DIY Coffee

Chapter 2. The Bottomless Portafilter

Photograph by Will O’Brien

Mod your espresso maker’s filter holder for a tastier cup. By Will O’Brien

In my office at home, one end of the room is devoted to computers, electronics, and my assorted projects. The other is the home of the holy grail of caffeine: my espresso bar. That’s where I measure, grind, and tamp my way to produce some beautiful espresso. I’ve been tuning and tweaking my setup for the last six months or so, and there’s no end in sight. My most recent modification involved some power tools and my portafilter.

The portafilter is the chrome-plated coffee filter holder that most people only notice as the spent grounds are being beaten from its shiny grasp. In this case, I drilled, cut, and ground out the bottom of it to get what’s known as a “bottomless” or “naked” portafilter.

No stock machine comes with a bottomless portafilter. The modification can sometimes result in espresso going in strange directions — like the wall on the other side of the room. The only side affect I’ve observed is a tiny amount of spatter on the top of my espresso cup. So why go bottomless? For some, it’s simply so they can fit a triple basket in the stock portafilter. The espresso industry refers to the bottomless portafilter as a “training tool.” You can even buy your own from espressoparts.com. As a training tool, the bottomless porta-filter is excellent ...