Frustrated newbie here on my second effort (first one was a few years ago) of attempts at producing at least something drinkable from my 1991 vintage MCAL (bought second hand). I am 100% UNable to produce anything that I consider drinkable though I've been trying almost exclusively with a bag of Lavazza Super Crema beans.
I have read and watched many posts/videos on the process, but have made little headway.
My grinder is a Rancilio Rocky (bought new). I know that this machine is not considered top tier or likely even middle tier for that matter, but shouldn't I be able to produce something drinkable? Every shot is super bitter with little crema no matter the grind of these beans.

I suspect all of the following as possible causes:

The Lavazza beans (though I CAN produce a somewhat drinkable product (no crema though) using these beans in an AEROPRESS)
My hard water
My grinder, or use thereof
My MCALS condition (pressurestat adjustment too high?), deposits in boiler (despite descaling with citric acid), weak spring?

Can anyone with an MCAL - and ideally ALSO USING A ROCKY GRINDER (if you exist what grind setting range do you use on your Rocky?)- put me on to a roaster and/or a specific bean/roast profile (available by mail-order) that is known to produce a decent shot? (I live in NorthEast PA.). This would go a long way to narrowing down where my problem(s) lie. Unfortunately, I do not know of anywhere that I could reasonably travel to and obtain a decent shot, so I'm beginning to think that one possibility is that perhaps I just don't like espresso.....!

Should I try using distilled water in an effort to evaluate the impact my hard tap water (filtered through a Big Berkley) may be having?

Pressure is presently set such that it tops out around 1.5 BAR but it can vary considerably lower - down to 1 BAR or so - after pulling the first shot. Is this variation indicative of a problem component? My machines pressure gauge has a RED band from approx. 0.8 to 1.2 BAR on the scale. No green areas. So is my pressure (and hence my temperatures) too high?

Shouldn't the heated water pushed through the empty (no grounds) grouphead/portafilter be essentially odorless? Mine's not. Does this indicate residual deposits of some type in the boiler? I have removed and cleaned the grouphead.

Oh yeah.... I'm also unable to froth milk with the steam wand! How bad is that??? All the videos I've watched seemed simple enough, but I just can't get ANY microbubbles/foam to develop!! Nozzle is clean - no deposits blocking anything.

Am I cursed or what???

ANY troubleshooting plan/sequence would be appreciated, otherwise things will likely get packed away again or sold.

Thanx,

Jim S.

don't despair just yet, overcoming the various hurdles of making espresso is something best done one step at a time....

Can you share how long it takes from starting extraction to when you end it? How much coffee goes into your basket (grams) and how much Espresso comes out (grams)?

save your milk foaming endeavours for a bit and make do with heated milk thinking you were targeting making flat whites

I've varied the grind such that my extraction times have ranged from 5 seconds to as much as choking the machine and everything in between.
I am using about 14 grams per charge.
I've tried light tamping and now this go-around have obtained and am using one that has a 'spring' that compresses at about 40 lbs. of pressure.

Sorry....forgot to address the output weight.... I have never checked!! It gets discarded really fast.

please forget tamping and water for now, my advice is to aim for a 14 gram load resulting in an extraction taking close to 30-40 seconds. Itls good to know you;re able to choke your machine, likely the best results are close to that grind setting also as your beans are probably too old to offer much resistance )not saying the result can not be palatable)

leoniru wrote:Sorry....forgot to address the output weight.... I have never checked!! It gets discarded really fast.

please do, as overextracting can do as much harm to taste as underextracting.

keep in mind the mantra ; grinder grinder grinder, which should prepare you to focus on grind setting

You may have a roaster close enough, Almico is located in south east NJ.

Yes, the beans are old. The bag was refrigerated since last year in an airtight fashion, but they didn't work any better (in the MCAL) when they were fresh.
I've even tried some beans I've roasted myself, but that's another adventure in itself!

To clarify your advice;

Don't worry about the water and don't do ANY tamping????

leoniru wrote:Yes, the beans are old. The bag was refrigerated since last year in an airtight fashion, but they didn't work any better (in the MCAL) when they were fresh.
I've even tried some beans I've roasted myself, but that's another adventure in itself!

get some fresh roasted beans (within between a week and a month from roast date) even if just to take them out of the equation, they may well be the root cause.....Ultimately you should be able to dial in much older roasts, but it's easier with more recent stuff.

leoniru wrote:To clarify your advice;

Don't worry about the water and don't do ANY tamping????

should work, but I tried to say: don't worry about the water and do some tamping but don't think tamping is making that much difference. WDT (or stirring your grounds probably does more)