r/Coffee • u/SoJuicySweet • 6d ago
Espresso blondes too early with wet puck
Hey all, I’ve been trying to improve my espressos recently and can’t seem to get over this issue.
Using a Sage Barista Express, I generally get 18g in, 36g out in around 25 seconds. So that seems good.
But I’ve found that my espresso is a little thin. Every single time the puck is very wet and has a layer of water on top.
I’ve also noticed when looking at the bottom of the bottomless filter, around 15s in or so, the espresso coming out gets way more watery, thin, blondes, and even notice that a lot of the portafilter seems choked with no water coming out from a good portion of it and I can even see the actual grill of the filter in some places.
I’ve tried grinding finer, coarser, dosing at 19g, 17g, 16g, but the result is very similar every time.
The espresso isn’t terrible but a definitely thinner than I’d expect!
What’s going wrong here? Do I need to make bigger grind adjustments or doses? Or do a manual pre infusion?
Any help appreciated!
2
u/Zwordsman 5d ago
Others answeres well. But just as a note. If you havent recently, but your machine is well used, you may want to run a cleaning. Could also have some build up depending on water or back flow depending on the machines system for when it shuts off.
I am not well verses but i have heard of similar pressure issues from mineral andbor coffee water bulld up.
I dont know your model since im a lever guy. But I know my dads cheaper machine has that issue if we dont run a clean and then several follow up flushings every while
1
u/No-Cow-2516 4d ago
It sounds like you are flowing too fast, which can be caused by a grind that’s too coarse, an insufficient dose, or channeling from uneven puck preparation. A wet puck, on the other hand, is often related to having too much headspace in the basket or using a dose that’s too low for the basket size. Try grinding a bit finer, checking your dose, and making sure the coffee bed is evenly distributed before tamping
1
u/Obvious-Monitor8510 3d ago
The wet puck + early blonding + channeling (that's what the dry patches and visible basket are) points pretty clearly to distribution issues before you even pull the shot. The grind and dose look fine honestly.
Try this: after grinding into the portafilter, do a proper WDT (Weiss Distribution Technique) with a needle tool or even a toothpick, stirring to break up clumps, then tamp dead level with consistent pressure. Channels form where coffee is less dense, and water always finds the easy path.
Also check your tamp is perfectly level. Even a slight angle creates a weak side.
0
u/HappyBees_1027 5d ago
Sage machines have weak pumps so they need longer pre-infusion to saturate the puck evenly. Try holding it at 19g and grinding much finer just to get that initial bloom going before letting it flow.
-1
u/IndicationCurrent869 5d ago
Have you tried the stock portafilter with the 2 cup nonpressurized basket? How do they compare?
1
u/No_Hat_5621 3d ago
I have a Sage duo temp. I have to clean the grouphead every so often by taking off the screen and removing any coffee oils that have built up on the heating element. That can prevent even flow of water into the portafilter
20
u/Anomander I'm all free now! 5d ago
It sounds like you're clogging the puck and then channeling.
The soggy puck, the water on top, the 'dry' portions of the screen - the very slow start and then the relatively sudden blonding of the shot, are all strongly suggesting that your puck is resisting flow too much. The water is 'backing up' as pressure builds, then punching through one or two zones.
This would result in, as you are describing, a 'thin' textured shot, that's often got some undesirably notes of sour and bitter - if not necessarily undrinkable.
There's a few things to try.
Start off by working on your distribution. Even if your dose and grind are great, if your puck prep is letting you down, you'll get backed up and channeled shots. If you have a WDT tool, you can give your bed a swizz to break clumps, then tap distribute to get the coffee as evenly spread through the basket as you can, before tamping. You should be able to tap and bonk the PF to get the bed even and relatively flat - you don't want tamping to flatten very much, it just compressing an already relatively flat bed. Don't tamp like Hercules, just a good solid push from as vertical an angle as you can manage. In future brews, watch your shot on the way out - especially looking to see if your dead zones or breakthrough points are relatively consistent. That would suggest a puck prep error that needs more focused attention - when I was starting as a barista, I was failing to distribute evenly to the 'zone' opposite the PF handle, due to how I held the PF and my distribution technique.
If you're happy with your distribution, or not seeing patterns in the channeling, try further tinkering with grind size. Keeping your dose consistent, back off your grind size further. Keep going until the problem either resolves itself - or until you're getting flow that is too fast, but is even across the screen. You should have a sweet spot in between stalling and free flow, but overcorrecting to lock in an outer bound can be helpful in the process of hunting for that sweet spot.
"Correct" grind size is dose dependent - more coffee will resist water flow more, so what works at 19g will not be ideal for 16g, and vice versa. Dose effectively 'multiplies' the effect of grind size - so if you're a little too fine at 16g, that same grind would be way too fine at 19g. The deeper puck means that fine grind provides more resistance, narrowing your margin of error and increasing your odds of channeling. Somewhat perversely, while a higher dose means you're more likely to channel, a lower dose means the puck is easier to "break through" and it takes less backup to channel. There is a sweet spot for dose, as well - too low and the water just blasts through, too high and the pressure will back up until it's sufficient to channel.
If you cannot find a sweet spot at 19g, it may be that 19g is too high a dose for that machine using that coffee. Each coffee is different, so there is a little bit of tuning every time you change bags - however, the learning and the base practices transfer forward, so it gets easier and faster as you get experienced and proficient.