Dear community,

Thank you for all the information you provide on a daily basis. Your expertise has guided my buying and brewing decisions through my first few months of crafting my own shots. I'm on here reading posts almost daily, and wouldn't be writing at all if I thought I had a clear path through my own particular nest of issues (yep, have read the latest Espresso 101). Having come to understand that brewing good espresso is about controlling variables, I find that my setup is giving me so much contradictory information, I can't seem to find consistency. Channeling plagues me, good shots elude me. (To be clear, my god shot would be 1.5 - 1.75 ounces of thick, well-extracted espresso.)

Briefly: I own a new Gaggia Classic (modded down to 10 bar, which equates to 9 bar in basket?) and a used Rancilio Rocky, which seemed like the best grinder for my grad student price range. Brewing with a bottomless portafilter and the 18g OEM basket until my VST arrives. We know the trouble with the Rocky: it clumps wicked hard. OK, Chobani yogurt cup and a paper clip for the WDT. Even though WDT fluffs up grinds substantially, I never end with a mound higher than the top of the portafilter, so fingerstrike, Knockfleths etc are out. I hand-tap or shake, knock to settle, then tamp. Summary question: Even an 18g+ dose, which would touch my shower screen, doesn't fill the portafilter. Yet even a careful WDT often leaves dead spots in the extraction. How best to control distribution as a variable?

Tens of channeled, sour, 18-second shots later, I've brought the grind on the Rocky down to a 7 (it zeroes at 3), which feels very fine to me, compared to what local baristas have ground off for me to feel. A 17g dose (Stumptown Hairbender), WDT stirred and distributed, makes for a 35-second doubleshot with dark tiger-striping that can be shockingly mild to the taste or fall into bitterness. A 16g shot at the same grind is a bitter nastiness that ends with half my puck sticking to the shower screen, I don't know why. My gut tells me this grind is too fine, but as soon as I go coarser, I have to updose like hell (18-19) to avoid a sour waterfall.

Do you mind if I post a pic or two of this last extraction? 17g of fine stuff, 35 seconds or so to two ounces. The puck is slightly mucky on top, and the center is two-toned, with a dark ring around the outside, and the inside a much lighter brown. I can't help but think this means poor water distribution, but how would I know?

Any advice at all would be appreciated. Thanks so much!

stepped grinder adjustments are always fun, aren't they? Have you searched for the teflon tape mod for the Rocky? it isn't magic and your grinder will still be stepped but you may find more consistency. You could also try an espresso with a bigger margin for (barista) error. Redbird and Caffe Lusso GMC come to mind. You are clearly on a budget so we won't burden you with suggestions to upgrade to a GS3 and a Monolith cause, you know, that would help, too.

rittem1 wrote:Have you searched for the teflon tape mod for the Rocky?

This is the first I'm hearing of this! I'll start researching.

Yeah, holy cow, the Monolith. In all seriousness, though, I'm wondering if the next logical step up from the Rocky would be a Mazzer Mini, a Macap M4, or possibly a better Baratza? Dosing with the Mazzer looks beautifully easy, it's just so damn hard to find one under, say, $600.

Ganymede wrote:In all seriousness, though, I'm wondering if the next logical step up from the Rocky would be a Mazzer Mini, a Macap M4, or possibly a better Baratza? Dosing with the Mazzer looks beautifully easy, it's just so damn hard to find one under, say, $600.

If you're buying new, the Fiorenzato F4e Nano is a better buy than the Mini timer.

Totally agree. I had a F4 before the Monolith Conical and it is a bargain in my opinion.

All of below assumes fresh coffee that's rested long enough after roast. Don't worry about the puck after brew or "filling" the basket.

In fact, when not using a VST dose lower. Say 14-15g. Have you read the can it beat Robur write up? It appeared that rocky held its own on lower doses. Also, here's a few more thing you might want to incorporate....

-Keep the WDT and do a couple light settling taps to flatten your dose
-Weigh your dose AND brew onto a scale using a .1 resolution scale (forget about volumes when talking espresso)
-Don't use VST baskets for a while, they are much more prone to channel and you basically have to dose to match their "rating" which may not well suit the rocky, dunno.
-Don't be afraid to grind too fine, shots that take a long time but pour evenly still are easy drinking compared to severly underextracted stuff. IMHO! I think it's much harder to over extract than it is to under do it with espresso...
-Post a video of your routine


Once you are comfortable and getting even flow on oem baskets, bust out the VST and start all over again! Sorry, they are just finicky but there's reasons for putting up with less than stellar "looking" pours. For more on that read the write on basket comparisons by Jim S....

You mention the Rocky being used and having severe clumping. Have you replaced the burrs? Not long ago I scored a Silvia/Rocky at a killer price, but the Rocky had sat for years with molded coffee tar in it. The original owner said he used it maybe a dozen times since new (2005) and the burrs were like new, but I couldn't get rid of the smell regardless of what I did. Bought a new set of OEM burrs/screws and it grinds quite well with no static/clumping whatsoever and I get a rather fluffy grind from it. This (static/clumping/fluffy) can vary from grinder-grinder based on coffee/roast level, humidity, etc. Of course numbers on the hopper are just for reference, but to give you an idea mine doesn't quite have burr rub at '0' and I grind all of my coffees (full city-full city+) around '9'.

The OEM burr/screw set was around $50 w/free shipping on Amazon and may be a viable/cheap option to give you better grind quality if you choose to keep the Rocky for now.

Have you tried different coffees? I recall reading somewhere on this site Hairbender can be challenging.

RyanJE wrote:In fact, when not using a VST dose lower. Say 14-15g. Have you read the can it beat Robur write up? It appeared that rocky held its own on lower doses.

I just read that entire thread yesterday -- thank you for the heads up! I have to admit, listening to Ken Fox talk about dosing sizes, I'm ready to try a couple of 14g doses and see how things go. I got scared off last weekend when a 15g dose ended up sticking to my shower screen completely -- as in, I pulled out the portafilter to find half the coffee inside and half stuck to the screen.

I also noticed that Jim tested the Rocky at one click above zero (burrs touching), which is finer than I'd ever imagined I would need to go. But I'll do it. Also, I weigh my doses every time - nothing more to be said about the importance of a scale!

When you say dose to match the basket "rating," do you mean that if the basket is an "18g" basket, I have to use an 18g dose?

Espresso_Junky wrote:You mention the Rocky being used and having severe clumping. Have you replaced the burrs?

You know, I keep wondering if that might be the next step. I got the machine through ebay, and it came absolutely COVERED in coffee grounds, with a bunch of stuff to clean inside the burr group -- no tar, exactly, but a lot of stuff that needed scraping and vacuuming. I think you're probably right -- I'll buy a new set on Amazon now and see how they change things. Thank you for the reminder!