I’ve been using my Rancilio Silvia with my Eureka Mignon Manuale grinder to pull two double shots daily for about a year now. I’ve been working really hard to maintain consistency with my distribution and tamping, but the one thing that has been consistent is how uneven the extraction is.
Nearly without fail when the coffee first emerges from the bottom of my bottomless portafilter, it emerges from back to front, and blondes much faster at the back then at the front. I know this is causing uneven extraction and unnecessary bitterness. What could be causing this, and how can I improve? Is it something intrinsic to the machine or am I habitually tamping crookedly? How can I diagnose?
If you’re consistently seeing the same pattern then the most likely culprits will either be your tamp or a clogged shower screen. Water is going to follow the path of least resistance, so if you’re getting faster extraction at the back there is either less coffee there, it’s less tightly packed (tamped), or there’s an obstruction to the flow at the head (probably the shower screen) causing more water to flow to the back.
Considering the consistency, I’d wager it’s a bad habit in tamping method. It tends to be easier to put more weight down closer to your body, meaning less pressure applied at the back, meaning water has less resistance flowing there. Something you might try to see if it makes a significant difference is to change the orientation of the portafilter while tamping. For instance, if you usually hold the handle straight out from the counter, you can try rotating it to the left, applying a light tamp, then going to the right and applying full pressure, or something like that. If you find that the pattern changes significantly when you make adjustments like that, then you know where the problem lies.
Regardless of the actual cause of the problem, if its consistent, you have a clear route to a solution–make the back have more resistance. You could certainly do this in your distribution and your tamp, and while a bad habit normally, it’d just be an adaptation to your situation.
Regarding cause, I have a feeling if it was your tamp, you’d have noticed by now just from paying close attention. Once tamped, but before the tamper is removed, you should just be able to examine the tamper visually to see if it’s level. This is a little easier than trying to tell if the surface of the puck itself is.
If its not the puck, then its probably a quirk of the machine.