finally, I got to the point of making this (see photo below).

15-20 sec, about half an inch of crema, and the taste... well, let's just say I have tried better espressos LOL

It tasted kind of ... watery. It wasnt bitter, actually it was sour/sweet but it was like dirty water, not oily and thick. Now, if anyone has actually had the patience to read through all of this, I'd like to thank them and even more so should someone wish to steer me into the right direction.

Thank you all and many spring greets from Croatia!
Alex

Congratulations on your new gear and your new hobby!

If you can pick up a digital scale, it'll greatly help you in determining the proper dose, and in maintaining consistency.

Your shot looks good, but as you say, it's sour and a little under-extracted. Try grinding finer, dosing at the same weight, and see if you can get the shot to fall within 25-30 seconds. If it starts tasting bitter, then you've ground too fine.

Also, just looking at the color your shot, and from what you've told us, you may be brewing a little hot. Normally if a shot is under extracted, the crema is lighter than what I see here. It's important, with your Gaggia, to do a cooling flush before you brew.

I don't mean to overcomplicate things. Get the grind right first, then worry about temperature.

Other than that, you're on the right track.

Hey guys!

thank you for cheering me up I kind of need that now. It was the same a few years ago when I started doing photography. Take pictures, apertures, shutter speeds, film ISO, then bathroom chemistry - developers, fixers... it was all just one nightmare. But slowly, I grabbed the chemistry by the neck and soon I was developing like a pro.

I guess I can learn how to do espresso too, right?

Yes, Im thinking:

1. get my grinding set up
2. dosing and tamping, getting to the right amount of espresso / time
3. THEN worry about temperature and pressure (I'm even thinking about PIDing my Gaggia and adding a pre-heater as that member from Sweden has done)
4. everything else

Cheers!

What's exactly the issue with the doser?
You should use the doser like this guy; continuously thwacking to break up clumps and distribute the grounds evenly in the basket.

Thanx for the vid!

Well, my problem with the doser is this - I want to keep the coffee fresh for as long as possible. So, I take a little bit of the beans, maybe one and a half espresso cups, throw them into the grinder and grind. Now, thats really not much coffee, so the doser is really empty, except for a clump here and there.

I put the portafilter underneath and start pulling on the lever... On the first pull (for example) nothing comes out. On the second a large amount of grinds... but how much, about 7 grams? A standard for a "single" shot?

I have just found on another thread, which is in the FAQ section, that it is difficult to pull single shots from single baskets (something about needing a significantly smaller tamper), maybe this is where part of my problem originates?

I have been doing all this with the single basket and it is REALLY easy to hit shower screen with overdosing it

I find it very hard to pull a good single shot, so I basically just use the double basket all of the time. Tamping with the single is a pain because of the sloping walls of the basket, and because it's really important to get the dose just right. Overdosing will pretty much always cause massive channeling because, as you say, the puck hits the shower screen and gets damaged.

So if I were you, I'd concentrate on the double for now, and wait until later to work on singles.

As for dosing from the doser, you can't really use it the way many shops do, which is to pull once for a single and twice for a double. As you've already learned, this doesn't work if you're grinding per shot and only putting small amounts of beans in the hopper.

Instead, pre-measure your beans and run the grinder until it's empty, thwacking the doser handle rapidly as you go. Don't worry about how many thwacks equal how many grams. Just thwack and grind until there's no beans left. Then weigh the basket and determine if you need to take some out or put more in. After that, carefully level and tamp, and then you can pull your shot.

Hol don man

Let me get this straight....

1. I put UNGROUND BEANS (about the amount I need for my double) into the grinder
2. turn it on, start thwacking IMMEDIATELY?
3. level, tamp and off I go

Is this what you are saying? I'm already seeing that the sheer size of these grinders might be an issue; they seem to be made for large amounts and heavy cafe-type usage. I'd like to keep everything fresh, beans stored in an airtight container (as opposed to in the grinder itself) and only grind little by little, as I need it.

That makes it important to clean the grinder thoroughly after every use which is still giving me headaches... I cant use my vacuum cleaner on it all the time is there a better way?

Yes, that's what I'm saying. Many people do this, but it does require sweeping out the chute and doser between shots if you really want to make sure you're not getting stale grounds in your filter.

Actually, I used to do this procedure, but eventually I decided it was easier to just keep a 1/4 pound or so of beans in the hopper all the time rather than putting only what I needed in the grinder for each shot. In fact, some grinders work best this way, since they need the weight of some beans in order to avoid having beans "popcorn" out of the burrs during grinding, which can throw the grind consistency off. For example, a lot of conical burr grinders work best with some beans in the hopper.

So now what I do is keep some beans in the hopper, and just throw out the first few grams of coffee that come out of the grinder to avoid getting stale grounds in the filter. Then grind and thwack as usual until the filter is full, weigh if necessary, level, tamp, and pull your shot.

G'day fellas!

I've continued my (decent, not excellent) Espresso quest today and this is what happened:

1. I used a Gaggia double basket instead of a single
2. I let quite a lot of water out through the PF, till the heating element went on
3. took the PF off and started grinding
4. I ditched the plastic dosing spoon and simply thwacked on the lever until the portafilter was full a little over the rim
4. straightened it all with my finger
5. tamped with the plastic tamper that came with my espresso machine
----
Temperature surfing (to cool ma Gaggia a bit)
6. I again let a bit of water through the shower screen, till the light turned off/heater went on
7. attached the PF
8. hit the brew switch and voila.....

25 seconds and blonding (I think) occurred. But I had two delicious espressos , thanx to you guys and to this forum. They were sweet-ish, a bit sour but waaay better than dirty water I got yesterday.

I then proceeded to froth the milk but that was a total disaster. All I got were BIG bubbles on top and a whirlpool beneath that mess. I ended up with mildly warm milk... I just cant seem to get that "turbo frother" attachment to work AND I can't seem to place it at the right depth

Here's what my puck looked like after the todays ride...

astrbac wrote:Temperature surfing (to cool ma Gaggia a bit)
6. I again let a bit of water through the shower screen, till the light turned off/heater went on
7. attached the PF
8. hit the brew switch and voila.....

25 seconds and blonding (I think) occurred.

That's too much. After your first round of surfing, all you need to do is run enough water for the "Shhhhhh!" to stop, and that's it. Running until the light goes off will make the water way too cool, and probably accounts for the sour flavor/ blonding.

astrbac wrote:I then proceeded to froth the milk but that was a total disaster. All I got were BIG bubbles on top and a whirlpool beneath that mess. I ended up with mildly warm milk... I just cant seem to get that "turbo frother" attachment to work AND I can't seem to place it at the right depth

Ditch the turbo-frother and just use the plastic tip. It's entirely possible to make great microfoam that way. check out this video: