Those green beans, What you used to cook with.... popcorn roaster ? 

Yup, if you set the the finest grind setting in your grinder.

i didn't change my last setting on my grinder (i set to finest grind setting on the machine) that i used for the previous beans that already been 2 week from roasting also you can tell that extraction that came out from the brewing. Generally, those bean that close to losing all the freshness tends to have the shot starts flowing at 5 seconds at a good rate but then suddenly you get  flowing become way too fast and comes out watery.

if you bean tends to be fresh like a fews days, normally the puck will be dry and hard. That how my machine got choke .if you beans generally about 2 weeks or more then you get muddy puck type but i never get puck stuck at the brew head before even i had tried with 2 machine, your the first case i heard before.
I'm an end user so i don do roasting, i always get my roast bean from either coffee lane or order from ymeng85 at this website. Others im not so conveniences because i went for survey and found most of this seller don put roasting date on their coffee beans but even with dates, they could just easily change the packing or alter the date and later blame that you had cheap machine.

Discovered this thread so late. had lot of fun reading through all your post of coffee related stuff.
I love coffee. specially coffee with a more chocolaty aroma mix in with half and half.

this is my humble set up.


Lately have gone into home roasting and the coffee experience jumped immensely.

it used to be messy even with timer because i just lock on to the spout latch and let it rip but i manage it by using homemade DIY funnel to reduce the ground from spewing everywhere when grind. It is just a small matter to keep in mind not major ones ... How about static ? I notice mignon produce quiet some static, i never fail to get one if i accidentally touch between the portafilter metal and the body of mignon when grinding process.... 

By the way, mind share the pic of you timer setting ? i just want to clarify something

Here are my grinder setting.



So basically what i did in my process was...

I make a cup funnel that directly fit into my portafilter. Just had to cut the bottom and abit on the top



Put inside that latch it under mignon holder latch while tilt abit the portafilter



Slight push on the button to activate it....and all the ground will grind into the funnel nicely without spew everywhere compare portafilter rest catch.



This is what it look like after all the ground are in the portafilter + little extra that stuck in the grinder chute (I had to shake the grinder a little to get the excess out) and zero waste If you notice my kitchen counter top. It is very clean.



No need to used the hand distribution technique to swipe away the excess ground like most tutorial cafe do. All you need just a sample tap light on the portafilter and it is already even out.


Tamp it down. You notice it is just half of my tamper base (I used this as my measurement technique). Based on my calculation, It should be around 18-19g.



Final review after the tamp and polish. As u can see it is just right above or on the ridge of the basket. Anything it is a bit more, then i was unable to lock into the machine groupe head.

Just got a Mignon yesterday; must say it's an experience.

Haven't got a funnel set up for my pf yet, so every dose ends up a messy affair.

The clumpiness is truly legendary for the beans I'm using, although they fall apart at the slightest touch.

Also, after 10 to 20 sec after stopping suddenly a clump sometimes falls out onto the countertop!

From this behaviour, I think there is a high buildup of static.... really need to research how to reduce/manage this.

Not used to this type of hopper, as I usually like to pre-weigh the beans. This doesn't work,as it really needs a minimum quantity for smooth feed to the burrs. Looking at some mods eg replacing the hopper with a straight tube.

I notice people are trying to compare grinder settings...ummm... not sure but I have a strong feeling the micrometric dial is not calibrated, ie my #4 is not identical to your #4.

But putting all the above peculiarities aside, I must say it has amazing consistency compared to what I was used to. Just pulled 3 shots all exactly 25 sec! Like a precision watch.....