# Does the amount of portafilter rotation make a difference?



## uilleann (Jul 3, 2016)

Recently got a Rancho Silvia M. I am making some good coffee with it. But today I tried a different coffee. It took me 10 tries before I got a good 2 oz pour in 20-30 seconds! I tried different fineness of grinds, different weight loading, different tamping weight. It was either a 40-50 second pour or 10 seconds. And Keep in mind I can make one good espresso after another with a couple of other bean blends.

One thing that I was doing differently was trying different and random rotations on the portafilter. I normally rotate it 30-40 degrees from the red dot. This time I was occasionally pulling it to within 15-20 degrees of the red dot.

I am guessing that the more that i rotate the filter the more I compress the coffee?

Second Question:

On my favorite coffee beans I can load the portafilter up with enough extra to do a bunch of leveling scrapes (I use the long steel handle of the bean scoop). Then I use a plastic tamper to very lightly tamp the circumference. Then i use the heave metal stamper to put a very light tamp (3 pounds roughly) Goes right in and makes a good coffee.

With this new bean, doing the same procedure, I cannot get it to fit. I can see the the hex screw holding the filter plate is making a big depression in the middle. Why would some coffees fit while other coffees do not. Does grind and also the nature of the bean affect this. I find it bizarre.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Rotation should not make a difference and the coffee should not be touching the shower screen when the PF is locked. If it is you have too much coffee in your basket. Stick to the recommended amount of coffee the basket should take (18g/21g etc) and don't change this variable at all. Get the length of the shot right with the fine-ness of the grind.

If you are changing all of your variables all the time you are going to make it impossible to get the shot right.

To test if you have the 'right amount' of coffee in the basket, after tamping put a 1p coin on the top of the dry puck. Lock in the PF and then remove it again... the 1p should only just have made a indentation in the puck, it should not be pushed right in or have broken the puck, if it has there is too much coffee in your basket. Too much coffee means a head of water cant develop above the puck and without this head of water it wont push evenly through the puck but will force its way through from the points it disperses from the shower screen giving you badly channeled coffee.


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## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

Hi, welcome to the forum. Which grinder do you have? I don't think rotation the portafilter at different points make it a difference, unless the group gaskets is worn out, so it won't make a good seal. Worth noting that some coffees are different to others, and will compress more or less. Weight your input, weight your output , keep the preparation as consistent as you can. Then let's report results. Once again, welcome.


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## Belluca (Jul 4, 2016)

no, check the shower screen, keep it clean


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