I can’t seem to get rid of unpleasant harshness and dryness

MuddyOne - look… I think you are jumping to conclusions. 😊. I don’t live in your house, so I don’t know. All I can see is a video and made a few comments based on what I could see.

I’ll say again…

Buy a smaller bag of Redbrick (because that’s what you have and is not working) and brew within one week from delivery. If it works (read: if you can extract 36g in 30s) then you know what your problem is (read: stale coffee). If nothing changes, then it’s something else. This is all I’m trying to tell you. One step at a time.

MediumRoastSteam

Yep vile just taste of grass

https://www.home-barista.com/espresso-machines/getting-accurate-shot-temperature-displays-on-pided-double-boilers-without-thermometer-t54897.html

Have a look at that for your flash boiling, temps too high by the sounds of it, remember its just a number, if you are flash boiling something is wrong, try dropping your temp down to 90 and repeat, keep all other things the same change one variable at a time

Sorry I was giving an example of how I don’t like a certain bean, which the op may not like a certain bean, not that it’s part of the square mile roast hahah caused a right tangent

MuddyOne - unless someone has a better idea, the only time I see a shot taking ages to start and then pouring down half way through is with coffee that’s stale, or coffee that’s very finicky, light roasted. I don’t believe Redbrick is one of them.

I’m assuming you’ve tried the stock basket and the same thing happens?

Ims comp, rounded bottoms are easier than straight wall

MuddyOne The stock basket is slightly waisted - they are more forgiving and good to learn with. Always good to explore the limitations of a standard basket and to keep it around for comparisons when you get new beans that are tricky to dial in. Red brick may not be a blend you like. I’ve seen a lot of people mention that it and sweet shop are difficult to dial in and an acquired taste even when they are brewed “correctly”.

Your opening post does state there are some beans you’ve managed to get great shots from. It may be beneficial to share what those were, and to get recommendations from there.

Looks the same to me: takes ages to start, and then the flow speeds up. It’s not right. There’s nothing else for me to say here.

Change bean try again

MuddyOne So beans are stale?

I’ll answer with what I’ve already said:

MediumRoastSteam MuddyOne - unless someone has a better idea, the only time I see a shot taking ages to start and then pouring down half way through is with coffee that’s stale, or coffee that’s very finicky, light roasted. I don’t believe Redbrick is one of them.

I personally wouldn’t worry about the coffee storage too much yet, you need to understand what the issue is to begin with. Coffee storage can affect things but I don’t think that dramatically especially if the beans are still relatively new. Fresh beans shouldn’t be going stale within a month.

That said, your issues have all the hallmarks of stale beans but perhaps there is another issue. As others have suggested, you need to look at one variable at a time.

MuddyOne Are these the ones people use or do you recommend any other?

One variable at the time. You don’t even know what the issue is yet. One bag of fresh beans (it doesn’t need to be square mile red brick, but as this is what you are using it makes sense to stick to it) and go from there. You want to achieve first drops between 4 and 7 seconds, total time in 30s. 18g in, 36g out.