Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[LaughingAtFate]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Not really, Usually "waste" about 1-2 grams every basket (yes, I measured it)

my K3t is set to give me approximately 7grams every hit of the tongue, The basket I use holds 18-19grms, after thunking and settling the grinds, I find that I only have a few grams left over, after 3 doses.


It appears that frangutz has their grinder making more then necessary and is trying to not waste beans, Either they need to recalibrate the grinder to the correct amount, Start scooping in beans to measure before grinding (ie, not storing the beans in the hopper) or start not caring too much about wasting the one or two grams of excess that is being made currently

[rustic]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

It appears that frangutz has their grinder making more then necessary and is trying to not waste beans, Either they need to recalibrate the grinder to the correct amount, Start scooping in beans to measure before grinding (ie, not storing the beans in the hopper) or start not caring too much about wasting the one or two grams of excess that is being made currently

Phils recommendation is to have the hopper filled enough to prevent the coffee beans from "popcorning" (i.e. bouncing around). I find this keeps the size of the grind more consistent and the dose is more likely the same as the last shot.

At the start of every session I fill the hopper about halfway (where the slope becomes vertical) and empty the beans back into their packaging when done

[Gnat]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

For my smart grinder, the correct dose is 2 cups, -5 adjustment (as far down as it will go). After tamping the grinds are juuust above the taper in the basket (which also means that tamping harder doesnt actually do anything to the grinds, as im pushing on the basket instead). Portafilter fits onto the group head easily, and after extraction there is a faint imprint of the showerscreen on the puck. Puck comes out cleanly, dry and intact.

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

This is where I tamper to:

Obvously over dosed.

When all else fails, read the instructions.

Read about dosing on page 24 of the 900 instruction book.

Some people weigh the beans, some use the auto doser, while others including me, measure the beans to be ground.

Elsewhere in CoffeeSnobs you can read about the 5 cent method and rice method of measuring the desirable dose. You should leave enough room between the tamped coffee and the shower screen to allow the top edge of the filter to seal with the gasket and to allow room for the coffee to expand up to the shower screen when wet.

Barry.

As another piece of info - I think with the last lot of coffee, I Must have been overdosing because it was hard to put the group handle on.

According to your description, you had been overdosing.
If you have a precise digital scale, you should dose around 12g for 1-cup and 18.5g for 2-cup.

Thanks

Nick OY

Just to clarify that I use digital scale to weigh the ground beans. 12g for 1-cup , 18.5g for 2-cup.

[frangutz]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

thanks for the responses guys. Over the last few months I have watched all of Phils videos and read stuff from this site.

Yes, with the overdose I was getting coffee water running over the side and some steam - so i was thinking the seal may be gone.

I do fill the hopper to half way to ensure that there is consistent weight for grinding.

We seem to be drinking so much coffee that half a hopper doesnt last too long anyhow

When I posted the other day, i was under the impression that the smart grinder should be dosing "an appropriate amount" regardless of the beans being used. FYI, I purchase my beans from a reputable coffee store in Adelaide every couple of weeks.

Today I changed my grinder settings to dose 2g less - i.e. turn the amount to the left by 2 marks. I have also decreased the grind size (i.e. made the grind finer).

When I tampered, it went down about 6mm in the basket - didnt get over flow tonight but pressure was down to about 3-5Bar.

The coffee tasted ok (my wife was able to drink without sugar ;D)

Using the single cup basket and increasing the dose amount by 2G I am able to get 7Bar.

Last night I pulled the shower head (is that what it is called?) and the seal out of the machine. Gave it a good clean and refitted.

If I need to get my grinder recalibrated do i need to send it back to Breville? I dont have super fine scales at home.

This has been my hardest blend to get right I dont believe how much a difference the beans will make :-[

Again, thanks for the help.

=F.

[>mcknightp]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Maybe someone can put this on a sticky as Ive said it a million times ;-))

Start by setting dose output of the SG. Aim so the tamped coffee is 6-7mm below the top edge of the coffee basket. ie the top edge of the cap on the supplied tamper is level with the top of the coffee basket AFTER tamping. Adjust the "Adjust Amount" dial until you get this depth (dose) correct.

Insert group handle & press the Manual button immediately. Have the shot clock active on the LCD. When you see the first drops of espresso appear from the spouts, check the time on the shot clock, it should be between 11-14secs.

If before 11 secs, then you need to grind finer. Make small grind adjustments & purge a small amount from the grinder after you make an adjustment & before the next extraction.

If the shot falls after 14secs, then you need to grind coarser. Make small grind adjustments & purge a small amount from the grinder after you make an adjustment & before the next extraction.

