Thank you for clicking this I really need help... (and yes, these are 15 days after roasting and rest beans)


--filter style


--here's my "attack plan"


-- after tamping... looking good <3!


-- the coffee gods have abandoned me... help :c

I use a Mazzer Mini which rules out any grinder problems. Any advice from VBM owners to counter the lack of preinfusion will also be very warmly received. (1st POST achievement!!!)

I use a 9g dosage ground fine and it makes some sort of "mud" after the shot... the puck looks like it got nuked and the shot tastes bitter, sour, and salty afterwards. I know this is a sign of channeling but the espresso looks perfect for the first 3 seconds (nice dark caramel crema mixed with coffee) then gushes out like a blonde waterfall afterward with no in-between.. I am absolutely stumped guys. I have no clue what to do next.

I use a Mazzer Mini which rules out any grinder problems

That in itself doesn't necessarily mean anything. Mazzer or not, if the burrs are dull or poorly aligned, you are not going to get anything decent out of it. Check the condition of your burrs if you haven't already.

Discard the single basket and focus on double shots for now. Fix the dose at whatever the filter basket is rated for and then start dialing in your grinder.
I have a machine that doesn't have a pre-infusion feature like that of an E61. Nevertheless, when the coffee, dose, grind and distribution are right, a little water lays on top of the puck just after I have pulled the shot, but the puck isn't soggy and usually comes clean off.

How many different blends/vendors have you tried? Are the results the same with each?

There is a shallow donut shaped valley on your finished puck, so I wonder if you are getting uneven donut extractions. Do you have a naked portafilter and can you comment on what the drip pattern looks like in the first seconds of the shot?

On the tamped shot, you have a thin wall of grinds climbing up the side, which means your tamper diameter is smaller than your basket. If I had to guess, the very edge of you puck is not compressed to the same density as everything else. Not sure if this will play a large enough role in your extraction consistency to cause problems, but its another area of concern.

I find tapered baskets more difficult to work with in general. If your double basket is flat walled then you should use that while you are building up your skills. Plus, the double basket is more forgiving because measurement errors are effectively halved when distributed across the two shots. (I.e. A half gram of extra bean weight is a larger % increase on a 9g shot than a 18g shot.)

Many questions and thoughts on this:

1. The soggy puck isn't an issue, but the way your shots are flowing is a big problem and likely why the coffee is over-extracting. Sounds like the puck is breaking up or you're not grinding fine enough.

2. As other have suggested, dial in with a double basket. Don't try the single basket until you get the double basket properly dialed in. It's possible to use the same grind as the double, but you have to dose the single in proportion to the ratio of the basket hole areas. Here's Jim Schulman's post on how to do it. You will likely have to dose more than 7g to make it work. If you still can't get the single right, try it at 7g and grind finer.

3. Single baskets are notoriously difficult to prepare, especially if you dose more than 7g and especially with machines that don't preinfuse gently. It takes a lot of practice, and even then it doesn't always go well. The baskets are designed for 7g of coffee and a 40mm tamper, and it's harder to tamp level. More coffee can be used, but you can't just tamp with a full-size tamper because the lower portion won't compress properly. I've had some success filling lower portion of the basket with 7g, tamping with a 40mm tamper, then adding the rest of the coffee and tamping the upper portion with the large tamper. But it's better to dose 7g and grind fine enough for the proper flow rate.

4. As Dave suggests, try some different coffees.

I'm pretty sure that the singe basket distribution is the main problem, but if you get the flow rate right and the coffee is still bitter, check these suggestions:

5. The Mazzer Mini is OK, but it's not a top-of-the-line grinder. I had a lot of consistency problems with the one I had, especially with varying amounts of beans in the hopper. Make sure there's at least a couple of inches of beans in the hopper.

6. Weigh the shot. Best to shoot for a 1:2 ratio of dose to beverage weight in 25-30 seconds. Don't try to eyeball the volume. If still bitter, try pulling Ristretto (dose more and/or pull shorter.)

7.Try a lower temperature. Start with 200F. If the brew is too bitter, try lowering the temperature one degree at a time.

Alright! Sorry for not replying in nearly a month... Internet is choppy here for the past month.

Not exactly perfect but I think Im going to have to invest in a naked porta in order to improve the shot quality significantly.

Ive tried 4 different beans since the post.
2 Tanzanians, 1 ethiopian and for consistency's sakes I bought illys whole beans for practice.

I started using a toothpick for dose distribution by raking it back and forth while the grinder's dosing.

The channeling was caused by the taper of the basket. explains the doughnut channeling perfectly.

Thanks for the help

I was going to comment that your portafilter looks overly filled but it seems like you are going in the right direction

Randy