First brew using the new portafilter basket...

Physical differences between the new and old portafilter
Old with truncated and new with straight wall.
Old can't really fit more than 20g, while the new old can hold up to 22g.

With no other changes made, the brew time changed from 27s to 21s. The "Marmite" I mean espresso :-) tasted a bit more sour, as expected... The rule of shorter brew sour x longer brew bitter applies herr. It's not really sour but can still taste a bit of sourness.
With that, I have a chance to grind the beans finer. To me, by theory finer grinding should give a stronger taste and more flavour, but am not sure. Anyone can share your opinion?

Nothing to show on the espresso. Here's the Latte from the same brew.

Try up dosing instead of finer grind. Finer grind is more prone to channeling. I'm using 21g IMS basket and up dose to 23g. As long as the puck is not touching the shower screen that should not be an issue.

Which basket did you get? Is it a IMS/VST precision type basket?

Don't worry too much on wet puck. My IMS basket also produce wetter puck compare to original basket. Not sure it's due to straight basket design. Once you take out your portafilter, leave it in the basin for 10 secs. The puck would be dryer and look at the surface. If you have small hole then you have channeling problem. I do have the same problem initially when switch to IMS basket. Change my technique by tapping the portafilter on the silicone mat to compact the grind first before using distribution wedges. This help to eliminate the channeling issue.

Looks much better. Try this tweak. Flush some hot water out first before you put in the portafilter. This will warm up the pipe and group head.

hi guys,

planning to get 1 espresso machine for beginner..any1 got experience using gemilai crm3601? i see taobao quite cheap..not sure how it compares with delonghi and other brands...

You should remove the shower screen and wash the internal. You will see coffee stain from the other side. Or if you are lazy, get IMS shower screen with nanocoat. There's no coffee stain at the back even after one month of usage.

Pretty obvious comparing your dose/yield vs taste notes that you have inconsistencies going on.
I see that you did lever mod on the steam wand, so question is did you mod anything else? OPV? Sirai Pressure Stat maybe?

Also, what are your grinding habits? Is this single dosing into the grinder?

IMS/VST baskets are precision baskets meaning their holes are guaranteed to be consistent in diameter and very clean. They are also in general larger in diameter than your average stock basket. In that sense, you will find that you will need to grind finer than normal when you changed baskets.
Grinding finer gives advantages of increase strength of coffee in all aspects however, if the grinder is not up to it (64mm++ burrs at least), you will find that you are producing more fines or clumping than normal. This gives you inconsistencies in your extractions later on

So in summary - your 2 areas to go analyze
1. Temperature/pressure stability in the Oscar
2. Grinder fines/clumps consistency across multiple shots

Really not much you can do here.
Temperature on a HX machine (which utilizes pressure stat to control) always has limitations. You want to get yourself onto a PID controlled machine
That said, upgrading the basket might have turned out to be a "downgrade" since the other things cannot keep up to it

my general observations...

1) maybe let your grinder settle down...dun take it apart for cleaning for a few months so the burrs can wear and realign...

2) you trying to keep yield constant 40g for the longest time, now 44g... i never do this...prefer instead to stop on "degree of blonding"...this way i "know" how much "COFFEE" has been extracted...not how much "WATER" has passed through... my coffee may end up sometimes ristretto sometimes longgo...but amount of extraction is about the same...so the taste is very consistent just sometimes more intense or diluted... running a shop is different because customer may ask or ristretto or longgo and you have to be able to adjust and deliver on the yield and taste

3) your coffee is sometimes sour sometimes bitter....so probably means is not a temperature problem per se...because cold==sour...hot==bitter...you just need to be more consistent...hard to say also if the bitterness its because of over extraction... you can do a temperature test to see how hot is your water

4) forget about studying the wet puck...puckology is useless...soggy or dry depends on many factors including types of bean and roasts levels...i got beans that always give soggy puck...1 tiny dimple does not mean channeling... clue to channeling is easy....just observe how fast the coffee comes out during the first 4-5 sec... it should just start to drip out...if you get quite a good flow you have channeling, or grind too coarse, or stale beans...

5) forget about getting a new grinder for now...

6) baskets are designed for certain range of doses...so big baskets need more coffee...
so for you to try this new 14 days...

dose as high as your basket design/allow...adjust grinder for 25-35 sec pull...learn the associated blonding color vs tastes...once you get consistent taste...then you can slowly adjust to get back the desired yield...playing with dose and grind

hope these helps and good luck

Just bought a Niche Zero white from Dankoff with 10% discount. I'm tired of cleaning the Macap M4 stepless as I only single dose. Hopefully it's latest batch with NFC disc.

It's a constant dilemma for home brewers cos it's very costly for home brewers to run experiments buying coffee by small bags.

I have a bunch of clearance beans that I don't mind letting got at RM50/kg right now due to MCO. They are actually decent Arabica bean blend just that it's past it's 2wks after roasting date and I wouldn't want to sell anymore. If you don't mind lowered taste quality, drop me a PM and we'll take it from there

Hi guys,

I have been doing coffee with aeropress, french press, staresso and 1zpresso y3.3 for few months now...Wanted to invest in a good coffee machine and grinder after this MCO... For grinder i will be looking at the eureka mignon since my friend is using also...He recommend me to get the niche zero but the price different too much... For machine, initially i consider lower end china brand such as gemilai.. But after googling around i think i will up my budget for a better machine since i will be using this for long term... After looking around, i am looking at wpm kd310 / oscar 2 / breville dual boiler.. My friend recommend me to get the breville dual boiler because it is better than wpm kd310 thermoblock in terms of temperature control...However, my friend did told me that breville cant last very long... I am keen on the wpm kd310 because it kinda look like rocker which is classy... Can any1 share their opinion with me whether is the breville dual boiler is a better choice than the wpm kd310? btw i did read at facebook that the oscar parts spoil very often..

I also have a Eureka Mignon; to knock out the majority of grounds I usually tip the machine backwards a half inch or so, then let it fall forward. In addition, tilting the machine forward by about 45 degrees while grinding the last bit helps a great deal....makes it closer to a Niche Zero.

For another option, you can try James Hoffman's Coffee Hack: no more static.