Coffee Appreciation

Hi, if you're having problems with stewy cafetiere brews with only short steep times it'll be down to the grind. Preground coffee from the supermarket is usually marked 'suitable for all brew methods' which it is not. It's usually a medium grind best suited to filter, and for cafetiere you need a very coarse grind with noticable chunks, lots of coffee (about 60g / litre) and a long steep (3.5 - 5 mins). Not many places sell coffee ground specifically for a brew method. Outside of the specialists I think Waitrose might be the best bet.

Naked PFs, as Bainbridge said, nothing new going on, it's just you can see it. Check your coffee for clumps, try smaller dose and finer grind, make sure basket is dry before dosing. Another problem is most domestic machines ship with crazy pump pressures. This is regulated by the over-pressure valve (OPV). Google 'adjust OPV gaggia'. Should help if you're minded to mess with your machine.

Try using WDT (Weiss Distribution Technique)

Thanks gents, I've had coffee spewing from the portafilter and brew head interface, it looks like the two don't fit aswell as the standard portafilter.
I predict a long weekend of tinkering, I'll start with the pressure.