cannonfodder wrote:Well, that was at least humorous and new.

As others stated, the age of the beans should negate the "too gassy" idea. I am with Dan, your temperature is too high and the extraction is boiling when it hits the air. Just out of curiosity, you're not in the Alps or the Colorado high country where water boils at 198F are you?

No I'm in Rhode Island.

cannonfodder wrote:Well, that is definitely not a high altitude problem. It would be interesting to see what you brew water temperature is. Unfortunately, you need a couple hundred dollars worth of stuff to get an accurate temperature.

Don't suppose you have a thermocouple thermometer?

It may be worth a call to Chris Coffee, since you say you got some Black Pearl with the machine, I assume you got it from Chris. You could have them take a look at the video on the thread and see what they say.

I am afraid I can not think of much more (stuck OPV resulting in super high brew pressure??). I have not used a Silvia so my recommendations are limited.

Nope don't have one of those. Your right I did get it from Chris Coffee and I think I will send them a link to this post.

Thanks for your help. I'm gonna attempt another shot maybe adjust the grind finer.

This is not going to help with your water temperature but I had found with my Silvia that I got better shots when I made sure I had enough headspace to prevent dimpling by the dispersion screen screw.

I had purchased one of the inexpensive multi-meters with a K thermocouple that I snaked up into the PF and no matter what surf timing I used I could never get Silvia to pull a shot close to 200 F. In response to some of the comments you've received have you tried to pull a deliberate "cool" shot? Try one like it was an Hx machine and you were doing a flush (albeit short one) and go. How does it look and taste?

Until you hear from Chris you could try one of the alternate methods of measuring temperatures that were listed on one of the threads. I remember one that used a styro cup with a frothing thermometer angled from the side to the bottom. Its not pretty but it may give some indication of temp swings in relation to time lapsed from boiler heater on/off cycles.

I can't help but wonder if the steam thermostat is over-riding the lower brew temp.

edwa wrote:I can't help but wonder if the steam thermostat is over-riding the lower brew temp.

See Jim's An "Easy Way" to Measure Temperature for the Styrofoam measurement technique. It will give you a decent ballpark figure within 4F.

Watching the video again, I remember Mike Walsh's Silvia that I borrowed for the review redux. It would inexplicably flash boil the first time of the session sometimes, even though the PID said it was ready. At the time I attributed it to a steam pocket throwing off the thermocouple; flushing it once and letting it recover for a few minutes fixed it.

Another cause of bubbles on my particular machine seems to be related to the distance the extracted espresso falls before landing in my cup. On the A3 this is about 3 feet. OK, not really but as Dan said in his review of this machine, there is room to drive an SUV underneath the group. I usually hold my demitasse cup closer to the pour and this seems to help on the bubble front. At least nothing a few swirls in the cup thereafter won't cure. (you know, visualize swirling and smelling a great wine before tasting!)

This raised a thought in my mind: Does anyone stir their espresso gently with a demitasse spoon prior to sipping or is this considered poor form? This would likely solubolize those tiny bubbles as well-

Per cent'anni !

Here is a picture of the puck after a bubbly extraction. When i took the portafilter off the grounds actually popped out of it. I used a scale and tamped to 30lbs.

iflawdya wrote:Here is a picture of the puck after a bubbly extraction. When i took the portafilter off the grounds actually popped out of it. I used a scale and tamped to 30lbs.

Woah!!! That looks pretty bad!

What happens when you run some water out of the grouphead without the portafilter (please be careful). Does is flash boil and/or blast out of the grouphead?

If so, and it does so for more than a few seconds, I think you either have a bad thermostat, a mis-wired machine, or not enough water in the boiler. Ensure you have the boiler full by running water with the hot water button and steam valve open until you have a steady stream out of the steam wand. (Of course, ensure the steam switch is off too )