Thanks for the update. As for your report of a wet puck and possible channeling, I will be lazy and repost my reply from
Dry puck below:
matt1203 wrote:what make a dry puck ?
If the puck doesn't make contact with the dispersion screen when the coffee expands, the puck's surface will be wet with a sandy/lunar-esque texture. As long as the puck is consistent, wet or not, it's fine. For reference, see prior discussions
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
9 ... or just
puckology in general. If you want a dry puck, dose a few grams more and/or wait longer before removing the portafilter.
allon wrote:There are a couple of things that can be diagnosed from a puck...
I've not discovered a correlation between the appearance of the puck post-extraction and the taste of the espresso. Moreover, there's nothing inherently wrong with small puddles of water on the puck's surface, though it should be consistent from shot-to-shot. That is, if you see big puddles one time, dry as sand the next, that's a problem. But if the puck's surface looks and feels basically the same each time, I believe you've exhausted the value of puckology.
That's why I am wary of claims that one can see evidence of channeling on the puck's surface. Afterall, most espresso machines have 3-way valves and they depressurize from 130 PSI to 0 in an instant. I think that any fissures are as likely caused by rapid depressurization as channeling during the extraction.
by cguser on Tue Dec 06, 2011 3:04 pm 
The streams coming from the portafilter are thin and narrow, but they are just dark liquid getting lighter towards the end. Nothing like those slow foamy shots you see in videos everywhere.
