Learned something today: sometimes less (puck prep) is more. Was doing too much stirring, raking, knocking and tapping.. the bed was 100% flat for sure, but it did migrate every last fine down to the bottom, this was restricting the flow and gave wildly varying extractions.
I noticed an increasing flow rate during the shot, I assume this should not happen? Is this due to the fines getting cleared away and then there being less restriction?
Now I grind straight into the PF, only lightly tap on the sides to get a broadly even distribution, then tamp, only compressing until it stops, not worrying about level. Getting very good extractions now, way more sweetness, less astringency, more consistency, no comparison. Maybe the Levaās 10 bar was giving me so much power it pushed through anything, sometimes too much and it shot through channels, but now I worry less about level, and more about homogeneity of grinds, leaving it in tact. Thankfully the Bentwood has very good fluffy grind.
