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Thanks, will try and work that in to my technique.
I just used it for the second time, much, much better than yesterday but still no crema and a bit sour. I think I just need to practice and get consistent enough with the basics to understand how changing each variable affects the end result. I might try some different beans at some point. The Yellow Bourbon Colombian stuff I have at the moment is great for filter but maybe not so great for espresso?
ltc-
much better than yesterday but still no crema and a bit sour
This is the bit that I found most tricky to get used to, but (and I know this is a difficult thing to quantify without literally putting the machine on a scale when using it) how much effort are you pushing down on the lever with?
In my experience, I get shots like that when I haven't ground fine enough (or dosed enough) and as a result there's not much pressure actually going through the puck.
Obviously it's tricky to gauge that as it's not like a pump driven machine where you can just read the pressure.
mmccarthy
I think it’s all been covered, but here is my ritual.
Pull shot of water,
Fill portafilter with coffee,
Don’t worry about those needle things, sorry,
Shake porterfilter about and knock on the side of knock box, level coffee,
Tamp lightly,
Pull lever up and let the coffee take on water, count to ten once coffee starts to drip,
Pull lever down until you feel pressure, lift lever back up, pull lever down, top to bottoming out should be 30sec.
Throw the first litre down the sink, but it gets better.