Ways to Support Your Remote Tech Team
Battling isolation – Ways to manage remote service techs. Managing your remote tech team is difficult. With the new normal, managing remotely can be even more difficult. I discovered the hard way that I needed to adapt my strategy to ensure that my techs were not feeling isolated and they were feeling supported. Humans are […]
The wonderful world of pressure relief valves
In any system where steam is generated there is always a possibility that over pressurization can cause a catastrophic failure of the pressure vessel. This could result in destruction of property, injury, and loss of life. This is a bad day no matter how you cut it and is the reason that every pressure […]
Brewer Basics 4: The Heating System
The most important step in making a good cup of coffee is heat. And you need to be able to control that heat because just a few degrees difference in temperature can turn a great cup into bitter carbon effluence. The Heating System consists of 8 common components: A thermal cut-off, heating elements, thermistor, thermostats, […]
Brewer Basics 4: Basic Electricity
The key to understanding how brewers or any type of Espresso or brewing work is to have a basic understanding of the basic of electricity. The goal of this article is to give a clear simple explanation of how these systems work. With that you can better understand how each system works. The explanations in […]
Pressure and Flow
Close Cousins Understanding pressure in an espresso machine is straightforward in many respects. We have a few benchmarks for extraction that have been borne out of years of experience and we are fairly adept at generating enough of it for most machines, but it invariably comes down to flow rate into the cup that determines […]
Heat – It’s Complicated
By Michael Teahan When I speak to other industry nerds about espresso machines, one of the least understood is just how many factors influence temperature at the point of infusion. For decades, Italian engineers have struggled with the balance between heat and pressure. The most important thing to understand about heat is that it is […]
Espresso Grinder Selection
The Technician’s Guide to Espresso Grinder Selection
How to help inform a cafe owner’s grinder purchase Espresso grinders are an important factor in any coffee setup. The purpose of the following article is to help espresso techs learn what kinds of espresso grinders are appropriate in certain settings. This will elevate the value of a technician to a new or growing cafe. […]
Grinder Basics
We have all gone into our favorite coffee shop and been amazed with the coffee quality we are presented. The question is – how do they do it? The answer is simple -y that they have all of the right tools. They use high quality beans, they use a high quality coffee brewing tools […]
Brewing Basics: Intro
Brewer basics: Intro I am convinced that Coffee brewers come with their own Gremlins. If by chance you don’t know what a Gremlin is,any there are numerous Bugs bunny cartoons that can explain what they are. I’ve had service callss that have frustrated me so much I felt like William Shatner from the Twilight Zone […]