I finally upgraded my Silvia / Rocky to an Andreja Premium / Mazzer mini combo. Both are great machines but still behind the learning curve.

I have dialed back the pressure to 9.1 bar with a blind basket but when I pull a shot I am around 8.8 bar. The shots are ok. When pulling a shot it appears fast, but still a little under 2 oz in 25 second range. I don't think it's blonding too early, just need more experience to see the difference. I am dosing 16 grams and no real clumping probably need to work on my tamping a little.

So that brings me to my next question, do I dial in my grind to get to the pressure up to ~9.1 bar during brewing. Or be patient and take notes. Just looking for some troubleshooting steps. I have read a ton of posts and watched plenty of videos too.

I did have to put on the steaming training wheels, I had to plug one of the steam holes with a toothpick. Work on one thing at a time.

Any tips would be great.

When you set your brew pressure with a blind filter, the machines gauge is always going to be slightly higher, sometimes as much as +1BAR. If I set my machine against a blind filter to 9.1, I get about 8.8/8.7BAR with coffee. YMMV.

If you dial your grind for a ristretto, the gauge might read 9.1B.. But dont worry TOO much about what the gauge says. You're in the ballpark, so use your palate to tell you if your brew pressure is correct.

If your shots are pulling too fast for your taste, tighten up the grind, up the dose, or both. Remember, until you really know the machine/coffee/grinder you're using, only change one variable at a time. Personally, 2oz in 25 seconds is too fast for my taste. I almost always* favor a ristretto shot... whether it be .75oz in 35 seconds, or 1.75oz in 28 seconds. Experiment, experiment, experiment.

*There is a select few SO's which I do like as a normale.. But in general, they dont have the body Im after.

Steam Tip plugage.. I did the same thing when I got Anita. Eventually I bought the ExpoBar single hole tip from WLL, and used that for a while. Its very easy to use, but Ive since switched back to the two-hole tip.. The milk is just better. The attached video shows a technique which I found most helpful to learn microfoam on a machine with some oomph..