15 minutes ago, chaddy said:

Yep, I've had an Acaia Lunar scale for a good few years and couldn't do without it. Definitely recommend a precision basket, mines a VST 18g. Pull a 27g shot but could go 36g if you can handle the Caffeine buzz.

Normcore tampers are great and take all the guess work out of the tamping process.  Also use a WDT tool that came with a magnetic dosing funnel.

 

Yeah I can see that I'll be reliant on the scale from now on, I feel that's a game changer.  

 

I've come across the VST baskets.  I may have to change my portafilter over to a naked one if I go 18gms, but it's easy enough to buy the basket first and then find out.  Thanks for the experiences on the Normcore and WDT tool, it just reconfirms they're worth the investment.

2 minutes ago, Kaynin said:

 

 

 

I've come across the VST baskets.  I may have to change my portafilter over to a naked one if I go 18gms, but it's easy enough to buy the basket first and then find out.  

Gotta go Naked 🙂

I am waiting on the delivery of my brand new La Marzocco Linea Mini with the matching Acaia scales. Going to be a big step up from my ancient but loyal Breville dual boiler.

I've just spent my morning dialing in my new Linea Mini R with the Acaia scales.  

 

The tech who came out to help me commission the machine picked my grinder not behaving itself and did some open heart surgery on it to grind finer than it was on its finest setting. I've since put down an order on a new Mahlkönig E64 WS with integrated grind by weight and grind by sync so it will play nice with the Mini. This should speed up my grinding and the electronic adjustments should help me get it right much easier than the manual approach on the x54 I have now.

I'm pretty wired from constant coffee tasting today so sleep tonight may prove challenging. It will be time to tip in some of the red sauce (Cab Sav) with dinner to take the edge off.

Not fancy like some of the machines in this thread, but produces a perfetto pair of coffees every morning. We might use the DeLonghi for an espresso or a cap later in the day, but for a morning heart-starter there is no equal.

I've added a few accessories, and am very happy with all of them.  They bring in better consistency.  It started when I discovered my original basket was 14gm, and I was seriously overdosing.  Some days I made the perfect shot, the next was off.  I now have a precision VST 18gm basket, Normcore naked portafilter, a distribution tool, scale and dosing funnel.  I purchased a 58mm spring loaded Normcore tamper, but have since discovered a 58.5mm is better.  The 58mm has been returned and I'm just waiting on the new one.  

 

The Normcore portafilter is very well made.  It sits nicely in the hand and is light, better than the portafilter it replaced.  Same with the dosing funnel, very well made and plenty of magnets so it fits snug.  The scale is a game changer.  I now grind 18gms and produce 36gms of espresso between 25-30 secs.  I get how Italians prefer 30gms, but I'm used to a stronger coffee.  The one I made today is exactly how I enjoy it.  

 

 

Edited December 8, 2025Dec 8 by Kaynin

All the superfine tuning is great, but what about if you change beans often? Different beans need to be ground at different coarseness, and tamped at different pressure, to achieve similar strength and extraction pressure. So it's a balance of dosage, grind coarseness, tamping pressure, which can vary quite a bit between beans. 

2 hours ago, bob_m_54 said:

All the superfine tuning is great, but what about if you change beans often? Different beans need to be ground at different coarseness, and tamped at different pressure, to achieve similar strength and extraction pressure. So it's a balance of dosage, grind coarseness, tamping pressure, which can vary quite a bit between beans. 

 

It's easy to make adjustments when the whole process limits variables to begin with.  God help you if your process is a flawed "variable" one, then you have to adjust for different beans on top of that?  Which adjustment do you begin with first?  Where mine is set-up right now if I change beans and the pour is slow or fast I know I only have to adjust the grind.

 

Perfect.

Edited December 9, 2025Dec 9 by Kaynin

I use a Puqpress in my setup, so that eliminates tamping variables.

I can quickly dial in grind time and coarseness on my grinder. I'm pretty consistent by eye now on the volume of coffee in my PF. 

Your question is fair though, and at the beginning of my journey I would waste at least 250g dialling in when I changed beans.

These days, I don't change fairly often and have 2kg of my favourite beans delivered monthly. But when I do make a change, I can usually dial in within 3-4 shots.

 

Removing the tamping variable is a big one in my view. It's the one that can be most inconsistent.

 

I'll also tweak the setup throughout the course of consuming a bag of beans too - based on age, and I assume, temperature/humidity variations.

7 hours ago, Kaynin said:

 

It's easy to make adjustments when the whole process limits variables to begin with.  God help you if your process is a flawed "variable" one, then you have to adjust for different beans on top of that?  Which adjustment do you begin with first?  Where mine is set-up right now if I change beans and the pour is slow or fast I know I only have to adjust the grind.

 

Perfect.

