they are supposed to be good beans from a local roaster, a local cafe gets them in every tuesday they are roasted on sunday and delivered to the cafe on tuesday and it's what they use as well. I guess I can try another roaster to see what happens. When you guys dose 14g do you actually get a puck? When I tried finer grind less dose, still 30lb tamp I got a puck that was soaked and sloppy it almost just slid out of the handle into the knock box.

I have a feeling espresso making is a heck of a lot like golf. I played golf for a few years and can imagine going out with the best clubs made and hitting it into the dirt. Then going online and everyone saying things like "sounds like you didn't keep your head down" "what grip did you use?" "keep your left arm straight" etc. In the end I quite likely just need someone there to say.. 'ah, this is what you did wrong' or 'ah, these beans are crud'.. I just feel like for every problem there are 50 answers and solutions. Anyway, I just contacted an espresso school about 45mins from here. They offer 2 day barista courses so might give that a go..

Grant wrote:If you have gone to all that muss/fuss and are still getting channeling, it has got to be old beans.

I tend to consider myself Murphy's Law in human form so who knows!

i'm about to take out my pressure spring just for peace of mind.. will report back

jeffg wrote:i'm about to take out my pressure spring just for peace of mind.. will report back

Definitely the fatter stronger spring upon examining it.

By the way these are my machine adjustments. With the blind filter on and letting it peak my boiler reads 1-1.1 and my pressure reads 10 (which from what i hear translates to 9 or so on the puck?). It would be good to know what I would see if these setting were not correct (can i trust these gauges?). What would I get if the boiler was too high and the brew too low or both too high, brew too low boiler too low etc..

HB wrote:Maybe your brew pressure gauge is just plain wrong (?). You've got nothing to lose, try dropping it to 8.5 bar; the lower pressure will give you a wider margin of error.

So it says 8.5 on the dial when peaked with blind pf right?

I have been using 15 gram doses in the VBM for some time, I find that works about best for my coffee selection. As to the puck, because you grind finer with a lower dose, the puck tends to be more "sand on the beach" looking on the top.

That side channeling, is it the same side every time? I had a hard time with side channeling, and even still get a lopsided extraction. I just favored one side of the tamper when tamping. To remedy, I grind a little finer and tamp very light, I would guess 10-15 pounds just to level the dose and make sure it has even density. I also give the portafilter two or three downward thumps on the tamping stand to settle the dose before I tamp. But do not thump too hard, a one or two inch downward thunk is sufficient.



Notice how the cone is favoring the front of my shot, the front started to flow before the back. Is you issue similar?

Whoa whoa whoa.. I got so much advice here I decided to buy another bag and retry my efforts. This coffee came from a different cafe which I had never been too. The claimed it was roasted 2 days ago so I brought it home. I reduced my pressure to 8.5-9 bar, i also let the machine heat up for an hour. I ground my new beans, did my flushing to get the right temp while wdt and tamp, I went back to using my finger nsew for distributing. Locked, pulled and holy cow a perfect rich stream appeared and it stayed rich until the very end, the result was glorious and unlike any shot I had pulled before (this makes me think my last beans were crud like some had suspected!) The cappuccino was very very nice. The beans have a complex taste with nutty undertones which aren't my preference but hey i got a good shot. I'm pulling two more in the morning and will report back in, if they turn out well I'll be stoked. However this is still from my single basket. Now can someone advise on the differences in moving to the double?

Single method:
-i grind into portafilter with wdt cup, a bit over the rim, wdt, remove cup and gently tap the side, then nsew with my finger, 30lb tamp in my autotamp.

for Double and 16g which is a bit underdosed in my basket I assume I must grind finer, but how much finer? On my mazzer mini would it be 1-click finer? 2, 3? Or should I just emulate exactly what I do with the single keeping my grind the same and see what happens?

Thanks to all who have given advice

Raising the brew pressure will change the flavor profile.

It's difficult to say how you need to change the grind for a double and a single. It's coffee, basket, dose, tamp, PF, screen, spreader and brew pressure dependent.

If pulling both doubles and singles in the same session, vary the dose as changing the grinder back and forth is an exercise in frustration unless one cleans the chute, grinds a few grams and then pulls several singles or doubles to dial in the grind. IMO, it's easier to dial in the single and vary the double dose.

Of course, YMMV with different coffee, basket, tamp, PF, screen, spreader and brew pressure.