How do you open shop and dial in?

You mop in the morning? Or do you save the water in pitchers for closers? I like the idea but I think I’d constantly have staff knocking over the pitchers if they are sitting around in the back. RIP

Keen to try purging the boilers. Do you find it takes long for temp to get back up and stabilize? or a non issue?

Does anybody know how much the boiler holds.We have a La marzocco fb80.

When I purge the two groups they automatically stop at 246 seconds … Is that when the boiler is completely purged or does it need to be flushed more ?

Mop in the morning, don’t want to waste the water.

I run all the groups in the Classe 11 for a little while to purge any stagnant water in the boilers, and run the tea water tap and the wands. This gets the main boiler to “wake up” and start getting fresh water in.
Put in the beans to the hoppers of the Mythos ClimaPros and grind a a dose or two.
Brew those doses. This will “season” the groups and make extra sure what comes out after has zero residual cleaning chemical or mineral taste.
Carefully dose and weigh coffee and yield. Redial the grinders and dosing time to improve extraction. Continue until triangulation is complete and the coffee tastes the way it should!
I will continue to weigh dose and yield for a quite a while in mornings to insure consistency and that my tamping doesn’t get crazy as the caffeine gets into my system.

My palate is great first thing in the morning! I prefer espresso to be the first thing I taste because I feel much more sensitive to it and more discerning.

In the past few years, I switched to a natural toothpaste (like Tom’s) and found that it has much less effect on the palate. Maybe that’s just me.

The FB80 holds 3.4 / 5 / 6.8 liters for 2 / 3 / 4 groups respectively.

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I guess you’ll have to measure it. A couple minutes at most.

If your machines cool down overnight it’s less energy intensive. If not, use the hot water to mop a la @Mat_North !

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Believe it or not, I’ve got a specific toothbrush that i dip in a little cup of batch brewed coffee and brush with before i start tasting. It really does a good job of clearing out the toothpaste flavors!

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I think i should try this step :blush:

It’s little gems of informations like this that keep me coming back to the online forums.

I had never thought of purging all of the boilers water first thing - would explain a few issues we have in the mornings.

Running a few shots through the mythos and group heads is always a must for me to warm up the machines.

normaly in the morning…what i do is,flush grinder to clean out coffee beans from chamber (dont throw away the coffee ground),purge steam wand,a little bit brush on the shower screen and after that flush group head,flush water boiler,after done all this then i start to calibrate.using yesterday recipe and correct then flavour from there.

I come in to the shop, start brewing a pot of coffee, and start warming the ganache warmers. While those two things are going, I start the espresso process. In order to purge the boilers, the espresso grinders and season the group heads, I pull a shot through each group head while rinsing the screen before and after each shot. Now I’m ready to dial in, I do this by pulling a shot to yesterdays parameters and adjust from there, if needed. Once the espresso tastes good on its own, I taste the espresso in a capp, if it tastes good in a capp, then its ready to be served. I then count the register and set up the pastry case.

The most efficient way to open a shop is to have the things that are done automatically, started before you have to do the manual stuff; and that is why I start brewing the coffee and have the chocolate sauce melt while im dialing my espresso in.

My standard morning routine goes as follows :slight_smile:

  • Purge all water filters
  • Turn on machines and purge their boilers completely
  • Grind at least 100 grams through all grinders to start warming them up and to fill up the burr chamber
  • Whilst purging the grinders and warming them up, I’ll put about a litre through each group to warm up the portafilters and get everything nice and toasty
  • Start by dialing in all grinders to the previous days recipes, adjusting as needed. Grinders are repositioned to the very last setting of the previous day so usually only small adjustments are needed once the grinder has warmed up
  • Double check all filters and batch brews are tasting delicious
  • Tasting session with floor staff of all filters, espressos and milk based coffees on offer that day prior to open, and a sheet is filled out with recipes and tasting notes of each coffee at the same time

Good little tip I’ve picked up is to use rubber bands and tape to balance out the weight of all your portafilters in the morning before you start dialling in and after once all the handles have accumulated some oils as it tends to throw the weight off a little. Once you get into the habit of constantly evening out the weight of all your handles service becomes that much easier.

Lately we have been experimenting with using yesterdays leftover coffee to dial in and using a fresh bag of beans to dial in.
They behave differently I my opinion.
Yesterdays bean runs fast initially but a fresh bag gets flow rate comparable to yesterdays faster.
Speaking with our roaster we hypothesize that the old bean has dried out and is more brittle.

I bring this up because i was wondering if anyone has experimented with the above practice to purging the boilers and filters?

For the 4 group, that is over 2 boilers, so I assume that a purge of 3.4 litres per boiler meaning 3.4 litres from the 2 left groups and 3.4 litres from the 2 right groups. Of course, please correct me if I am wrong.

Do you purge the steam boiler using the hot water tap?
Thanks,
Matt

Roughly how much coffee (waste/dialling in/taste) is used prior to service?
Just curious.
Thanks,
Matt

Here’s the real guide for how to open a coffee shop. This is more about getting a cafe started from the ground up, instead of just in the morning.

Hey germansalamanca, with your PB, does the Spiral-Button just do a 3 second rinse is that why the purge is difficult? If so, try holding the single or double cup buttons for 3-5 seconds and they should run on continuous (providing those settings are still at factory norms)
If you wanted to perform a full boiler purge you’ll need a bit more effort that probably isn’t worth it on a daily basis