cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1088465

This post was originally posted on r/espresso in 2020. I’m manually moving my content here before probably nuking my reddit account. Fuck that little pigboy u/spez.

For years, I struggled with my espresso machine (Lelit PL41TEM) ever since I got a naked portafilter. I tried everything, and I thing I learned a lot and tremendously improved my skills doing so: Weighing coffee, weighing shots, timing pulls, WDT, stockfleth, nutating tamp, NSEW tamp, playing with dose, grind, temperature, bean freshness…

I had good shots, terrible shots, and once in a blue moon excellent shots. But I never achieved consistency. I always struggled with channeling, even with super fresh beans.

The single element that I couldn’t control was the pressure. My machine was factory set at 13bars blind and I could only brew decent shots at 11 bars.

Thanks to this video featuring my exact machine and a few pushes from people here, I adjusted my OPV to 10 bars blind, 9 bars brewing. This has been a game changer. I still pull meh shots, but my constitency is now through the roof, and even “bad” shots are actually okay.

  • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘M
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    1 year ago

    I always have issues with squirting on my naked portafilter. So much so, I stopped using it :/

    Your shot looks amazing! So smooth.

    • WFH@lemm.eeOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      1 year ago

      Seriously, reduce your pressure, constant channeling and squirting became a thing of the past ;)

          • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘M
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            1 year ago

            I already am. Been doing that before it was called wdt and popularized by that dude whose name I can’t recall at the moment. To be fair, it’s a CAT5e cable leftover piece that I shaped into an espresso grounds distributor. Works great.

            • FrickAndMortar
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              1 year ago

              Not OP, but that’s awesome - waste not want not! I love “good enough” solutions that produce perfectly workable results like this. The rest that I use, to tamp my portafilter on, is my old phone case - it’s the perfect height!

              • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘M
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                1 year ago

                Thanks! I have never thought about using an old phone case for that purpose! I gotta dig out my old Nexus4 3cm/1.18in thick case now haha

          • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘M
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            1 year ago

            Me, too. If I knew then what I know today, I’d have a different machine.