If you do make changes to grind size, then an artifact of timed grinders is, dose will change. If you make small changes then the change in dose will not have a huge affect, but if the changes are large then it will have an affect on output (dose). Adjust dose if required.

Swapping between single baskets & doulble baskets is problematic. As Chris pointed out you need a whole set of paramaters that will differ from each basket size. Ditch the single.

This is a rough guide only. The rate of extraction will determine overall cup quality. Fine tune this to suit the beans, degree of roast, age etc.

Cheers, Phil

[Barry_Duncan]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

If I need to get my grinder recalibrated do i need to send it back to Breville?

No don’t send it anywhere. A big part of coffee brewing, as well as trying different coffees, is constantly fiddling with your grinders’ controls including the off button, to get the right amount of coffee at the right fineness. If the pressure is too low and the flow too fast, with the right dose and tamp, grind finer. If it flows too slow or blocks up, grind coarser. If it won’t grind fine enough, add shims.

To get shims phone Breville. Shims are easy to add or remove, but don’t forget the lower burr has a left hand thread and unscrews clockwise.

If you dont want to fiddle with your grinder, get a pod machine or a super auto. But dont expect to get super quality coffee.

Barry 

[Yelta]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Maybe someone can put this on a sticky as Ive said it a million times

I empathize Phil, seems we have reached the point where the same questions are being asked ad nauseum, not just re Breville machines, seems to be happening on most topics, unsure whether its ignorance, laziness or a bit of both, for some reason people are reluctant to use the search facility, CS is an enormous research tool, I doubt there are many questions that will be asked in the future that have not been well covered previously.
Perhaps a Word file containing answers to the most frequently posed questions, then you could simply cut and paste the appropriate response.
Even reading through this thread from page one, would, I suspect cover most queries re the Breville BES900, in response to the reply "that would take ages" keep in mind, Phil and other knowledgeable people spend large chunks of time responding to questions needlessly.
Using the search facility and reading through relevant  threads should answer most questions posed.    

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Today I changed my grinder settings to dose 2g less - i.e. turn the amount to the left by 2 marks. I have also decreased the grind size (i.e. made the grind finer).When I tampered, it went down about 6mm in the basket - didnt get over flow tonight but pressure was down to about 3-5Bar.The coffee tasted ok (my wife was able to drink without sugar  ) Using the single cup basket and increasing the dose amount by 2G I am able to get 7Bar.

You may need the shim kits for the grinder. Combining appropriate grind size and OPV setting, you may not need to do any hard tamp and just dose ground beans as Phil said about the amount in the cup.
For my case, I dont need to hard tamp but just weigh the ground beans precisely and then I can get consistent extraction almost every time.

Thanks

Nick OY

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Jon - Just to continue on from what you say....

On many forums, the FAQs for a particularly large thread are usually slapped in the first Post.

Otherwise perhaps we could have a locked thread with all the FAQs, pretty much everything Phil and other experts have said. I find myself re-reading the same responses time and time again just to help refresh my knowledge. Some of the questions are more general, rather than BES900 related, but could be handy ?

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I find the obsession with weight fascinating. I grind so that I get sufficient coffee in the basket that when tamped down will be at the top of the silver cap as Phil describes.

With different beans I have to adjust the quantity to achieve that result.

When I then weigh the beans I fing in the single basket uses around 14g which surprised me. This is why I got the VST triple basket so it fits exactly 2 x my single shot 14g. But I only weighted it a couple of times to know how much coffee I was using. I dont see how I could use less and still fill th ebasket correctly. I am only tamping at 15kg as suggested by Phil too. (weighing it also explained why I was ploughing through so many beans. LOL)

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

im with you David

i dont bother weighing, it most likely is important, but i like to adjust off visual cues, so how much is actually in the basket.
I mean the single and double basket wont change in size, so once i get the grinder set correctly it should drop a consistant amount each time and viewing how much is there.

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Yep.

Just a naked portafiller tip - doesnt work real well with a single basket - coffee everywhere. Works great with the VST triple though.

[zdam]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Hi,

I do imagine these repeated questions on the same topics of how to pour a good coffee it is annoying the old-timers, but as a new guy I just wanted to make you aware that there is not actually a place on this forum that is dedicated to this.

It seems to me that this site is missing a very obvious sub forum/section!

I actually had to go to another site to get good quality info in a single place! http://www.home-barista.com/howtos.html

Cheers, Adam.

[Yelta]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

how to pour a good coffee it is annoying the old-timers, but as a new guy I just wanted to make you aware that there is not actually a place on this forum that is dedicated to this.

Adam the whole forum is devoted to that very subject.

I actually had to go to another site to get good quality info in a single place!

Did you try using the search feature? top RH side of the page.