Hi Everyone,

I know there's a post like this all time but I'm looking for a bit of help with chasing a decent shot.

I'm relatively new to espresso at home and I've been trying to perfect my process of dialing-in with my equipment[BDB & DF83]. I've started trying to dial-in Eclipse by Onyx Coffee Lab, roasted on 2/3/23, using the Breville stock 18-19g double basket in the 58mm Normcore bottomless portafilter. Temperature [200F] and pre-infusion [7s] are stock on the machine. I did let it pre-heat to the desired temp with the portafilter inside the group to also be heated and only removed to prep the puck after wiping it dry.

Puck Prep:
1. Weigh 18g and ensure 18g out of the grinder, hitting the bellow 2-3 times right as the flow starts to lessen to keep any possible re-grinding to a minimum.
2. Transfer grounds to the portafilter from the dosing cup and WDT (Crema WDT w/3 needles) in small circles, counterclockwise, from bottom to top to break-up any clumps until the top is evenly distributed.
3. Tamp with the Normcore spring tamper w/15lbs spring installed.

Shot Diagnosis:
1. Grind Setting: 25 / 18g in -> 46g out; 30s; sour and some channeling
2. Grind Setting: 20 / 18g in -> 8g out; 30s; horrible and basket choked
3. Grind Setting 23 / 18g in -> 46g out; 30s; less sour
4. Grind setting 22 / 18g in -> 43g out; 30s; less sour
5. Grind setting 21 / 18g in -> 10g out; 30s; horrible and basket choked

As this is a stepless grinder, should I be adjusting by miniscule turns between the ticks of 21 and 22? I also think it's worth noting that I haven't done any alignment or changed anything about the grinder out of the box and I'm starting to wonder if that's the culprit here. I also have some VST baskets on delivery that should be arriving in the next few days so maybe that could allow me to gain access to the finer range needed for this particular roast?

I'm really having trouble finding the sweet spot and I'm nearly halfway through the bag at this point. Hoping to get this in front of some more experienced eyes for constructive criticism to see if there is anything glaringly wrong in my process.

Any help is appreciated!

I have no experience with this coffee but looking it up it seems like a dark roasted coffee. Perhaps try: (1) pulling a shorter ratio like 1:1 - 1:1.5 (ie 18g in 18g out for 1:1 / 18g in 27g out for 1:1.5), or (2) lowering the dose from 18g down a gram or two if you're looking for that higher ratio that you're pulling, or (3) dropping your brew temp slightly (between 190-195°). I would start with keeping your 18g starting dose and pulling a shorter ratio (1:1.5) and go from there.

i dont quite get horrible and choked..
does it flow or not at all but just choked and u get dripping?
can i advise you to try shake the grounds first before transfer to portafilter?

are you using bottomless portafiler and can see how the staturation happens?

If the grinder is brand new try running 10-20 pounds of seasoning beans through it before expecting it to become stable and reliable. Yes, if you've never experienced this before that may sound extreme but it's not. I've done it with multiple Monolith grinders and the results were significant.

Seasoning the grinder is a good observation. It may take a while for you to see consistent results. (By 'seasoning beans' PIXIllate means super-cheap grocery-store beans that are not dark or oily.) Your workflow description is on target. It will get better with time. It will!

Looking at your notes, there seems to be a focus on 30s as a magic time, which is not useful. Onyx suggests pulling this coffee at about a 1:2.3 ratio. For your 18g dose, that means you should run the machine until you get 41g out. If that takes longer than about 35-45 sec. (meaning 7 sec pre infusion + 35 sec brewing), make your grind slightly coarser. Repeat until satisfied.

Since this is a darker coffee, a shorter pre-wetting time is appropriate. I'd aim for 3-4 sec pre-wetting, then 22-28 sec of brewing. Post #2 in this thread is good instruction for your machine:
Breville Dual Boiler preinfusion

iyayy wrote:i dont quite get horrible and choked..
does it flow or not at all but just choked and u get dripping?
can i advise you to try shake the grounds first before transfer to portafilter?

are you using bottomless portafiler and can see how the staturation happens?

Sorry for causing confusion on this. What I meant by that the taste was horrible, and the basked choked during the extraction due to, what I assume to be too fine a grind.

When transferring the grounds, I place the warm portafilter on top of the dosing cup as it is the same size and turn it all upside-down so all grounds turn and fall into the basket together.

I then give it a few taps before removing the dosing cup and applying WDT.

PIXIllate wrote:If the grinder is brand new try running 10-20 pounds of seasoning beans through it before expecting it to become stable and reliable. Yes, if you've never experienced this before that may sound extreme but it's not. I've done it with multiple Monolith grinders and the results were significant.

Haha yeah, this initially hit me as a bit extreme but the more I read up on it, the more it appears to be common practice. I'll have to consider grabbing some cheap pounds from the store. Thank you so much for the direction on this!

Any recommendations?

Mat-O-Matic wrote:Seasoning the grinder is a good observation. It may take a while for you to see consistent results. (By 'seasoning beans' PIXIllate means super-cheap grocery-store beans that are not dark or oily.) Your workflow description is on target. It will get better with time. It will!

Looking at your notes, there seems to be a focus on 30s as a magic time, which is not useful. Onyx suggests pulling this coffee at about a 1:2.3 ratio. For your 18g dose, that means you should run the machine until you get 41g out. If that takes longer than about 35-45 sec. (meaning 7 sec pre infusion + 35 sec brewing), make your grind slightly coarser. Repeat until satisfied.

Since this is a darker coffee, a shorter pre-wetting time is appropriate. I'd aim for 3-4 sec pre-wetting, then 22-28 sec of brewing. Post #2 in this thread is good instruction for your machine:
Breville Dual Boiler preinfusion

Thank you for the encouragement! I have hope that it will all come together at some point, hopefully sooner than later.

Regarding the 30s time, I was using that to try and get in the ballpark of a decent shot before trying to fine tune but I just couldn't get it into range, or so I thought. Thank you so much for the info! This was a piece that I was missing!

I'll absolutely try 18g in and 41g out in 35-45s. I plan to use grind setting 21 as the starting point and like you said, if it takes longer I'll keep nudging towards course until I hit it. I'll definitely try using the manual button to pre-wet, then pull.

Thank you again for all the info, super helpful.

**UPDATE**

After getting home from work I wanted to give this a try and the shot turned out almost decent! I used the manual button for 7s pre-wetting, then let go until I saw 41g on the scale.

Grind Setting: A nudge towards coarse from 21 / 18g in -> 42g out; 28s
Taste: Slightly sweet for an instant, dominated by bitter with a harsh, dry aftertaste.

The question now is do I give the grind another nudge towards coarse? or do I cut the time shorter at 35g out?

Both back to back and compare. Part of dialing in is understanding what your setup will do when you taste what you aren't sure you want.