Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[Croc]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

fresh beans are the most important
then after that it is about suitable grind and then amount of coffee
i find that with good fresh beans even not the best shots are still very nice and on other end of the spectrum stale beans even if you weight them and grinded and then tamped to perfection and get nice ~30sec extraction you still have not so great coffee

[Croc]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

just wondering how people finding milk steaming on BDB
i get nice glossy milk and cappuccino seem to taste nice but cant get any art action and watching lots of clips on youtube i dont think i seen one where textured milk on BDB was good enough for latte art.
any tips? i use digital thermometer and aim for 65C stopping around 62C since it still climbs up after i stop steaming.
I also tried putting my SS jug in a fridge before i make coffee.
would be great if someone could record clip and slap it on youtube

[zdam]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Yep agree fresh beans most important.

So you are saying that then grind is most important - so find the right grind then adjust dose and to get ideal extraction time...

So what is considered the right grind? Fine enough to choke the machine then back it off?

[Croc]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

if you grind directly to PF then just get nice bump on top and that most the time is around ~18gr, i been confirming this with digital scale and lowest i got was around 16gr, this wont change your extraction time by a lot and you can tweak that later, there could be better way of doing this but whole first week i been double checking my dose with my scale and i can almost tell you to the dot now if im over or under the perfect 18gr.
also watch your tamper, it will tell you if you on target or not.
if you tamp it down and you hit ridge you know you didnt have enough, then on other side if you tamp it down very firm but you still cant get your handle on to the machine because is too full then you know you got too much.

you can go from any direction, if you choke it you back off and if it runs too fast you dial in finer grind.
dont look for one method because you will have to be flexible every single day.
same bean today on one setting gives you perfect extraction but tomorrow could be off again so you just have to play with it.
as long as you are not miles off coffee still will be nice too drink, if you aim for perfection with everyshot you going to use so much coffee every week you better be rich
first few days i was doing this, always aiming for ~30sec extraction, if it was not between 25-35sec i would put it down the sink and adjust till i get perfect shot again but this gets silly and very expensive in no time so now unless i dial in some really bad grind and have sub 15sec extraction or over 50sec i will drink it and as long as beans are good and fresh it is still better than instant and your pocket wont be hurting.

[Gnat]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

You need to find the right dose - use the 5c method.

Adjust your grind until you are getting ~26s extractions, and then adjust finer/coarser until it stops being sour/bitter. If you find that on one grind setting its too bitter/slow, and the next one its sour/fast, then you will have to adjust your dose slightly (more if its sour, less if its bitter).

If you are dialing in the machine or grinder for the first time, or are not sure where you are going wrong, generally you grind as fine as the grinder will go (should choke the machine), then your way upwards from there. It will take at least 3 or 4 extractions (unless you are lucky!) to get near the correct grind, then its just fine tuning as your drink the coffee.

[Gnat]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Re: Milk

Im still adjusting to the steaming power of the DB compared to the thermoblock machine, but I can get reasonable milk out of it.

Fill the jug to around the bottom of the spout, hold the tip of the steam wand just under the surface (you should hear hissing, but not bubbling!). Keep your other hand cupped against the side of the jug to judge the temp. As the jug becomes warm to touch (around 40C), submerge the wand and get as good a whirlpool as you can manage. When the jug gets too hot to touch (~65C), give it a second or two more, then turn off the steam.

My problem is stretching the milk too far, with the thermoblock machines you really have to get as much air into it as you can, otherwise its too flat. With the DB, im ending up with nice cappuccino foam, rather than the latte that im after.

Once I have perfected my steaming id be happy to put up a video.

EDIT: How is it that we dont have a big post somewhere detailing the 5c method, common dosing/extraction times etc? Im pretty sure ive seen the same few questions pop up a few times in the last week alone, just scattered among the other subforums.

