JHCCoffee might this flush be the cause of the puck fracture?

You would know that better than anyone else, wouldn’t you? As you do all this prep, I am assuming you are using a bottomless portafilter? The puck in your pictures looks badly damaged. If that would happen during the shot I would think you would have seen significant channeling on a bottomless PF. Did you? If not - I would conclude that this has happened when you flushed the puck after the shot, in which case you have no issue.

As to the description of your prep - it is similar to mine with some small differences: I don’t spary the beans with water and I dose 15g into a 15g IMS basket. I do knock the PF once on the counter, but this seems insignificant and I doubt it is causing any issues either way.

My only comment to your puck prep is the dose. It is very coffee dependant, but with the coffees I use I wouldn’t go below 14g in my 15g IMS basket, and with some coffees I wouldn’t go below 15g. In fact, even when I tried dosing 17g I found the 15g basket is a better fit than my 18g IMS. (but again, if your puck broke after the shot when you flushed it, the whole discussion is redundant).

      JHCCoffee If you are looking for an inexpensive alternative, you can buy the 0.35 mm needles on Amazon

      I don’t doubt that those needles are inexpensive, but pricewise, it’s going to be hard to beat the toothpick that I use, which I picked up from one of our local restaurants. 😉

          toothpick is prob too thick really,

          Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

          Doram

          MediumRoastSteam

          Thanks Doram and MediiumRoastSteam (MRS)

          I am going to try MRS’s portafilter handle rotation/pressure trick to try and stop the puck from sticking. If I don’t see a puck fracture, then that issue is solved. Stay tuned.

          As for IMS 15 Precision Screen basket, if I updose, I presume that if I keep the same brew ratio with this particular bean, the following will happen:

          1. The shot will run longer, due to the increased puck thickness.

          2. If I choose to maintain the same shot time (especially if it runs really long, without flow profiling, which the Lelit Elizabeth cannot do), then I will have to grind coarser.

          3. The speed and vertical evenness of water penetration into the puck might be somewhat reduced (an espresso pundit stated on their site that thinner but still high flow baskets improve the evenness of vertical water penetration into the puck, which they said was a good thing). Thoughts on this?

          4. The amount of headspace between the top of the puck and the screen will be reduced. Time for a nickel test!

          All of the above may be ok. Still, given the above 4 effects of increasing the dose, while maintaining the same brew ratio and possibly time), you may have other benefits/rationale in mind for increasing the dose for this basket. Can you elaborate on these. Is it simply that the basket is designed for a larger dose and would not tolerate more than 1g variance above or below its rated capacity?

                JHCCoffee Can you elaborate on these.

                not really. Try 15g if you want. I did suggest you go 16g and then work your way down to see what works best for you. You have less of a change to get a stuck puck with a higher dose, that’s all.

                Don’t overthink it. If you have basket that says 15g, dose 15g and tweak the grinder to give you approx. 30g of coffee in approx. 30 seconds. Then play with the dose and see what suits you best.

                  Can’t tell anything from the puck. Can happen at the end of the shot as all of the pressure is released or sucked out. I don’t know what this thing is in the elizabeth that lets the puck release….

                  If it happens through the shot it will be obvious. Maybe grinding too fine and causing the puck to stick but it’s not too fine if the taste is ok.

                  JHCCoffee

                  Further to this post:

                  1. I found this blog post on basket dosing and headspace, by BaristaHustle, to be interesting. BH Blog on Headspace

                  2. I tested 2 shots this morning, both 15 in, 29 out, coarser grind (than prior shots), 8 seconds bloom pre-infusion, which ran 45 seconds. Temp 95C. Same decaf espresso roast coffee beans as before. The flow was visibly uneven (streamed towards the side of the basket) and there were visible holes on the top of the spent pucks. Same issue with both shots; hmmm.

                  The taste change was interesting. As predicted in the BH blog (which confirmed what I tasted), the shots had greater body but less extraction. I prefer the mouthfeel from these shots but miss the complexity of my prior shots. This could be one off, especially due to the uneven flow, but if the uneven flow was not due to insufficient distribution but rather was due to insufficient headspace, then dosing at 14g may work better (still within 1g of the basket’s ideal dose).

                  Sorry to bore you with my ongoing dialing in learning process.

                  PS

                  Puck no longer sticks, but I am using MediumRoastSteams portafilter removal tip.

                    @JHCCoffee What is the roast date on the bag of beans and what was the date frozen? (Assuming you are still using beans).

                      tompoland

                      Roasted Sept 22

                      I then opened the 2 pound bag (which was sealed, with a standard 1 way valve) after 2 weeks, and separated the contents into 4 vacuum sealed bags, so that I could immediately use one bag. The others were kept vacuum sealed but not yet frozen.

                      After a further 1 week, I had time available to repackage and freeze (on October 15) in individual single vacuum sealed portions.

                      I now take out a single portion bag as needed, and grind from frozen.

                          MediumRoastSteam Undo the PF pushing the handle down slightly. When I mean slightly, I mean just gravity really or a tiny amount of gentle downwards pressure. subconsciously, we try to keep the PF level. So keep “unscrewing” the PF like so until it comes out. The puck is likely to come out with it.

                          Thanks MediumRoastSteam ! This works and the puck does not fracture, down to 14.0g doses in the 15g basket. Have not again tried 13.5g, to see if that puck is just too thin and fractures (or not).

                          Interesting taste dynamics. Started at 15.0g and working down, keeping the same 2.0 brew ratio. The 15.0g shot had better mouthfeel (body) but less complexity (extraction). As the dose goes down (with same brew ratio), mouthfeel (body) declines but complexity (extraction) increases. My best shot with this bean was still the 13.5g (2.0 ratio) I started with, coarsened to run slightly faster (35 seconds).

                          While taste (and extraction) is starting to be decent (maybe a 7 of 10 on my taste scale), its still not where I want it to be. Next steps are: 1) remove the IMS screen and try the Lelit screen again, through the above shot series, starting at 15.5g and working down to 13.5g, in 0.5g increments. 2) increasing the OPV pressure from 9 bar now to 10 bar, or possibly 11 bar (if that is safe??), and re-running the series.

                          This will also increase the water flow at the grouphead, which was slightly low/slow at 180 ml in 30 seconds (vs my target of 240 ml in 30 seconds, ie the midpoint of Matt Pergers suggested 200 to 280 ml in 30 seconds range). Waterflow will likely go down when I swap out the IMS screen for the Lelit screen (my shots certainly ran slower with the Lelit screen), but it will be interesting to see the impacts.

                              JHCCoffee Waterflow will likely go down when I swap out the IMS screen for the Lelit screen (my shots certainly ran slower with the Lelit screen), but it will be interesting to see the impacts.

                              I’d love to see some empirical evidence to back up this statement.