Introduction

I had been contemplating doing a PID and rotary pump conversion on my Brewtus II for some time. Feeling rather inspired by the guys at Ministry Grounds rotary conversion project, some articles on the Home Barista web site as well as a lot of discussion on the Bretwus email list about the conversions, I was almost ready when, I heard a rumour about a new Brewtus being released, knowing the limited extent of my own handyman skills, I decided to wait a bit and see what the guys from Creme produced. After 5 days with the new Brewtus , I can say that I am well impressed so far.

Differences 

Visually the Brewtus II and III are almost identical, the only real visual clues to the differences are the slightly different temperature display and the changed power switch and to be totally host, I actually prefer the old power switch, a nice big lighted red one :-) and the nice BIG digits on the old temp display, the new PID controller has smaller digits. 

The major changes are all under the skin and they do seem to make a significant difference to the machine.

The first thing that will strike an existing Bretwus owners using the machine is how quite the machine is. The rotary pump is extremely smooth and civilised, none of the vibrating of the Enka in the Bretwus II, this makes a huge difference to the amount of noise the machine makes.

The next thing that struck me was how quickly the shot starts appearing. I have been used to flushing, pulling the lever and then, in a relaxed fashion, emptying my cup of hot water into the sink and placing it under the portafilter, ready to receive an awesome espresso. I used to have 15-20 seconds to get ready for the shot. No longer I am afraid, the rotary pump ramps the pressure up a whole load faster with the espresso starting to appear around 5-10 seconds after pulling the lever. So things happen faster. 

I haven't done a head to head comparison yet but the steam pressure also seems to be held better. I haven't done any tests yet but my feeling is that the Brewtus III seems to be able to hold a higher steam pressure than the II when steaming. This is something that I am going to have to check out in a bit more detail so I can comment better on. 

As I am currently waiting for a water pipe, I don't have it  plumbed in as yet, so am unable to comment on the pre-infusion of the E61 group head but once it is I think this is also going to be interesting to experiment with. Something which I was unable to do with my tank run II.

So, how does the coffee compare? Well, the Brewtus II is no slouch, they are able to produce excellent espresso's with a minimum of fuss. The III definately caries on this tradition and just lifts the bar to even greater heights.

Issues

The only two issues that I could find on the new machine, is a difficult to access brew pressure regulator. The adjustment is on the side of the pump which is facing the boiler, not a major problem but one none the less, and a water supply pipe to the rotary pump that faces upward in the machine but exits the machine at the bottom. If the pipe is pulled, it can create a kink which restricts water supply to the pump.

Conclusion

The Brewtus III definately offers fantastic value for money, its only real competitors in SA being the La Marzocco GS3 and the La Spaziale Vivaldi II. Both machines are significantly more expensive and while I lust after a GS3, I don't think I could justify paying almost twice as much as the Brewtus III for one. The La Spaz used to have the advantage of having a rotary pump but with the III also having a rotary, I don't see any motivation to go there either.

For a home barista looking at a high end home machine, you can't go wrong with the Brewtus III, it offers the rock solid temperature stability of a double boiler machine coupled with a PID controller along with the great water delivery of a rotary pump. All that is required to ensure awesome espressos is a good grinder, some fresh coffee and a modicum of barista skills.

Answers to some questions

- What is a PID controller ?

- Espresso machine guide?

A big thank you to Tribeca from everyone at the Barista Underground for being such awesome hosts for our first Jam of 2009.

There were a total of 53 people there, (thats as many as I could count anyway) and was a fantastic vibe around the whole event. People were sharing knowledge and the latte art compo was great fun witheveryone helping each other out. Gerald from Seattle was the eventual winner and a lot of fun was had by everyone taking part. 

The Tribeca building is absolutely spectacular and a great venue for this type of event with loads of space and a reliable power supply (no machines tripping power this time).

I am planning to have another one in around 2-3 months time. We have no venue planned as yet but I will keep my ears open and I am sure that one will come up.

Again, a big thank you to Tribeca for hosting us and providing us with such great hospitality. 

JohnB

Has been way to long since our last Jam so we decided to make this one a monster!

Tribeca have very kindly offered to host us at their Centurion office, Ishan will be there to talk about his experiences at the WBC and there is going to be a Latte Art competition but there is one catch. To qualify for the latte art competition, you have to bring along your own machine and do the latte art on it. There will be prizes for the best latte art as well as the most improved for the evening so if you have been dying to learn how to pour beautiful rossetta's then bring along your machine for loads of expert advice (or not so expert in some cases :-))

The jam will be starting at 19:00 so we should be able to avoid most of the traffic and will go on until they kick us out. Ishan is getting his granny to making us some curry and there will be plenty of rice, milk and coffee so sounds like it is going to be a blast. There is loads of space so again,please make sure you bring along your own machine and we hope to see you there.

Tribeca have very kindly volunteered to sponssor supper for uis so there will be no charge but please make sure that you RSVP on the link below to the forum so that we can get an idea for catering.

Address: 18 Parkview Avenue, Highway Business Park (Old Johannesburg Road), Centurion

Directions: If you travel from Pretoria, you must take the N1 Highway towards Johannesburg.  At the N1/N14 split (after John Vorster), continue on the N1 towards Midrand.  Take the second offramp(after the split), i.e. the Old Johannesburg road (North) offramp.
 
If you travel from Johannesburg, drive on the N1 towards Pretoria/Polokwane and take the first Old Johannesburg Offramp you get.
 
Take the Old Johannesburg offramp and turn left towards Pretoria/Centurion (one can only go one direction). Turn right at the robot just after the Sasol garage into Highway Business Park. Turn right after the boom, TriBeCa is on the left hand side right next to CTM

I hope that those of you who watched Ishan online were as impressed with his performance as I was. Unfortunately the quality of the Ustream feed from the WBC was not very good, lots of stopping and starting. Apparently there were bandwidth issues at the venue which caused these problems. The good news is however that all the video was save in a High Quality format and will be made available as soon. I will make sure that I post it to the site as soon as it becomes available.

JohnB

Ishan will be starting his first set on the 15th of April at 16:54 South African time, so make sure that you watch it live and log onto the chat to support him.

Good luck Ishan