Hi,

When dosing coffee I know most people use a mound of grounds leveled to the rim of the basket. However, if I level to the rim of the basket I cannot get the pf into my machine after tamping. I've worked out by trial and error that there needs to be at least 9mm clearance between the top of the leveled puck and the rim of the basket for it to fit.

My question is therefore, does anyone have suggestions as to how I can dose consistently like this? At the moment I'm filling to "a bit under the rim" before tamping, but obviously this makes leveling the grounds difficult and is giving me a lot of variation between shots and types of bean.

Cheers for any suggestions,

DC

It's a tough question I'm facing now, since the Ekektra Semi works best with the double basket relatively underdosed. I'm using a scale good to 0.1 grams until I get a feel for what the dose looks like ground.

If that doesn't work for you ("what, more gear? "), you can try "reverse dosing." Pack your basket just right, dump the grinds, fluff them up, reload the basket, see what sort of mound you get.

Good question. My Silvia is the same way. I have found that I need to underdose as well or I cannot lock my pf in and most of the time I choke her if I was lucky enough to lock it in. I have never measured or weighed my amounts. I eye two even scoops of beans to under dose and two over filled scoops to get a mound in the basket. I use the WDT and with the cup still with the basket I gently swirl or move back and forth the cup to get as even as I can. I still have a dent in my puck under dosing and I am guessing the 9mm is pretty close to where I am at. It would be nice if I could over dose and level grounds in basket for consistency.
Cody

I went through the same issue when I started working on single baskets. I just dosed until the mound was almost even with the top of the basket. Then I would tap the portafilter ears with my tamper to jostle and level out most of the mound and tamp as usual. The difficult part was learning my dose by sight. It just took practice.

DC wrote:Hi,

When dosing coffee I know most people use a mound of grounds leveled to the rim of the basket. However, if I level to the rim of the basket I cannot get the pf into my machine after tamping. DC

My guess is that you are applying too much downward pressure when you are leveling the puck, or you are tapping the portafilter before leveling. Dont tap it, and use the WDT to fluff up the ground coffee and then level it without down pressure. That's the best way to down-dose. Alternatively, when leveling, bow your finger so that it will shave off more coffee. This will create a delay in saturating the center of your puck during extraction and it changes machine to machine, but it will allow you to down-dose.

What works well for me is the bowed finger approach mentioned above. But I do tap it beforehand to get rid of air pockets. I find that if I tap it and swipe with a bowed finger, I get about 15g, the coffee seals the perimeter well, and it won't channel. This is if I tamp with only the weight of the tamper, or not at all. Ironically, I get uneven extraction when I tamp normally. So I have switched to very light tamping.

Keith

Just a slight variation on the above. I use a single basket with the Elektra Semi and do the N,S,E,W, a la Schomer with a bowed finger. This gives me a more even dosing. The amount of downward pressure applied during this method regulates the amount of coffee left in the basket. Note the distance between the level of the coffee and the rim of the basket after tamping and make micro adjustments with your downward pressure for your next dosing until you get exactly the pull you are looking for.

If you have a naked pf and notice you're getting "donuts," make your grind finer and your tamp lighter.

Thanks for the advice,

...or you are tapping the portafilter before leveling. Dont tap it...

Yeah, I had been tapping the pf quite a lot whilst dosing (I never used to do that - weird how bad habits slip into your technique under the radar), and have reduced this to one tap mid-dose. This has enabled me to fill to the rim of the basket, tamp, and lock okay.

If you have a naked pf and notice you're getting "donuts," make your grind finer and your tamp lighter

I've developed a problem with center-channeling: about mid-way through the pour, the extraction becomes quite thin from most of the basket (to the point that you can see some of the holes in the filter basket) and fast-blond through the middle, or slightly off-center. I've never had a channeling problem before. Off to re-examine my WDT....

DC

Ola

I'm not sure if this could be helpful but I managed to create a small tool to distribute the coffee in my basket. I usually also dose less than the rim of the basket so I had trouble leveling the coffee, but not anymore. Behold the coffee stirring device:



It's also good for breaking clumps, I use it instead of the single needle in my WDT ritual.

Cheers,
dsc.

I hear they use it in Guantanamo. Did you hook it up to an electric spinning toothbrush by any chance?