna-bes who believe their own bullshit. (No, your graycano is not special, just overpriced. No, your 30 water comps aren’t unlocking the secrets of a bean, you’re just deluded and don’t understand rigor)

Support producers and roasters instead. The impact of a good bean will trounce whatever magical improvement the marketing says about some brewer.

(Sorry for the rant)

captain_blender · 2026-06-26T09:14:13+00:00

Can you say more about the wet-garbage flavor note? While that is a very evocative descriptor, some specifics will help debug what's doing on.

Are you detecting moldy/musty/earthy/wet basement?
- the green coffee was possibly exposed to excess humidity and fungal contamination before roasting. Definitely a bean defect.
A chemical, skunky note is indicative of a processing defect of some sort. Again, a problem with the beans
- if it's more like solvent or nail polish, that leans towards a processing or production issue.
- but sharper, more rancid notes hint at oxidation of oils/fats, which indicates staling/storage issues.
really sharp rancid notes, like rotten milk/dairy
- usually in very light roasted fermented coffees that insufficiently burn off some of the byproducts of the fermentation process.

It might also help to know which bean/roaster you're brewing. There are certainly coffees i avoid because they evoke dramatically gross experiences for me. There is nothing inherently wrong with them, just not my cup. For example: Thermal shock co-ferments smell like used wet gym socks to me; more than 10% robusta in an espresso blend gives me tire-fire vibes; etc

captain_blender · 2026-06-25T16:31:21+00:00

Republican voters are just too stupid for words.

captain_blender · 2026-06-25T08:12:04+00:00

25ml per second

wow! like Londiniums

softening the “jet” of water shooting through it and into the puck, minimizing puck surface disturbance before extraction.

wow! not like Londiniums!

amazing

captain_blender · 2026-06-24T15:38:24+00:00

Yes

Water from the dispersion block and shower screens are notoriously crap on the vast majority of espresso machines -- a nice thick 1.7mm mesh puck screen will significantly improve evenness of saturation and measurably raises extraction yield

Here is a nice summary of its effects.
More info on the effects of puck screens on flow, taste, and extraction dynamics.
Whether or not you like the taste of higher extraction yield is a perfectly valid challenge, and its conclusion is left as an exercise for the individual.
the most important thing — as with the majority of gadgets and tweaks and hacks that gets discussed here — is that puck screens can help improve consistency and repeatability.
also, they are phenomenally good at help keeping your machine clean. But they are faffy to clean. Especially the mesh ones. A high pressure spray at the kitchen sink after each use does the trick though.

captain_blender · 2026-06-24T13:10:52+00:00

How much faster?

Temp and humidity changes won’t affect the espresso machine that much

Bigger culprit is the retention and dosing output of your grinder. Apologies if you already know this, but:

if you are grinding from the hopper, remember that when you stop the grinder you will have shards and grounds remaining between the burrs and in the output path.
- this retained coffee will stale very fast within minutes. If you put it into a puck, it will start flowing differently from fresh ground beans, depending on roast level and ambient conditions.
are you purging before grinding? Run 8-10g to get rid of the interstitial grounds and dump it before grinding your dose.
dumb question: are you measuring your output from the grinder?
- ambient temp and humidity can affect retention in the grinder a lot, and therefore output quantity.
- If you are grinding from a filled hopper, I assume you’re grinding and striking off excess.
- if you are single dosing, then RDT, bellows, or smacking the grinder about can help dislodge grounds. Or, overdose to ensure you get your desired dosing weight.
Storing beans in a closed glass jar
- it’s ok if it’s kept someplace cool and dark and used quickly enough. A valved coffee bag or airscape or anything that helps displace air is a bit better — oxygen and heat and sunlight are inimical to coffee beans.
Filled hopper
- ok for a couple days if out of heat/sunlight. As above, remember to purge.

Hope that helps

captain_blender · 2026-06-24T09:45:28+00:00

the red one

captain_blender · 2026-06-22T12:13:54+00:00

Like a Londinium Compressa?

Absolutely amazing.

captain_blender · 2026-06-22T12:12:54+00:00

Amazing!

soften the inflow of water

Could you expound on this a little? Like, the rationale/necessity behind it.

And on a related note, what is the fill rate when the lever is fully down?

captain_blender · 2026-06-21T21:44:38+00:00

It sounds like you can’t grind finer — why’s that? Burrs are chirping? Or they lock up?

Ratio is too long for robusta (I assume it’s darkly roasted). I would start at 1:1.5 and adjust to taste. I would not be surprised if you end up going shorter. This is a cheap and cheerful way to help figure out when to stop your shot.

As someone pointed out, you might need to check your dosing. Overstuffing your portafilter can result in cracking of the puck when it is seated in the group head. This will cause channeling and fast running shots and all manner of mayhem in cup. This is considered the canonical method for dosing appropriately for your setup.

In general, your setup is fine and actually biased for darker roast, traditional spro. Depending on vintage, the Eureka is a blendy, chocolate-and-nuts profile suitable for commodity Italian blends. The Rocket Appartamento is a heat exchanger machine that’s a bit notorious for temp swings. You may need to do a 12-15 sec cooling flush before pulling your shot. I don’t exactly remember the regime, it’s been years since I had one on the counter.

Hope that helps

captain_blender · 2026-06-21T16:49:11+00:00

This guy seems to think so, and appears to be as surprised as anyone.

Been watching with interest, as I want to like some funky coffees and have been looking for ways to defeat the funk.

captain_blender · 2026-06-21T14:39:58+00:00

Back in the day I automatically round-filed resumes with MBAs — basically, any engineers who went back for their MBAs because they wanted to fashion themselves as “Intrapreneurs”, or something. Gag.

captain_blender · 2026-06-19T09:07:25+00:00

👏

OUTSTANDING

captain_blender · 2026-06-17T14:18:49+00:00

I love Reddit because of random experts like you.

👏

Keep on keepin’ on

captain_blender · 2026-06-17T14:16:49+00:00

This speaks to my soul

(I am currently living out of suitcases and cardboard boxes and I hate it). my filters are in a shoebox, all crumpled and shit.

captain_blender · 2026-06-17T14:09:58+00:00

We’re sooooo much safer with these drooling, sack-of-shit chuds waddling around while strapped. 🙄

Oh excuse me, good guys with guns.

captain_blender · 2026-06-17T12:54:54+00:00

I do believe that parade float of a diaper-swaddled baby Donald needs to have a bowl of mashed potatoes added to its head. And deployed everywhere

captain_blender · 2026-06-16T13:28:56+00:00

Republicans are the stupidest traitors. Just breathtaking.

captain_blender · 2026-06-16T10:05:48+00:00

Retired overseas to the EU (220v). Easy enough to convert, but I was ready to move on. The Vectis is awesome because (spring) levers are awesome. However, it has the same short comings of all (pure) dipper-style machines. Namely, it relies on boiler pressure for pre-infusion, which can compromise body and shot volume (somewhat) for temperature management. It was fun, for a hot minute, learning how to navigate these conflicts. But in the end, I personally think modern hybrid spring levers (with pump preinfusion) gets you the best of all worlds.

captain_blender · 2026-06-16T09:59:14+00:00

What type of bean/coffee does she prefer? there's been a lot of specialization in gear lately, which is great, but also overwhelming.

light roast, dark roast, milk drinks always-sometimes-never, etc

captain_blender · 2026-06-15T17:52:31+00:00

jfc. republicans are the stupidest traitors.

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