I pulled the main screen out,, i am thinking of drilling that hole, this will depressurize it, right?

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I depressurize the basket by drilling out that tiny hole with a 4 mm drill bit, and i confirmed it by pulling a shot with preground coffee and nothing came out but black coffee no crema at all,, actually i tasted the shot, i was expecting it to be way under extracted and sour but found it almost the same taste just no crema, very bitter (maybe i dont know the difference between bitter and sour).

So, i dailed the grinder to finer ground ( very fine granuals), breville recommend size 12.

My dose is fixed to 14 grams, the basket can not take more than that, also the machine gives about 60-62 grams of espresso, i scaled it in all my trials, always gives the same weight, that is a brew ratio of 4.2

At this setting the shot takes about 45sec,, flow is slow and start to drip about 3-4 sec after the second start of the pump, this time is the total time from the moment i press the button, the coffee starts realy dark and black oily water then a very dark crema after 3-4 sec later, taste is still bitter and very annoying.

I coarse the grind to 14 then 16, but result is the same only time dropped to 40 sec. Tried tamping little lighter but did not change anything.

Finally i pulled a 42 grams that a brew ratio of 1/3, brew time is now 32 sec at this ratio ,but still did not notice any change in taste, i pulled it again with milk drink and was not happy at all, still bitter taste...

Where is every body??

Now that you have depressurized it, grind finer until it chokes the machine (little or no flow at all), and then back up gradually from that to see if you get a better result. Things that sort of worked with the pressurized basket will not directly work with the unpressurized one. I have used the same grinder in the past, and -- for my machine and coffee -- my grind size was usually between 6-8. You might be able to get to a larger dose with a finer grind, maybe 16G or more. Don't worry so much about the time at first as the ratio: try for a 1 to 2 ratio as a starting point.

When you get a finer grind size that is approximately right, you can begin experimenting with dose level, set a dose and stick with it, then concentrate on trying new ratios. This varies with coffee choice, too, so you might find this coffee tastes best with a smaller ratio 14G in, 22-26 out, for example. but you can try 21- 32g range and see what tastes best (keeping dose and grind the same). Then when you settle on a good ratio, you can stick with that, make small changes in grind, temperature (if you can adjust that on your machine)

I think you are headed in the right direction. I suspect you will be making excellent milk drinks soon! With my coffees and my machine, that grinder did not -- with my skill level anyway, ever get me to delicious straight shots, and I suspect my taste buds are not well suited for straight espresso. I did get shots that were balanced enough to drink straight once I got a much better grinder. I'd suggest stirring your shots before tasting, and also you might find that a bit of sugar in the shot works for you.

I have a question,, my tamper is little loose in the basket, the basket is exactly 51.5 mm and the tamper is 50 mm,
can this cause channeling?

I have been watching a lot of videos,, the first drops of brewing should not be black, right?

The flow starts with a brown creamy color with crema,, maybe this is why my shots are bitter and undrinkable, so this is a sign of underextraction or coffee bean problem or what?

Another observation...

Crema getting darker with time, after pulling the shot, after five minutes the crema starts to be really dark,,, why?

Coffee problem ?????



Same cup after five minutes

Can you get fresh (roasted in last couple weeks... not best before date), medium roast 100% Arabica coffee? The coffee itself might be an issue.

Once you get close, try this exercise