I have been getting consistently soupy puck at various doses and grind setting with my PVL; yet the shots are consistently tasty. Shaun, have you observed this as well?
I did initially. It might be from a few things...
- Grind too tight, which causes resistance which causes soup.
- Preinfusion too long, which soaks entire coffee bed, which causes resistance, which causes soup.
- Dose too large, which causes resistance, which causes soup.
- Lever pulls too close together, which increase water volume and subsequent pressure which causes resistance, which causes soup.
Those are a few things to consider. I would recommend trying to create the opposite of soup to make sure you can start from the other end of the spectrum, a dry puck. So try a 13gm dose with a coarser grind, tamp at a low 3-5lb pressure (but more importantly look for approx 5mm headspace between top of coffee bed and rim of basket), do a shorter pre-infusion of approx 3secs, then do your first real lever pull and let it go the full length, then another full length pull, moving the cup out from the stream at signs of early blonding. Check the puck and let me know.
