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.

  • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubMEnglish
    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.

    • WFHOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

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

          • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubMEnglish
            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@infosec.pubEnglish
              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!

              • 𝕸𝖔𝖘𝖘@infosec.pubMEnglish
                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