Hey everybody. I just bought myself a gaggia baby twin. Previously I have been using a cheap breville. I now have several issues. When I run my machine with no grinds I get a lot of water. When I put grinds in I get only about half as much liquid volume (irrelevant of tamping pressure). I am having difficulty producing a good tasting espresso. My new machine does not produce much creme and grinds seem to get stuck in the filters. Is this normal?

Thanks in advance,
Alek

My repost of recommendations from another thread:

HB wrote:...it sounds like your espresso extractions are channeling. Cause? The grind is off, the coffee is stale, or your distribution/tamp are wonky.

You didn't mention the grinder or the freshness of the coffee, but those are far more important contributors to good espresso than tamp pressure; my rule is simple: Keep it straight and level, keep it consistent. I recommend coffee that is 4-7 days post-roast from a reputable roaster; by post-roast, I mean when it was roasted, not when the bag was opened . From there, review the various how-to guides, e.g., Home Barista's Guide to Espresso and Randy's EASY GUIDE TO BETTER ESPRESSO AT HOME. Jim's Mano Lite: A Short Guide to Dialing in Espresso SOs and Blends offers more advanced diagnosis hints.

The key is improving your technique. If you're short on time and patience, refer to the reliable 1, 2, 3 punch for technique recommendations and the Home Barista's Guide to Espresso for everything else.

There are few owners of the Gaggia Twin Baby among the active membership, but searching yielded a few threads:

• Slow pour, no crema from new Gaggia espresso machine
  Opinions of Gaggia Baby Twin
  Foaming on Gaggia Baby twin with thermoblock

If you need more specific advice, we'd need to know what grinder you are using, what coffee (how fresh?), and your experience/expectations.

Hi Alek,
I got a Gaggia Baby Twin in early June. Since I got it I often look at other machines longingly and think about someday getting a Expobar Brutus or Alexia by Quick Mill. But, I always ask myself: would any of these give me an espresso experience that much better as to justify the cost. I doubt it. I get excellent quality espresso shots from my Gaggia. When I used my Gaggia MDF grinder with it I typically set it at 4 or 5 - sometimes as low as 3 to get a shot in about 25 seconds. Recently I bought a used commercial grinder on e-bay. This grinder has 63mm burrs and it does a really nice job of producing excellent quality shots with a good head of crema. I have bought espresso from Intelligentsia, Metropolis, PT's, and Paradise. Recently I got some outstanding beans from Counter Culture. I always get whole beans and grind them myself. You can find these folks on the internet. I often roast my own beans as well. The point is you need really fresh roasted beans ground with a good grinder. And then tamp with about 30 pounds of pressure. There is excellent tutorials on this site about how to prepare your portafilter for a shot. I always make double shots. By the way, I also let the machine heat up for about an hour before I start making espresso. The manufacturer claims you can wait only a few minutes. I find it works better with an hour of heating up. I tell you this long story only to give you some assurance that the Gaggia Baby Twin can work pretty well. Good luck.

Thanks for all the help, I have realized that I really dont know anything about espresso. I think my issue is that the grinds are too fine. I dont have a grinder and instead buy preground coffee from Illy. The reason I think that my grinds are too fine is that they get stuck in the filter. When I remove the head the puck is wet with water still lingering in the filter. Before I invest more money in a proper grinder I want to verify that these symptoms are caused by poor grind quality.

In regard to posts and suggestions by other members (Slow pour, no crema from new Gaggia espresso machine) I dont think I have a clogged 3-way valve.

ke1evraTi wrote:Before I invest more money in a proper grinder I want to verify that these symptoms are caused by poor grind quality.

It's been said that the grinder makes excellent espresso, not the machine. Until you can provide your machine with freshly roasted, consistent grind size, and freshly ground beans, you will (likely) have problems getting a good espresso shot. If you keep looking at your machine like it's the problem and you're using preground coffee you'll be frustrated forever.

Get a good grinder, bottom line. Used commercial grinders go on ebay all the time for very reasonable prices, and there are some good new consumer grinders equal to the task (I read, I haven't owned any of them) that are less than $300usd.

ke1evraTi wrote:Thanks for all the help, I have realized that I really dont know anything about espresso. I think my issue is that the grinds are too fine. I dont have a grinder and instead buy preground coffee from Illy. The reason I think that my grinds are too fine is that they get stuck in the filter. When I remove the head the puck is wet with water still lingering in the filter. Before I invest more money in a proper grinder I want to verify that these symptoms are caused by poor grind quality.

Thanks for being thankful and for realizing you know very little. That removes most of the obstacles to your learning about quality. You have a lot to learn. It is a fun process. It is well worth it if you like good coffee and want to learn what truly great espresso can taste like.

So first... you need to actually do a lot of research on your own, so allow me to point you in the right direction.

To address a few basic issues
1) "they get stuck in the filter"... um, yes, that is what it is supposed to do... hence why you see so many references to the 'puck' in the literature. Go to youtube and watch videos of former world barista championships and you will see... and actually, your description actually sounds like it isn't stuck enough. If I recall correctly, the twin doesn't have an OPV, so your pucks will be soupy no matter what but they should be fairly solid in general and really 'stuck'.
2) "I think that my grinds are too fine" I can appreciate relying on intuition, but your intuition is not only all wrong but your also misguided as to the true quality of your coffee purchase. Read almost ANY article on this site and you will see that not only is Illy's grind not nearly fine enough, but it also isn't fresh by any standards. Illy is not even a decent starting point... you need far better beans (read: "fresher") and a grinder, a good grinder (spend at least 200 as a rule of thumb, and spend it wisely after researching).
3) "Before I invest more money in a proper grinder I want to verify that these symptoms are caused by poor grind quality." I appreciate wanting to spend your money wisely... so allow that desire to encourage you to inspire you to actually read the how-tos on this site. Really... seriously.

You have a good machine that can produce solid results... get a good grinder (MDF at minimum), and fresh coffee and read about technique and watch vidoes so you know what espresso is actually supposed to be. I actually am fairly certain that you don't even know the difference between espresso and brewed coffee... so as I said before, go read the articles on this site. Until you get that figured out you will just be confused b/c you don't even know what you are trying to produce.

Then... if you have more questions or clarifications as to what you read, we will continue to be helpful. Enjoy the journey.