I've been home roasting and using a press pot for about 5 years now. Been saving up for a setup and for my birthday, my wife got me a Gaggia Classic and a Rocky Doserless with a Rattleware 58mm tamper. After 3 pounds of coffee (1 lbs black cat and 2 lbs monkey), I thought I was doing better and was quite excited.

But my wife is throwing a party this weekend and I cannot roast enough in my iRoast 1. So I stopped for another pound of Black Cat this morning and got my free shot. My God. My first thought was, "I didn't order sugar." I quickly discovered that this was the natural sweetness. Man, that shot completely took the wind out of my sails.

I'm not sure where I'm going wrong with my shots. I'm dosing 19g. If I go 20, I get a prominant screen impression. With 19, I can lock it in with no impression, but it comes out with a clear screw and ring after the pull. Anything less and the shot goes blond very quickly.

Grinding at a 9 on the Rocky and tamping with that Staub Tamp. I've experimented with all kinds of tamp pressure and grind size. Machine heats up at least 30 minutes. I wait for the light to come on at the end of a heat up cycle. Pour starts out at 3 seconds after the switch. I do not have a bottomless at the moment. I'm getting 2 oz in about 23 seconds right now. However, the crema is much lighter then the shot I just got an Intelli. I'd classify it as a dark tan, while the Intelli show was dark brown/red with flecks of gold. I'm pretty sure I'm stopping it close to right because I have a bit of snake bite on the crema. The crema does hold for several minutes. But I'm getting absolutely no sweetness. None at all. The mouth feel on mine seemed to be much thinner also.

It's not overly bitter and tastes OK, which is why I thought I was getting better. But today I learned that I'm still not doing something right. I have noticed that the boiler turns on mid shot even though I waited until the boiler had just kicked off before I pulled.

I realize my equipment will not give me the quality I get at Intelli. However, I assumed I could get close. I'll try to have pics and video when I get home. Right now, I'm bummed out at the office.

Sounds like shot running fast, grind finer.

I've tried grinding finer. Puts me in the 40+ second shot area. And I imagine that would cause the boiler to cycle even worse when pulling a shot. Or is this OK?

One click finer on Rocky is usually about a 6 sec difference, IF dose, distribution and tamp consistent. Are you weighing your dose? If not, you'll want to pick up a scale with 0.1g resolution and weigh each dose until you can be consistent dosing within +/- 0.3g or so max variation without it.

Yes, I'm weighing the dose. Although I normally weigh the portafilter, tare the scale, then fill to 19g.

I've ground 1 click finer and I believe it was around 33 seconds. Although it was when I was trying out a 20g dose. Same symptoms, just poured a bit longer. I'll try to video a 1 click finer shot when I get home this evening. Thanks for the advice.

You are comparing shots made in two VERY different situations. Even without my knowing their equipment, your entry-level machine and low end espresso grinder is just not ever going to compare with what they can create. We can go into all the technical reasons for that, but it is just not going to happen.

I know I'm never going to get something as good, or probably even close. But something that vaguely resembles would be acceptable. I'd be happy to at least get some sweetness in the cup, even if I have to accept some imperfections.

Don't despair too much.

It's my opinion that entry level equipment like yours and mine lacks consistency more than potential. I've had a handful of shots at home that were reasonably close to best, and quite a lot that were tasty.

The biggest problem with your machine, as you've indirectly noted, is temperature consistency. There's just not enough metal on your Gaggia to compare to a thermal titan at Intelligentsia. Your boiler comes on because it needs to keep up with the cool water entering it. But that doesn't necessarily ruin the chances of a good shot.

If I had to guess, I'd say your problem is with distribution. That's what I struggle with the most. Very small inconsistencies in the puck can cause channeling. channeling messes up flavors, blondes espresso early, and is hated by espresso enthusiasts everywhere. Higher doses mitigate the problems associated with bad distributions, but they don't solve them.

Do a search for the Weiss Distribution Technique (WDT) and think about some of the discussion on it. The next most common advice is to get a naked portafilter and examine how the espresso comes out of the screen. This article from the FAQs shows the diagnostic possibilities of naked portafilters.

Randy G. wrote:You are comparing shots made in two VERY different situations. Even without my knowing their equipment, your entry-level machine and low end espresso grinder is just not ever going to compare with what they can create. We can go into all the technical reasons for that, but it is just not going to happen.

To an extent I agree and also disagree. A Rocky Gaggia combo will never consistently match a Robur GB5 etc. combo but can with copious practice attain I'd say 60 to 70% shot quality routinely and occasionally 80 to 90%. Remember while more inconsistent, Rocky tied the Robur in the Titan shootout actually winning two rounds of four. And Gaggia capable of quite good shots, with good temp surfing technique including I believe turning boiler on via steam switch at start of shot to help keep shot temp up.

BUT, unquestionably it is MUCH harder to learn to pull good shots on lower end setup than high end setup.

It's been a while since I had my Gaggia Classic, but here's what I had to do to get the best from Black Cat:

After the machine came up to temp and right before brewing I would flush about 2oz of water. On my machine, the first oz or so was too hot.

I also found that my Classic had a sweet spot for high-dose coffees around 18gm. In other words, I did not get good results from my Classic using doses above 18gm.

Although you mention that your espresso is not bitter, I suggest taking a look at the stream with no pf to see if it also has a lot of steam at first.

You could try flushing in 1oz increments prior to brewing until you get a sour shot. Then back off the flush by 1/2oz increments until you hit the sweet spot.

Mark