Hi all... new user, first post. Thanks for this forum!

I'm a real newbie having had my gear about ten days and with no previous experience. I've approximately dialed in the grinder and prep process so that 2 oz will pull in about 27 seconds. But blonding seems to come early, say at about 15 seconds. The shots are generally bitter. What advice would you give to someone with this situation?

Gear: Rocket Cellini, Macap 4 stepless doser, current coffee = Blue Bottle Hayes Valley, less than a week old.

While your shot may be running for 27 seconds, typically the time is called when the shot starts to blonde so in your case you're actually pulling 15 second shots.

My first advice would be to grind a little finer to slow the flow down and extend the shot time. Also if you haven't check out this sites Resources and FAQ sections for much more on what you can expect and try with home espresso.

Welcome to the community.

At first guess i would imagine it a problem with pressure and maybe a little of grind/tamp. What is the peak pressure that you are pulling shots with currently?

My equipment is a bit sub par in comparison but two things that have helped me get better results was lowering the pressure and paying extra attention to removing clumps from the grinds. I do not have any experience with the Macap 4 but my Rocky clumps quite a bit and if i do not break these up it will channel something fierce.

Temp will play a big part in the finished shot as well. What temp are you pulling at?

-Donovan

Thanks Tim and Donovan, for your replies. Tim, I've been over the H-B FAQS a few times but, like all newbies, expect I'll be revisiting them... One of the difficult aspects, for me, is determining the actual start of blonding. Yesterday I got a bottomless PF and I think that will help; with the bottomless it's easier to note the disappearance of the striping.

Donovan, I've been pulling shots at approx 1 Bar, which is about where the machine wants to keep pressure. As for temperature.... that's the rub. With this machine it is difficult to determine the temp. My method, for the most part, has been this: if it's been a while since I've pulled a shot (which it almost always has), I pull the lever and watch until the flow seems to steady. From that point I count to 5, then insert the PF and pull the shot.

One of the difficult aspects, for me, is determining the actual start of blonding.

Greetings Ed and welcome to the HB community.

Try this experiment:

Pull a shot using the single spout portafilter. As the shot progresses, you will notice that the flow starts to look a little "squiggly". Stop the shot immediately as extraction of all the goodies has ended.

Now, after about 15 minutes or so, pull another shot, keeping all of the pre-shot variables as consistent as possible. Let the "squiggliness" progress a few seconds additional.

Try to do a taste comparison (albeit 15 minutes or so apart). Perhaps this will become another weapon in your arsenal.

Perhaps someone with some experience on this particular machine can chime in with better advice for temp surfing.

Looking a bit closer at this model i believe that the pressure gauge on the machine is only for boiler pressure and as such is said to have direct correlation as to the relative temperature of the boiler. Again doing some research on others experiences with this machine will probably help your temp surfing.

To tell what pressure your shots are pulling at would require borrowing or making a pressure gauge setup. Your OPV should be adjustable if it is set too high from the factory. The trick is finding out how...

-Donovan

erics wrote:Greetings Ed and welcome to the HB community.

Try this experiment:

Pull a shot using the single spout portafilter. As the shot progresses, you will notice that the flow starts to look a little "squiggly". Stop the shot immediately as extraction of all the goodies has ended....

Thank you Eric, I will give that a try!

erics wrote:Greetings Ed and welcome to the HB community.

Try this experiment:

Pull a shot using the single spout portafilter. As the shot progresses, you will notice that the flow starts to look a little "squiggly". Stop the shot immediately as extraction of all the goodies has ended.

Now, after about 15 minutes or so, pull another shot, keeping all of the pre-shot variables as consistent as possible. Let the "squiggliness" progress a few seconds additional.

This is a good suggestion. You can tweak it by doing it (and all other extraction experiments) with the double spout, so that option A is under one spout, and B under the other, and you can taste side by side. In this case, pull one cup when it blonds, the other when it has an ounce (since it's half a double).

Mostly, you'll find it's better to ignore the shot the volume, and just make sure it pulls a reasonable time (i.e. 25 to 35 seconds) before it blonds. Also mostly, shot time and volume before blonding are determined by coffee freshness, dose and grind, but not by pump pressure or water temperature when these lie within reasonable ranges.

I know this may sound silly, but as a shot first starts to go from a drip to a flow it is quite dark. As the shot progresses you get the crema mixing into the flow, and it looks lighter in color.

This is not the blonding you want to cut off. With the overwhelming numbers of videos to watch now days you have seen and know that I guess.
I hope

Hi CR.... I hope I know it too! The difficulty I'm having is with telling when the transparency begins. The "look for the squiggle" suggestions seems helpful, as is the suggestion to read the FAQ (always a good suggestion

Working with the bottomless PF it appears that now that the grind is in the ballpark, I really need to work on distribution.