Superautomatic Espresso Machines and Oily Coffee Beans

Gail shows us the perils of using oily, dark-roasted coffee beans in a superautomatic espresso machine.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• coffee
• espresso
• superautomatic

[rsilves]

First of all thanks for all the information you are publishing to everyone!

Last week I got a Saeco Xsmall machine and I'm having a hard time choosing the right beans and grind setting. The machine grinds the coffee but then throws it without brewing it.

I tried with different beans, now it's going OK with the Starbucks Tribute blend. The one I want and doesn't work well is "Kenya", also from Sbux. Any recommendation with it?

Thanks!

Rodrigo.

[SeattleCoffeeGear]

@rsilves Usually grinding and discarding the puck means you are grinding too fine for the coffee you're using and the machine can't actually force water through the puck. Try going coarser -- with all dark roasts, you should be in the medium or higher level of coarseness to ensure the grinder and brew group do not clog. Hope that helps! - Kat

[rsilves]

@SeattleCoffeeGear And thanks again. - Rodrigo. (p.s. read the three messages from bottom to top).

[SeattleCoffeeGear]

@rsilves yes, the machine will build up coffee in the chute, so if you change your grind, you will need to run a few shots through before you see the results. I think that the issue you're seeing is the fineness of the grind, which does need to be changed depending on the coffee that your using. Even beans that are a medium or light roast can have more natural fat/oil, be moister and, therefore, require a coarser grind. Play around with coarser with your beans that are being ejected - Kat

[rsilves]

@SeattleCoffeeGear I feel I didn't explain one thing correctly: When it goes wrong, the error (red light) turns on immediately after the grinder stops. I'd say, in the less-than-half-a-second it takes to stop spinning. Way before the brew group moves the ground coffee to the metal "brew head". Grinder stops, red light on, brew group moves only to discard the puck (totally dry ground coffee). Brew group does not stop at "brew position", water pump never starts, it never tries to brew.

[SeattleCoffeeGear]

@rsilves Yes, this is exactly the symptom of the grind being too fine. - Kat

[SeattleCoffeeGear]

@rsilves What the sensor is sensing is that it can't force water through the grounds and it sees it as empty or not able to be activated, so just kicks the puck out. I'm sorry I can't be more precise than this, but if you're seeing it with some coffees and not others, it would lead me to believe that messing with the grind on the coffees that are erroring could be the answer. Let me know how it goes :) - Kat

[rsilves]

@rsilves This is why I feel there is another sensor in there doing something I don't understand. I'll try the Kenya beans again next week and see if with the coarsest setting I get it to work. Anyway I'm sure that it'll affect the flavor a lot. Sorry for making so many questions, but Saeco would tell me just to try another coffee. And thanks again ;) - Rodrigo.

[rsilves]

@SeattleCoffeeGear (…), this means that only a tiny amount of coffee was going to the brew group. And it was not showing the error (red light, discard), so I'm sure the "too oily coffee" is not technically the issue. This (grinder clogged with ground coffee) never happened with the Kenya beans, and they do activate this error. I've been using Moka beans bought in another store, I don't enjoy them so much but with them the machine never failed.

[rsilves]

@SeattleCoffeeGear I wanted to add another thing: Sometimes when cleaning the machine I noticed that some amount of ground coffee stayed stuck in the exit tube of the grinder, so I thought that might be the problem (a sensor detecting stuck coffee in there). But then, once, I put some Tribute Blend beans (the one that works better than the Kenya) and after brewing some coffees I noticed that the hole on the upper part of the machine (outside) was full of ground coffee (...)

[rsilves]

@SeattleCoffeeGear Thank you Kat. I've been trying to figure what is causing the problem and I can tell one thing: The error light turns on as soon as the grinder stops, it doesn't even try to brew it, and the grind seems to be fine (visually compared to other lighter coffees that work OK). So the problem starts in the grinder. Do you know what is this related to? I mean, what is happening inside? Which "sensor" can cause this? I'm just curious lol.