You are reading a single comment by @Sumo and its replies.
Click here to read the full conversation.
-
You should always be tamping with the same pressure, only change the variables like grind weight and size. As it's preground coffee it won't have nearly as much shelf life as whole beans, and as it oxidises it looses oilyness and the extraction will happen quicker.
It's possible you're not tamping hard enough at the moment, so do try that first, and make sure you're not doing anything that may cause channeling like banging the portafilter after tamping. or tamping at an angle. Otherwise you may need to get a grind of some kind to have better control.
Sumo
Finally got around to buying a scale and has confirmed my suspicions that my extract is too fast. I'm using Pact coffee, pre-ground to 'fine' for espresso use.
This morning, aiming for a 2:1 ratio, a 22g dose yielded 45g in around 16 seconds - I understand that I should be in the 20-30 second bracket.
My thinking is to tamp with more pressure to slow the extraction. After that, I'm really not sure...