excellent advice, it was the first shot of the day. I will make sure everything is nice and hot before extracting. regardless, i do taste these shots getting better (and looking better).
again,
thanks for all the help.

miKe mcKoffee wrote:Agree shot timing appeared much better than first video shot, with a caveat question or two. Was that a first shot from idle or during a series of shots? If from idle do you flush to warm the group before the pull? PID'd boiler has limited usefulness on Silvia. For the same Silvia boiler temp the actual shot temp will increase shot to shot in a series until the group temp saturated and equalized. Up to about 12f hotter by shot 7 in a series with good build speed. Doesn't matter if Silvia has been on for hours, if idle the group will be cooler for the first shot versus subsequent shots in a series of pulls. Shot temp will rise shot to shot until about shot 7 IIRC from when I had Silivia and tested with Thermofilter. This is why some (like Andy) have actively heated Silvia's group via rope heater and 2nd PID. I ordered the parts to do the group heater mod' but upgraded to my Bricoletta before getting around to it...

Apologies for hijacking your thread avidan, but I have a question for Mike: after the seven shots, would I still be correct in thinking that there is a difference between the grouphead and boiler/PID temp? I had always assumed that there was approx a 25F diff?

Sorry, I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I would like an answer to this question:

Spresso_Bean wrote:If you lock the portafilter in normally and then remove it before pulling your shots, do you still have the impression from the screw in the middle?

I did this this evening on my Silvia and noticed that one side of the puck is touching (and rubbing off on) the shower screen. I take this to mean that I am over-dosing? I'm finding that extracting times are too quick unless I overdose, yet I end up with soupy pucks (due to a fine grind?) that have recently been sticking to the shower screen after extraction. I think the shots are tasting somewhat acidic.

Podster wrote:I did this this evening on my Silvia and noticed that one side of the puck is touching (and rubbing off on) the shower screen. I take this to mean that I am over-dosing? I'm finding that extracting times are too quick unless I overdose, yet I end up with soupy pucks (due to a fine grind?) that have recently been sticking to the shower screen after extraction. I think the shots are tasting somewhat acidic.

If it's really "one side," something isn't level, and it's probably your dosing.

Podster, Marshall is right, something is crooked in your dosing and distribution. If you figure it out and get it straight, and you're still seeing the screen touching the coffee BEFORE brewing, you also need to dose less coffee. (The screw leaving a slight imprint, while not ideal, seems to have less effect on extraction, so don't stress about that too much.) The Silvia is notorious for a lower grouphead that doesn't leave much headroom between the screen and coffee at higher doses. I actually found that it was impossible for me to dose more than I wanted and sweep the top of the basket off evenly -- it always resulted in too much coffee in the basket. Now I weigh 20 grams or less (I found 20 was the functional max) of beans and grind that into the PF with a yogurt cup, WDT (which generally leaves the top of the coffee slightly below the top of the basket), tamp (pretty hard, and very hard if using close to 20 grams), and insert.

I wouldn't worry about soupy pucks, etc. Just work on getting something you like the taste of. I have found I can dose 14 grams (which many think of as a standard dose for a double) and still get a very good shot by grinding finer. By taste I generally prefer the shots at I get 18-19 grams though.

Another thing for all Silvia owners -- the stock double basket you get is pretty crap and makes nice extractions unnecessarily difficult. One of the biggest improvements I ever saw in my coffee was when someone gave me a La Marzocco basket. If I were you guys, I'd buy one of the ridgeless ones (slightly easier to pop out when you need to).

I think the uneven tamping definitely was an issue, as well as overdosing. If I tamp levelly, and insert a dry PF in a dry group (shadowfax suggested a wet shower screen would also leave an impression, even if it didn't really touch), then I see no touching (neither of the screw). However, even with the level dose/tamp described above, pucks are still sticking to the shower screen after pulling my shot. I'm definitely going to look for a ridgeless LM 14g basket as a replacement for the 12g basket that comes with Silvia.

The replacement basket will help your shots enormously in general, but I wouldn't worry about the pucks sticking -- you should flush between shots anyway, as there will always be at least a little coffee on the screen after a pull. That said, with the bigger basket you can updose a bit, which will usually give you firmer pucks.

Good luck!

hey,
just wanted to follow up with an update.
WDT has been a savior. Even distribution has made great extractions.
My shots taste much better, and have a rich chocolate flavor... i will refrain from posting another video (yes, marshall, i know, eye music)
but, wanted to tell everyone that my coffee LOOKS as good as it tastes