Ilya, I watched your video a few times... I am not convinced you have a problem. Puckology is generally considered to be only slightly more useful than reading tea leaves. The assumption that because a section of your spent puck is drier than the other portions of the puck assumes that, therefore, it was never exposed to water and extracted, seems rather shaky to me. However, your shot video does show a poor side seal and also an extraction that begins radially and comes in. To me, that hint's that the center of your puck probably is denser than the outer edges, and is tending to extract less. This will get you a mix of over- and under-extraction in your cup, and may lead to an edgy cup. Center channeling and radial channeling can be tough to identify, because it's hidden for all but the beginning of the pour, but I think the beginning provides some hints.

I've had issues like that before, and a couple of things have worked nicely. First, rather than rotating your basket as you dose, try moving it in a circle--i.e., no rotation, dose once into the north side, then northwest, then west, southwest, etc. That's what I'd do if I didn't want to WDT. Since you do, it's kind of a moot point, and I'd suggest that you may be using the needle to push the coffee more to the center than the edges--This seems particularly likely since you don't use a funnel and you'd probably be less likely to properly push the coffee to the edges without it, since you'd likely knock a lot more over the edge. If you're going to WDT, which really ought to be an unnecessary step for your grinder, I'd try stirring such that you push more coffee out to the edges and leave more of a dimple in the center, and see if that helps.

The other thing to try is nutating. Either way, from where I'm sitting, that's the only real flaw that I am seeing. It may or may not be related to the flaky pucks with dry centers, but I'd be looking to fix that if I were seeing what I do and my shots sucked. Other than that, I'd be trying with a well-known espresso blend that I knew was in its prime, not Ethiopian SOs, and definitely not home-roast.

Marshall wrote:9 times out of 10 it is the barista, or as we sometimes say here "The problem is on the handle side of the portafilter." I would start there before shipping machines around and paying for mechanics.

Agreed and you are right it should be in that order. The OP seemed pretty well convinced that there was a machine problem which was the only reason I suggested the sequence that I did.

I am still a newbie, and have very different equipment from you (Gaggia New Baby). However, when I was having trouble about a month ago, and was getting a similar spent puck to you, I discovered that for my machine I was leaving too much headspace. Now I dose much more. 19-21grams. So much that it's often difficult to lock in the PF. The result, however, has been a much better shot. It doesn't go blonde nearly as quickly, and it tastes better.

I can't remember if you've tried updosing or not. As I said, I'm a newbie, so don't just go on my advice.

Marshall wrote:Ask your favorite barista if he/she will moonlight for training at home. Some do.

I'd be surprised if most barista wouldn't jump at an offer of a C Note to spend a few hours some afternoon or evening helping you out. Ok, maybe some of the best with competition wins under their belt might want more.

Well I am going to keep trying with this coffee and give it some rest like you guys suggested.
Also going to build the PF pressure gauge sometime soon to help check the machine one

If anyone has any tips I will be glad to try them out!

What happens if you use the single basket? A triple?

Marshall wrote:Dear Mr. Godly,

You live in NYC. There is no need to rely on remote advice, when personal training is so readily available to you (and so much more effective). Here is Intelligentsia's. Other roasters may have similar programs in New York.

http://www.intelligentsiacoffee.com/store/product/id/2052

For L.A. area readers, Chuck Jones offers a very nice bring-your-own-machine training class in Pasadena at his roastery.

http://www.thebestcoffee.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=95&products_id=769

Does Intelligentsia have the same type of training class in Chicago?

Follow-on discussion split to Eliminating needle flutter of DIY portafilter pressure gauges.

So I built the PF pressure gauge and surprisingly the stock gauge was pretty much spot on.

I set it to 130 psi at the puck and left it at that.

I have been getting much better results grinding coarser and tamping harder...

still not as good as I would hope, but definitely better than before.

I am also going to be converting the brewtus to a rotary pump, so hopefully that will improve whats in the cup as well.

Interestingly, if I just pull a blank shot of water and let it cool, it doesn't taste very good... in fact it is metallic and kind of harsh tasting... that could also be another factor giving the espresso shots a poor taste.