[Duffybeers]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

just wondering how people finding milk steaming on BDB
i get nice glossy milk and cappuccino seem to taste nice but cant get any art action and watching lots of clips on youtube i dont think i seen one where textured milk on BDB was good enough for latte art.
any tips? i use digital thermometer and aim for 65C stopping around 62C since it still climbs up after i stop steaming.
I also tried putting my SS jug in a fridge before i make coffee.
would be great if someone could record clip and slap it on youtube

The milk steaming is IMO the best part of the BES900 and nothing short of amazing. It has the perfect steam power for making one or two cups at a time and it is very dry. I made latte art with it the first time i used it, which I was struggling to do with my other 2 machines.

[Croc]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

just wondering how people finding milk steaming on BDB
i get nice glossy milk and cappuccino seem to taste nice but cant get any art action and watching lots of clips on youtube i dont think i seen one where textured milk on BDB was good enough for latte art.
any tips? i use digital thermometer and aim for 65C stopping around 62C since it still climbs up after i stop steaming.
I also tried putting my SS jug in a fridge before i make coffee.
would be great if someone could record clip and slap it on youtube

The milk steaming is IMO the best part of the BES900 and nothing short of amazing. It has the perfect steam power for  making one or two cups at a time and it is very dry. I made latte art with it the first time i used it, which I was struggling to do with my other 2 machines.

great to hear, im new to steaming milk so im sure it will come with practice, if you have nothing better to do one day i would love to see video of texturing and making some latte art with it.

[tscs]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Ok - I keep reading about the 5c test - I presume this post I found in a different thread describes it correctly:

Title: Re: Vibiemme Piccolo
Post by jaysonlew on 09. Aug 2011 at 17:25
Try the 5cent piece test to determine how much you should dose,

1. Dose your coffee into the basket and tamp firmly.
2. Place a 5c piece in the centre of tamped grounds.
3. Lock into the group head, but do not activate the pump.
4. Remove the handle and note the 5cent piece.

If your dose is correct, there should only be a slight indent of the coin into the coffee grounds. If the coin has been pushed deeply into the grounds, then you have dosed too much.

(Ill give it a go and see how Im dosing)

Ive been enjoying reading this thread on-and-off for a while and, now, over the last month Ive been enjoying using the BDB and Smart Grinder - and drinking the results!

(We just need to get Breville to make a matching Smart Roaster to complete the set-up! )

[Courierdog]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

With the success we have had with the Breville Pod machine, Dual Boiler and the Smart grinder I would be willing to try a Breville Smart Roaster. LOL
Hay Phil here is a new opportunity. LOL

[>mcknightp]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

just wondering how people finding milk steaming on BDB
i get nice glossy milk and cappuccino seem to taste nice but cant get any art action and watching lots of clips on youtube i dont think i seen one where textured milk on BDB was good enough for latte art.
any tips? i use digital thermometer and aim for 65C stopping around 62C since it still climbs up after i stop steaming.
I also tried putting my SS jug in a fridge before i make coffee.
would be great if someone could record clip and slap it on youtube

You can check out these photos of my latte art all done on a BDB:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/6312606...in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6312606...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6312606...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/6312606...n/photostream/

Cheers, Phil

[Croc]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

nice one Phil, do you brew first and steam milk later or other way around?
i figure crema plays important part so maybe i should aim to have milk ready to go just before i finish brewing my shot?

[rustic]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

You can check out these photos of my latte art all done on a BDB:

Hey Phil, just wondering how much you have to stretch the milk to make it easier to pour a rosetta?

BTW, any chance you could make and upload some videos with a few tips on using a naked portafilter? Even just one video of a decent pour would be nice   

[fengteo]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

just wondering how people finding milk steaming on BDB

I have no problem getting art out. I find that the BES900 is awesome and quite forgiving when it comes to good milk.

Attached are some images of art, plus a few plugs for a couple of nice coffee blends

I find that the churn is best achieved with the wand stuck in the spout, and the tip at about 3 oclock... start of with the holes surfing till about 30deg or so, and then submerge slightly and churn churn... I stop at about 60deg on an analog thermometer and let it ride out to about 65deg.

[fengteo]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Ive taken a short video of my first attempt at Espresso Porn with my newly received naked portafilter.

Looks like my grind was a smidge too coarse so it was a little bit underextracted, but still tasted okish once milk was added

Here it is: https://vimeo.com/38496412

Oh... and it got a drip or three out the back