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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 have absolutely no idea how much pressure I'm putting through it to be honest. I might pop some scales under it at some point to get a rough idea. And yeah, I realised since posting that it was a boiler pressure gauge. Not sure how useful it actually is seeing as it's got an indicator that it's up to pressure anyway. I'm probably missing something though. I am an absolute beginner though so please do state the obvious!
I've been playing around with different grinds, I think going as fine as I can is yielding the best results so far. Much less sourness anyway.
ltc
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?