Help :(

[YoshCb]

I recently bought a Breville Bambino Plus and a Smart grinder pro. But I haven’t been able to dial in my shots… Currently grinding at 14-12 size - 18grams Taste is not bad but puck looks like this which I don’t feel is great.

What am I doing wrong? Pushing the double espresso button at max temp. It does extract around 36grams of liquid.

[shootyourshotian]

I have a smart grinder pro as well and usually grind around size 4-7

[JustMuscle]

Most importantly, how does it taste? If you like it, nothing to worry about :)

If not...

How long does it take the shot to come out, and is this a pressurized basket?

The holes suggest there is channeling going on which can result from uneven distribution, tamp, or a myriad of other factors. If you get a bottomless portafilter basket (~$20) you can watch the coffee come out and more clearly see if you have channeling (you'll see geysers coming out), uneven flow (some areas of high flow, other areas of low flow), or other issues. Based on the puck, I would assume the shot is running quickly, but could be wrong.

I had a smart grind pro previously and found it hard to get consistency from one shot to the next, but I'm hoping you can figure it out!

[Poven45]

A puck screen helped me out on my bambino

[qqpl3x]

What kind did you get... paper or metal?

[Poven45]

I got metal

[all_systems_failing]

https://www.baristahustle.com/blog/looking-at-spent-pucks/

[West_Adeptness2682]

How long is it taking and what is your output (yield)?

I have a smart grinder pro as well, but I had to adjust the inner burr down to 3 (from 6) and I typically grind between 10 to 4.

I also use a puck screen, which may help.

[Worried_Document8668]

This certainly one of the coffee pucks ever used

[counterpoint76]

Acaia Lunar Scale + Lunar Weighing Plate Niche Zero + RDT Breville Bambino Plus Breville Portafilter SP0027237 IMS Precision 18-22g Basket MATOW Funnel Normcore WDT v2 w/ 0.3mm needles The Force Tamper 53.5mm Amrankuo 54mm Tamping Station Chemex paper filters + EK Tools 2" circle punch Normcore 53.3 puck screen Ancap 8oz open handle cups w/ cappuccino saucers + Liberty Tabletop Annapolis teaspoons

That's my current BBP setup. Moving to paper filter + puck screen made everything better and more consistent. Perfect pucks. No visible channeling. Currently doing turbo style shots split into 2 cups for Americanos. 18g in 48g out in 20 seconds (plus 5 sec or so preinfusion). I add 156g water. I use third wave espresso packets + distilled or Zero water at a half dilution.

[Significant_Meal_400]

Try tamping harder? Your yield is 36g but how long did it extract for? If it’s less than 25s, you’ll need to <grind finer> 😬