OK, I have a DeLonghi La Specialist Arte. And the way I do it is I always use the double shot basket, which has a ridge around the top to stop the tamper at a certain depth. This means that the tamping pressure is determined by the dosage level to a certain degree. Can't go lower than the ridge, and if it's much higher the coffee contacts the grill in the head.

 

Dosage level is set on the internal grinder via a timer, and also the coarseness obviously. Usually I have the coarseness set at "4" on the grinder, which works with most beans.

 

If I change beans and find the extraction pressure is too high, I will back off the dosage level, which means the tamping pressure is lighter, if you tamp down to the ridge. Sometimes this isn't enough though, and you still get too high an extraction pressure, even when the tamper barely exerts any pressure at all, because you've hit the ridge in the basket.

 

If that happens, you go up a notch to 5 on the grind size to make it coarser, and adjust the level again. Leaving the level set timer the same, and going to a different grind coarseness will marginally change the dosage level as well.

 

This actually sounds more complicated than it is in practice. I can usually dial in a new bean within 3 or 4 cups of coffee.

 

On 09/12/2025 at 10:06 PM, bob_m_54 said:

OK, I have a DeLonghi La Specialist Arte. And the way I do it is I always use the double shot basket, which has a ridge around the top to stop the tamper at a certain depth. This means that the tamping pressure is determined by the dosage level to a certain degree. Can't go lower than the ridge, and if it's much higher the coffee contacts the grill in the head.

 

Dosage level is set on the internal grinder via a timer, and also the coarseness obviously. Usually I have the coarseness set at "4" on the grinder, which works with most beans.

 

If I change beans and find the extraction pressure is too high, I will back off the dosage level, which means the tamping pressure is lighter, if you tamp down to the ridge. Sometimes this isn't enough though, and you still get too high an extraction pressure, even when the tamper barely exerts any pressure at all, because you've hit the ridge in the basket.

 

If that happens, you go up a notch to 5 on the grind size to make it coarser, and adjust the level again. Leaving the level set timer the same, and going to a different grind coarseness will marginally change the dosage level as well.

 

This actually sounds more complicated than it is in practice. I can usually dial in a new bean within 3 or 4 cups of coffee.

 

The issue with dosing to a mark level is that there's so much variation in beans themselves. Even the same roast by the same roaster has inconsistency. That's why I dose by weight - 18 grams is always 18 grams, all day long. I extract an espresso shot of 36grams (again, weight...) over 25-30 seconds. I tamp with a spring loaded tamper so that the pressure is the same every time. That way if my extraction is long or short I can adjust it with one click on my grinder (because that's the only place I can have variation) - and I'm dialled back in to perfection. The reason it takes you so many cups of coffee to dial in again is because of the degree of variance in your process.

Edited December 17, 2025Dec 17 by Kaynin

That's spot on IMO. I remove the tamping variable also by using a Puqpress (direct fit under my Mahkolnig grinder).

I eyeball the grind amount these days (I weighed in the early days) and I find sticking with the same beans all the time, I can quickly make an adjustment for temperature or roast variances, to compensate for the amount of grinds in my basket. Shot time is always about the same, again no shot timer any more - just by eye/feel. But it took some years to get consistency and I don't change anything now. I can prepare multiple coffees, back to back in no time, and 100% consistent - which is just what is required when the large Italian extended family come around!

Do the analogue methods of adjusting , make a better coffee ?

1 hour ago, Marc said:

large Italian extended family

Now that’s courage…

Edited December 17, 2025Dec 17 by Kaynin

14 hours ago, Kaynin said:

The issue with dosing to a mark level is that there's so much variation in beans themselves. Even the same roast by the same roaster has inconsistency. That's why I dose by weight - 18 grams is always 18 grams, all day long. I extract an espresso shot of 36grams (again, weight...) over 25-30 seconds. I tamp with a spring loaded tamper so that the pressure is the same every time. That way if my extraction is long or short I can adjust it with one click on my grinder (because that's the only place I can have variation) - and I'm dialled back in to perfection. The reason it takes you so many cups of coffee to dial in again is because of the degree of variance in your process.

Yes I agree that there is a lot of variations between beans, but whether it's volume or weight, you still have the same variation in bean, roast, brand/supplier etc.

The thing is, the degree and taste of extraction is very complex. It depends on a number of factors like bean density, surface area of the grinds, temperature of the water, length of time of extraction, pressure of the water through the grounds, age of the beans and probably a few other things that don't come to mind right now. And the different factors may affect the taste in different ways..

Changing grind size has a much bigger effect on the outcome of the brew than a slight variation in weight, or volume. a finer grind will allow greater extraction than a coarser grind. 18g of fine ground coffee beans has a much greater extraction potential than 18g of course ground. And 36g of output will always be the same volume too (well certainly within milligrams).

But I agree that by far the biggest factor in consistency is using the same bean and roast, from the same brand/supplier. But because I like to try different beans/brands etc, I'm OK with bit of fiddling here and there