Hey everyone. So I just got a Quickmill Anita & Baratza Vario, and I'm having some trouble getting a decent shot.

When I first attempted to brew a shot nothing came out. The brew pressure would rise to 9.5 and then nothing came out. So , I decided that maybe the grind was too fine, so I adjusted the grind to be more coarse.

In the middle of this process, I ran out of the beans I was using. Luckily, I had some other beans on hand, so I continued meddling. I eventually got to a point where the extraction would starting quickly and the shot would come out much too quickly. At that point I began adjusting the grind back finer.

Now, my grind settings are back to where they were when I started. However, the shot is coming out too quickly and the brew pressure it not getting to 9.5 till near very end of the shot if at all.

I did put the back-flush disc in to make sure that the pressure would reach 9.5 again, and it did. So, I'm lost. Can anyone offer some guidance to help me figure out what in the world I'm doing wrong?

How old were the beans you ran out of and how old are the ones you used afterward?

Older/stale beans generally need a finer grind than fresh beans do.

Are the beans of a different roast level? That will change things as well. Basically you will need to re-dial in every time you switch beans.

How are you measuring your dose, by weight or by volume?

Thanks for responding.

Both batches of beans were about a week passed when I opened them. Though they were both purchased at a grocery store, so I have no idea when they were roasted.

They were different types of beans. The bean that kind plugged up the machine was a dark roast and kind of oily. The second kind is a medium roast and kind on the dry side.

As for dosing what is the best way to do that"

wvu_law_dawg wrote:Though they were both purchased at a grocery store, so I have no idea when they were roasted.

That explains it, I think. Lesson #1 to making good coffee is to always use fresh roasted beans, that is a roast that is within 2 weeks from roast. If there isn't a known roast date, it is usually months way past their prime. This includes any roast sold in a grocery store.

Coffee purchased at the super market might have a "best before" date on the package but that is pretty much meaningless when the dates can be 6-12 months if not more after the roast date.

Drip coffee can sometimes still be drinkable with beans several weeks post-roast; even up to a month if one isn't too discriminating. Beans for espresso, however, are best a few days (3-5; some brands may be best with a longer rest) after roasting and are considered stale anywhere from 10 days post roast on. More than 2 weeks is very-old-to-unusable for espresso.

Your best bet would be to seek out a place that carries beans with roast dates and then look for beans that have been roasted a few days ago.

You may have a roaster in your area. If they have a cafe, even better since you can taste how they pull a shot and then use that as comparison for when you're at home.

Mailorder is a great choice. The roaster will batch up orders and process them a few times throughout the week and then ship things out the same day. Coffee will arrive 1-2 days after roasting. This link has a list of some of the mail order roasters used by folks here.

Some Whole Foods stores roast in-house. Beans roasted in-house, IIRC, indicate roast dates on the bins but I believe WF asks third-party roasters to at most include a best before date.

I have a local market (Standard Market) that carries several well known brands (Stumptown, Counter Culture, Intelligentsia, etc.) that include roast dates on the packages. Even then, however, I need to search for a fresh package and take what I can get since they will leave them on the shelf for longer than I prefer. I have seen packages roasted as little as 2 days ago but then there are others that were roaster over 1 month ago. Not the best option to get the same thing repeatedly but it's a nice option in a pinch.

Finally, there's home roasting but that's another giant rabbit hole one can fall into.

I knew the beans were important, but I didn't know that old beans could cause all this!!

I can see the old beans causing the extraction to be too fast, but I'm confused on what was going on with the first batch of beans and no espresso coming out. It was like the water just couldn't penetrate the puck. Is that because I ground oily beans too fine, or tamped too hard, or used too much? I want to make sure I understand so I don't end up doing it again.

Also, is it regular behavior for the brew pressure to not get up too full pressure when using stale beans?


Thank you guys so much for your help and advice!

You've run into the multi-variable problem for espresso. Is it the beans, the grind, the tamp (not as important as you might think), the amount, the pump pressure, the temperature (flushing the Anita) or all those and more. There are too many and if you change more than one you don't know if the change for the better or worse was the result of only one or the other or a combination of both.

Change one thing, fresh beans and try that. Once you are assured the beans are fresh move on to the next variable, keep the tamp the same, the dose weight the same and vary the grind. It will come and then when you are comfortable try changing another variable and see what you get. (i.e. change the flush/rest time and see what temp variation does).

Also, if the vario is new, then new burrs are particularly finicky. It should "mellow" out after while.

Thanks so much for the advice. I did go out and get some fresher beans, and it seems that things definitely improved. I've got some learning and practicing to do! That is for sure.

Thank you all again.