Inconsistent Espresso

Question

I've got a Lelit Anita with PID (PL42TEMD). The machine is new, about 3 weeks old now. It's used for 2 people to make coffee in the morning.

Ok, settings are 93 degrees on the PID, grind around 3 (a nudge above). 15.5g ground beans in for 30s/ 30g out. No tamping, only distributing with a distributer. Backpressure sits around 11 bar at the end of the green zone on the gauge.

That works well for the first shot I pull, it's dialled in so to speak. Taste is fine.

The second shot, prepared the same way, at 93 degrees, 15.5g grounds in, distributed comes out way faster, usually after 20s I've got the 30g of coffee in the cup. Backpressure is lower too by a bar and a bit, which is expected with higher flows.

This is beyond me because the same coffee puck should result in the same coffee flow, which is not happening and I cannot understand why. Dose is the same, grind is the same, packing is the same, temperature is the same yet the espressos are wildly different between coffees 1 and 2.

If I leave the machine alone for 20 minutes while drinking this coffee and make another set of 2 coffees, I experience the same fluctuation again, first shot fine, second shot fast. What the heck?

Cheers!

Answer 1

No tamping

Start tamping your coffee. Without tamping channels form a lot easier, making your shot pour a lot faster and making your coffee taste sour and bitter at the same time. If you still manage to get 11 bars of pressure somehow without tamping, I'd assume your coffee is ground way too fine anyways, making it even more likely to form channels since they offer less resistance than the puck itself.

The fact that the first shot flows slower than the second one probably boils (no pun intended) down to a colder brew head. If you're not doing this already try flushing your brew head and portafilter to get them hot (so hot you barely manage to hold it for a few seconds) before pulling a shot.