Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[Barry_Duncan]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

give-away-home for those 2kb of beans.

Good for garden mulsh.

Barry.

[blend52]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

The secret to any "shop bought" beans is to figure out the roast /packing date.
Since most brands only actually print the " Best before" or "Use By" date, ( as legally required) , you need to know how long those periods are, ..and then work back to a roast/packing date.
EG; Harris have a 12 month "Use by" period after packing, so if you had a pack with a 20/9/12 "use by date, then you know those beans were packed on 20/9/11 and are 9 months old !
Some companies use longer ( 18-24 months use by periods) others shorter periods.
But, in a busy city supermarket it is possible to find packs with beans only a week or two after packing !
A few brands do actually print the "production" date on the pack now.
Age is probably more important than brand for shop bought beans.
Still better, buy from Beanbay or find a good local roaster and buy fresh. !
Note.. there are a LOT of local roasters around if you look.

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

David. use them for cooking. I had some terrible Vittoria beans which go into Tirimisu, once its cut down with Masala you cant taste any coffee... The receipe suggests instant so not much of a step up.

I think to capture a true coffee flavour just avoid supermarket, its such a gamble for really not a huge gain. Just buy fresh roasted from a roaster or home roasted and youll be set.

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Still better, buy from Beanbay or find a good local roaster and buy fresh. ! Note.. there are a LOT of local roasters around if you look.

Yep. I totally agree on both counts. Beanbay is where I get green beans too.

In case there is any confusion, I purchased one of the Lavazza beans before I got my BES900 and I was given the other bag when I got the BES900 by HN.

I havent used anything but locally purchased (or my own roasts) fresh roasted beans in the BES900.

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

David. use them for cooking

Nah - its too much trouble. (removing my roasted beans from grinder and adding the Lavazza and then reversing the process)

I think to capture a true coffee flavour just avoid supermarket, its such a gamble for really not a huge gain. Just buy fresh roasted from a roaster or home roasted and youll be set.

Well yeah!

I had one bag from a local roaster ans ever since have roasted my own.

[cyberhuey]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

David and Thirteen, i got to the bottom of my shot issue.

Im such a newb i didnt totally check it before stuffing around.

Bascially i followed Scotty Callaghans videos on grinding, dosing, leveling to top of group basket and tamping and ive now worked out why i was only grinding about half way.

I was basically grinding coarser than other people as i was over dosing the basket following Scottys video of leveling and then tamping.

So basically i was doing 24g doses into an 18g basket at notch 10 back from fine towards coarse...

I got out my kitchen digital scales, weighted the group handle with basket in it. Started adjusting the SG dose down to 18g, upped to grind to 6 notches from Fine towards coarse. Now not going through as much coffee and also not being too tight that the group handle goes past the 90 degree another 10 or so degrees to full lock.

Where as 24g into 18g basket, grind 10 off fine, handle was 90 degrees to machine, but it was a tight pack, about 2 few mls down after light tamping, any finer grind or heavier tamp would result in 11bar and no fluid.. any less powder and shots pressure would be low and run too fast as scotty demonstrates in his videos on youtube.

Where as now, 18g powder grind 6 off fine, handle goes on a lot easier and tamps down to the basket ridge... Coffee flows on the finer grind at 9bar with a much heavier tamp like i was originally doing but on the wrong dose way too much powder and not fine enough due to amount of powder originally.

Pays to weigh your powder when dialing in the SG. Do you think i should go to a finer grind again?

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

i usually like to keep my grind as fine as possible and dose as low as possible.
I find most of my grinds are around 5 off Espresso max and does is about -2 or -3 amount. That way i get very oily oozey shots (depending on bean)
I dont measure anything

[cyberhuey]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

i usually like to keep my grind as fine as possible and dose as low as possible.
I find most of my grinds are around 5 off Espresso max and does is about -2 or -3 amount. That way i get very oily oozey shots (depending on bean)
I dont measure anything

5 off expresso, is that 5 back from the far right? at the moment ive got -3 dosing for 18g basket and getting 18gr loads.

If the 5 off far right as you can, im pretty close, ive got 6, will try to see if i can go a little finer again

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

You know you cant compare different grinder settings right? This is why some Breville grinders need shims and others dont.

Huey - whatever works for you although I will say that even Phil has said in this thread that the Breville single (7g nominal) takes around 13-14g properly dosed and the double is more like 21g - but hey if its working and you are following Scotties video you cant go too far wrong. I used that video too when I was just starting out.

[inertia8]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Ive joined the club tonight... machine is cleaned and currently warming up

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Congratulations inertia8 and welcome to the club.

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Ive joined the club tonight... machine is cleaned and currently warming up 

You read what we are saying about dose and grind ?

[inertia8]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I must confess I did not, I set my rocky to just above the 0 point, choked the machine, two adjustments from 0 and it was giving a very nice cup.

Ill read thru and get technical but was impressed with being able to make 4 cups of coffee, all tasted very similar.. quite pleased.

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I must confess I did not, I set my rocky to just above the 0 point, choked the machine, two adjustments from 0 and it was giving a very nice cup.

Ill read thru and get technical but was impressed with being able to make 4 cups of coffee, all tasted very similar.. quite pleased.

Sounds like your on the money, if your making good cups then you cant do much more!
speaking of which im going to give my machie a workout now

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I set my rocky to just above the 0 point

Just for interest, what kind of machine did you have that matched with before the BES900?