I just bought one of these to try in my Cremina SL. I noticed that the espresso shots (at least the first two) had a bitter and almost metallic taste to them. Has anyone else experienced something similar with the Bplus? Will the metallic taste disappear over time?

I recently bought a Bplus puck screen and was wondering if there were any tricks for using it. Most of the reviews I've seen online have been pretty positive, but my experience has frankly been pretty poor. No matter what I do, the screen seems to cause a "donut" extraction with coffee flowing from the edges of the basket. The flow rate is also WAY faster than without the screen and taste noticeably more sour.

My running theory is that the screen creates too much resistance and the water ends up running around the sides of the basket.

This seems to be the exact opposite experience that I read on every review which is that shots flow slower and are more even.

I'm using a 20g VST basket and the screen feels nice and snug in there. I've also tried upping my brew temp and down-dosing, neither of which helped.

If anyone has experienced this issue and has a solve, I'm all ears.

Welcome to HB Mike!

I use the same basket and the Flair screen on my DE 1 and quite like the results I get. I don't get the donut extractions, but I think that's more a matter of prep. I'm assuming you're pulling these with the Crossland?

First a note on these screens: they were originally made by and for the La Pavoni community because there is this high pressure jet of water coming from between the piston and water inlet hole that breaks the puck often. So people started using paper filters on the puck to mitigate and then BPlus made a product for it.

mikeymcd86 wrote:but my experience has frankly been pretty poor. No matter what I do, the screen seems to cause a "donut" extraction with coffee flowing from the edges of the basket.

I have seen this problem around in the forums and my theory is that the screen has to be of perfect fit in the basket. Otherwise you'll get uneven flow, going mostly from the sides. My screen is so tight I need to push it in, I would not be able to drop it in. There is probably enough variance in the production of both the screens and the baskets that some combinations just don't work.

Anyway, when it does work I think it works just like a simple paper filter disk on the puck. So if you want to easily try how it would / should be just cut some filter paper, using your tamper as a reference for the size. Assuming your tamper is a tight fit

Thanks for the info. I've been tamping first then putting the screen on top. I'll try tamping with the screen on and see how it goes

Yeah, it's with the crossland. I've been pulling the shots with 2 seconds of "pre-steam" and 2 seconds waiting. The shots look okay without the screen so I don't think it's a puck prep issue.

Are you using a low pressure pre infusion when you use it with the Decent? I will say, I feel like the Crossland is pretty aggressive in terms of how water flows from the shower screen, that's part of the reason why I bought the puck screen in the first place, to try to slow the flow down. I'm wondering if it's exacerbating the very problem I'm trying to fix.

Very interesting. Glad to hear I'm not actually the only one with this issue. The screen did feel snug with a 20 g dose but I have noticed that if I put the screen in the basket with no coffee that there is a point where the screen essentially wedges in. I tried down dosing from 20 to 18 but I wonder if I need to just keep reducing the dose closer to the point where the screen is tighter with the basket.

mikeymcd86 wrote:Are you using a low pressure pre infusion when you use it with the Decent?

No. I prefer a short preinfusion, and use high flow rates (6-8ml/s, which maxes out the DE1).

Are you grinding finer to compensate for your faster flow rates (and down dosing)?