Newbie help with Lelit PL4LEM

[Pixelwarrior]

After my Sunbeam Cafe Crema died I bought a Lelit PL4LEM from Jetblack Espresso which has just arrived.
I think I need some help. I always easily got a good coffee out of my Cafe Crema but my first 2 tries with the Lelit have resulted in a bitter coffee and the pressure did not, or just barely, reached the 9 point at the end of the extraction. There is also not much in the way of crema and I think it came out too fast though I did not time it.
So I am guessing I need to grind more finely than I did for the Cafe Crema. But how do I make sure that the pressure reaches at least 9, which is what I heard this machine should do? Should this happen automatically if I grind finer?
It's a bit of a learning curve for me, with no barista training! But I am keen to get it working!
Thanks all
Maria

[Dimal]

Have you tried talking it through with Charlie at JetBlack?
I'm sure they will be able to help you in very short order...

Mal.

[LeroyC]

Hi Maria,

Nice choice of a new machine. Your thinking is right, you probably need to grind finer. Don't worry too much about the pressure gauge at the moment, just concentrate on getting the three fundamentals of grind, dose and tamp right to achieve a good looking extraction in the window of 25-30sec. If you want to see what the extraction should look like watch a couple of the videos on the Jetblack YouTube page. The ones where they demonstrate the Profitec machines in particular show the kind of extraction you should be aiming for - starting off with a few drips followed by a steady, but very thin stream of espresso. Good luck.

Leroy