Will work on locating some fresh roast of a known good variety for espresso, and aim for a 30-40 second extraction on a 14 gram charge.

aim for a middle of the road roast so you won't be challenged by a light roast requiring more difficult extraction parameters, if you find some medium roast and still have issues with taste keeping all other parameters the same vary boiler pressure.

Started looking for a source for fresh beans. Didn't get any hits on Almico in NJ searches.
Will look for a medium roast as suggested.
Will update when I get them.
Thanx for all your time and suggestions.

that is his nick over here, try skyroast coffee, turns out he's actually located in PA

leoniru wrote:Started looking for a source for fresh beans. Didn't get any hits on Almico in NJ searches.
Will look for a medium roast as suggested.
Will update when I get them.
Thanx for all your time and suggestions.

There's always the internet. Maybe start with something known for being easy to pull shots with, like Redbird? Order from them and a bag will arrive within a few days of roasting.

Anything like Lavazza, Illy, etc. that's been on a grocery store shelf forever is going to be nearly impossible to pull a shot with unless you're using a pressurized basket (let's not go there).

Hopefully an MCAL user can chime in on the pressure issue. It does seem like you don't want to be above the red band.

Regarding the odor, what did you clean the grouphead with?

Thanx grind

Will check out redbird.
Yeah, I am hoping that someone with an MCAL AND a Rocky will chime in with a known bean roast (and source) that works well and easily with both machines. Once that is known....well, only things left are water quality, temp, and operator technique.

The water coming out of the group must have no taste or odor. I would fix that issue before drinking anything!

grind727 & baldheadracing;

I used a citric acid solution (1 teaspoon in a qt. of water). Filled (the reservoir)/heat (up to 1.5 bar-the shutoff setting) /flushed ('pulled' the solution through the group until empty) and rinsed with tap water (heated and pulled through the group same as the citric acid solution) several times.
I only let the citric solution in for perhaps 10 minutes.
Should I be somehow trying to scrub the inner walls of the reservoir and water pathways somehow, or did I not flush/rinse thoroughly enough to adequately clean all inner walls?
If disassembly is required to fully clean things, I am skilled enough to do so, I just need a process to follow.

A lot of phones will be able to take a picture through the fill hole at the top of the boiler. A borescope is helpfull, of course, even one that is a few bucks. You want to see the boiler walls of an MCaL covered in black Copper oxide ... but I'll hazard a guess that you removed that protective coating with the Citric Acid under heat.

(The boiler is easy enough to remove from the base and then you can see in unimpeded if your phone's LED 'flash' isn't close enough to the phone's camera lens. They're all 8mm bolts IIRC. There is an o-ring around the base of the boiler but it can be reused with a bit of Silicone sealant (or new ones, and any parts you need, are available from Stefan at espressocare.com ) I'd advise not touching the siteglass assembly, though, it can be a pain to put back together - and if you have the old-style siteglass, there are no parts available and the new version parts are ridiculously expensive.)

Here's a good thread to review ... pay particular attention to the wisdom of the late Dr. Pavlis. Blue water after descaling...

Good luck!

Don't have an I-phone (or a borescope) handy, but what I can see of the boiler's inside looks clean. I may run one tank through of sodium bicarb solution, and then rinse thoroughly, then try distilled water and see what that smells/tastes like after boiling.