Soggy puck

February 19th, 2021, 8:35 pm

I'm experiencing kinda of a soggy puck. I'm never able to bang the puck out clean. Any feedback is appreciated!

Below is a screen shot of the puck. I'm using a bottomless portafilter with an 17 gram basket with 18gram in and 27-30g out, boiler temp 199.6. Blue Bottle Coffee Hayes valley espresso bean (medium /medium dark roast).

#2: Post by **keno** » February 19th, 2021, 9:34 pm

Too much headspace. In an LM 17 gram basket I dose with 21-22 grams of coffee. Reduces headspace and will give you a drier puck. You may also need to adjust grind coarser which will also help to reduce sogginess. But keep in mind soggy vs dry doesn't necessarily impact taste.

If you want to stick to your 18g in and 27-30g out numbers then you could switch to a 14g basket. Don't go by the labeled dose. The LM baskets can handle a lot more coffee especially with lighter roasted coffees.

#3: Post by **Sideshow** » February 20th, 2021, 7:54 pm

The condition of the spent puck doesn't matter too much. How's the shot tasting? If everything is all good on that end, what the spent puck is like is irrelevant, provided however nothing crazy happens like butterflies flitter out when you disengage the portafilter. Just clean out the stuck portion with your finger, do your post shot cleaning and move on. Note that letting the spent puck sit in the disengaged portafilter for 30 seconds to a minute or so will help it dry out if it's really important to you to have that whole puck bang out experience.

February 22nd, 2021, 9:20 pm

Thanks Keno for the reply. Going coarser did help but
extraction came out to fast

I'll try to increase the gram in the 17gram basket to experiment.

February 22nd, 2021, 9:29 pm

Thanks Sideshow for response. To be honest the extraction from the soggy puck tastes great! But sometimes I serve medium volumes of drinks for family and cleaning soggy puck takes up time since I rinse the portalfilter with water to get the smear of the grind out

Wiping the puck with a brush or finger should be fine ?

#6: Post by **keno** » February 22nd, 2021, 9:38 pm

bluerosecaphe wrote:Thanks Keno for the reply. Going coarser did help but
extraction came out to fast

I'll try to increase the gram in the 17gram basket to experiment.

Yes, you have to increase the dose to reduce the headspace. If you only coarsen the grind it will flow too fast. You may need to play around with it to figure exactly how much to increase the dose. The spent puck should show a slight imprint of the screen and screw like this. This guy popped out nice and dry looking like a hockey puck.

#7: Post by **Sideshow** » February 23rd, 2021, 12:56 pm

bluerosecaphe wrote:I rinse the portalfilter with water to get the smear of the grind out Wiping the puck with a brush or finger should be fine ?

Removing the stuck portions of the spent puck with you finger is absolutely fine. Just take care not to burn yourself if it's hot. That's why letting the disengaged portafilter sit for 30 seconds to a minute is a good idea because in addition to drying out, the puck cools. I have a trash can next to my set up and I empty the portafilter directly into it. I'd rather coffee grounds go into the trash than down the drain and potentially build up clogs to deal with later. I always use my finger to get as much of the grounds into the trash as I can before I clean my bottomless portafilter in the sink for the next shot.

#8: Post by HB » February 23rd, 2021, 2:14 pm

bluerosecaphe wrote:Wiping the puck with a brush or finger should be fine ?

When I do catering and am serving a long line, seconds add up. I hang a black towel on my belt on the left just for that purpose. It does make a bit of a mess of the floor, but that's kind of unavoidable when serving en masse. I use a second gray towel for steam wand wipedowns and keep it on top of the machine to be sure I don't cross-contaminate.