Hi All,

I have a Carezza and Mazzer Mini setup.

For now, Im only making doubles. Im pretty happy with my
shots, however, no matter how many grams of coffee and grind settings
I use, my blonding always occurs at 1.5oz. I can never seem to get
a 2oz shot

Currently Im using 14 grams of coffee, but ive used as much as 18-19 grams.

I havent done any temp surfing, but I figure with all the shots ive pulled, i would
have noticed something by now. Not sure if its technique either?

What can I do to get that extra 1/2 oz? Should I even bother?

Thanks..

I am fairly new at this, but have been reading this site and others, and practicing a lot. I have noticed that when I get rapid blonding, it's usually because of channeling. I work with 14 - 15 grams. My shots average just over 1 1/2 oz. Have you experimented with your tamping technique? Do you tap or knock, or do anything that might otherwise encourage channeling?

Thanks BelAir,

I dont do any tapping on knocking of the pf once the coffee is in.

Im sure my technique can use improvement, howerver i only
get 1.5 oz even if ive ground so fine that the coffee is overextracted,
and trickles out

Ill pulled at least a few dozen shots, so I figure on one of them the
technique was ok

i dont have a naked pf to be able to tell how good/bad my technique is
unfortunately. I have some idea though after taking off the double cup
pourer attachment

appa wrote:I dont do any tapping on knocking of the pf once the coffee is in.

Im sure my technique can use improvement, howerver i only
get 1.5 oz even if ive ground so fine that the coffee is overextracted,
and trickles out

Ill pulled at least a few dozen shots, so I figure on one of them the
technique was ok

Don't underestimate the impact of poor technique. Grinding fine does not resolve channeling.

Have you tried the WDT method to reduce distribution problems? It really helps. Read about it here:

http://www.home-barista.com/weiss...ion-technique.html


Getting a naked portafilter was about the best investment I made. My technique improved significantly after seeing what can happen. You should consider getting one.

-Tom

Do you have a bottomless portafilter? If so, try recording it and post the video. It is much easier to diagnose a problem when you can see it.

appa wrote:Im pretty happy with my shots, however, no matter how many grams of coffee and grind settings I use, my blonding always occurs at 1.5oz. I can never seem to get a 2oz shot

cannonfodder wrote:It is much easier to diagnose a problem when you can see it.

The problem is... "volume envy"?

HB wrote:The problem is... "volume envy"?

I'll second the bottomless PF suggestion, but Dan's got a good point (if I understand him correctly). What's so bad about a 1.5oz double? There may be nothing wrong with your technique. With your equipment, coffee beans, and definition of blonding, that may be the most you can consistently pull. Relax and enjoy it!

Turns out it was the age of the beans

I guess the most i could extract out of the older beans
was ~1.5 oz before blonding. Was able to get a higher
volume with fresh beans.

Since then Im checking the yields by weight, thanks to
the brewing ratio chart posted by HB a few days ago..

I guess the interesting thing was that the older beans
still tasted ok, they are just less forgiving.

Thanks again to all..

appa wrote:I guess the interesting thing was that the older beans still tasted ok, they are just less forgiving.

Thanks for the follow-up... did we really forget to ask about coffee freshness? The sharp dropoff in bean forgiveness begins in week 3, except for Italian "boat beans," in which case it begins on day 1.

Thanks Dan,

About the forgiveness of the beans in general, how much do you
(or anyone) tend to adjust the grind as the beans age? once every week?
once every few days? for me it seems to be once a week for a few weeks,
but ill have to play with this more..

thanks...