Hi there
I'd like to ask you for help with setting up my Rocky. I started with espresso making only a few months ago so I consider myself a newbie. I had read a lot of useful information here on HB and after a lot of research I bought a brand new Gaggia Baby Class (basically the same machine as the acclaimed Gaggia Classic) and a Rancilio Rocky Doserless. I hoped to be able to make wonderful coffee (compared to what I was used to before) but I'm still not there. Whatever I do the extraction is way too fast - about 7 to 10 seconds even on the lowest setting (which is number 5 in my case). Having read how good performer the Rocky is I'm almost sure that I'm doing something wrong rather than having bad equipment.
This is what I do:
- I use freshly roasted coffee beans from a local coffee shop (where they make the best espresso in town from the same coffee). I store the beans in an air tight metal container at room temperature.
- I preheat the Gaggia for about 20 minutes with the portafilter (and a single filter basket) locked in
- I fill a coffee cup with hot water from the machine (using the brew button) after about 10 minutes
- I throw one scoop of coffee beans into the Rocky (I measured it was really about 7 grams)
- I set my Rocky on 5 (the lowest setting before the burrs start to touch)
- I remove the portafilter and wipe the filter with a dry towel
- I grind the coffee into the portafilter
- I tap the portafilter against the counter
- I tamper the coffee with a 58 mm high quality tamper (as much as I can)
- I lock the portafilter until the handle points slightly to the right
- I press the brew button
- measured from the time the coffee starts to flow, it takes about 7-10 seconds to fill an espresso cup! The crema is very light in appearance
The result is similar if I use the double filter basket and double amount of coffee.
Just out of curiosity, I went to the coffee shop and asked for ground coffee (ground on their professional grinder they use - don't know the brand) and with that ground coffee the extraction took about 20 seconds and the result was very good.
So what am I doing wrong? Is it the coffee, the equipment, the settings, the procedure or just me? Please help.
Thanks in advance
P.S. please resist the temptation to tell me that I need to buy a lot better grinder or coffee machine. I'm sure that although what I have is not a state-of-the-art equipment, according to what others said, I should be able to make decent coffee with it, too. "I'm learning to drive my first Ford, I don't need to buy a Mercedes to be able to drive".

Roderick wrote:Just out of curiosity, I went to the coffee shop and asked for ground coffee (ground on their professional grinder they use - don't know the brand) and with that ground coffee the extraction took about 20 seconds and the result was very good.

Well, based on the above, sounds like you need to grind finer. How did their ground coffee feel compared to yours? Try rubbing each between your fingers. Is the grinder used? Maybe the burrs are dull (see How to know grinder burrs are worn out? for more).

Roderick wrote:- I throw one scoop of coffee beans into the Rocky (I measured it was really about 7 grams)

could it be the dose? Most of these people you see getting 20-30 second shots and pulling 16,18,20 grams.

Are you sure that you can't grind finer with your Rocky? Also, use the double basket, and try to dose higher, as suggested above. Try to get 18 grams in your double basket.

Any working espresso grinder, and certainly the Rocky, should allow you to dose 6 to 7 grams in a single basket and make 30 second or longer shots on any commercial group, and certainly the Gaggia's.

Here's a checklist

-- Unscrew the top burr. check to see the burrs are mounted level, and even if they are, screw it back in and try again. Sometimes this can resolve problems
-- Is the coffee really fresh? Very stale coffee (i,e, several months old) may be impossible to grind fine enough.
-- Can you level and tamp, or are your shots channeling? Don't buy a new machine or grinder, but do buy a naked portafilter.

One of these three will resolve your problem.

Thanks for your suggestions. The Rocky is brand new so I doubt the burrs are worn out, but as someone suggested they may be mounted improperly or something may have happened during shipping. I'm just a bit afraid to dismantle them since I've never done this and I don't want to make it even worse.

As for the dosage, I wanted to try dosing more but it's not that easy with the Gaggia. I watched a video on dosing and leveling so I tried that too - I ground a bit more coffee to the portafilter than necessary and leveled it gently with my finger (as on the video) and then tampered it firmly. But then I could not lock the portafilter into the group head at all !!! The same happens if I use more then a level scoop of coffee beans for the single basket (or 2 level scoops of beans for the double basket). Is this normal with Gaggias?

Sorry for the stupid question - what does channeling mean and how do I find out if it's my case?

So I don't know - it could be something with the burrs or dosing or coffee (it was not stale however) or my technique. More ideas welcome.
Thanks

I used a Gaggia Classic for months, I was able to do 18g shots. If you want to try a higher dose then its quite straight forward. Do not use the whole beans and a weight measurement for the ground in the basket for a start. Try using a kitchen scale, place your basket on the scale and add the ground coffee till 16/18g. If you were unable to lock in the portafilter in that means you had too much in the basket.

So, you really cannot grind finer? If not, why?

What I have found with my Rocky is that there seems to be some "play" in the location of the "0" point. The last two times I have cleaned the grinder (which included removing the top burr carrier), I have had the following experience:

When replacing the carrier, the conventional wisdom is to get it close by hand, and then turn the grinder on. Slowly dial down toward zero until the burrs begin to "sing", which indicates the first faint contact, and that is your "0" point. Back off from there and then start dialing down toward your zero to get your optimum grind. When I have done this, I have had experiences similar to the OP: a blonde gusher. In fact, I've had to dial PAST my supposed 0 to get back to the optimum grind.

So at least on my machine, it seems that the zero point when "loaded" (that is, when actually grinding coffee) is different from the unloaded zero. This would indicate some play in the threading of the burr carrier (i.e. the force of grinding coffee pushing the burr carrier upward as the threading allows?).

I'm not sure this explanation is the correct one, but I have seen the phenomenon twice in a row now.

It would be interesting to hear thoughts of others on this idea, but it seems to me you may have to dial finer than what you think your zero point is (as it may not be the actual zero).

Thoughts anyone?

sgstarks wrote:When replacing the carrier, the conventional wisdom is to get it close by hand, and then turn the grinder on. Slowly dial down toward zero until the burrs begin to "sing", which indicates the first faint contact, and that is your "0" point. Back off from there and then start dialing down toward your zero to get your optimum grind. When I have done this, I have had experiences similar to the OP: a blonde gusher. In fact, I've had to dial PAST my supposed 0 to get back to the optimum grind.

This is not a good technique for the standard threaded espresso burr grinder. When reinserting the burr, screw it all the way in until the burrs touch and lock. Then back it out between 1/8 and a 1/4 turn. This will put you in the espresso zone. Now grind a bit and do the pinch test for very fine granular particles. Once you have that grind feel, the correct grind setting should be within a 1/10 of turn in each direction.

The threading in commercial espresso grinders is usually set so a half to three quarter turn goes from espresso to French Press. That means these instructions will work on almost any of these grinders.

Quick hint, almost all beginners tend to make their adjustments too timidly and finely. Make big changes. It may not work, but at least you'll overshoot your mark, set an upper bound on the required change, be able to make a smaller change in the other direction. If you're tweaking the grind finer and finer two or three times in a row, you aren't even close to doing it right.