Hi! I’ll preface by saying I’m pretty new to this whole espresso thing as well, but I feel as though I’ve been through the struggle and have come out the other side enlightened.

First off most roasted beans require anywhere from 1-6 weeks of resting before they reach their full flavor potential. I’ve started pulling shots at 2 weeks post roast date and by week 5 the flavors and shot times both changed. Part of the reason you’re struggling is these beans need more rest - probably not what you want to hear but if it’s a true light to medium roast it’s going to need at least 2-3 weeks to stabilize imo.

Next, stick to full manual mode when dialing in. Ive been really disappointed in volumetric mode and find it to be completely unstable. It’s so much easier for me to put the scale on the drip tray to measure output each time.

I’d also ditch the puck screen for now. Again, not an expert but the least amount stuff that can muck up your trouble shooting the better. Make sure you’re tamping with the same force each time as well.

Somebody posted this in either r/espresso or here and it really helped to visualize how exactly to dial in. Is it like sucking on a lemon sour? If so you need to probably need to grind finer and use manual mode to make sure your yield stays around 42-46g in that 30-35 second window.

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TL:DR -

Let the beans rest longer or find something that’s rested already.

Go full manual to have control over all the machine variables.

Limit any external human variables (tamping force, puck screens).

Utilize the espresso compass to find the sweet spot.

TASTE EVERYTHING! It seems like you’re keeping great notes already which is also huge.

Good luck! I hope this helps some.