Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[dr.a.j.pickering]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I found this happened all the time with the stock basket which has slopping walls, but rarely happens with the sensesso basket

BeanInPeril wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 3:24pm:
Ive found that if you sort of press up and tilt as you remove the portafilter, it unsticks the puck from the head and it drops down into the basket with zero mess and no need to run any water to get it loose.


That method leaves behind grinds on the shower screen for me

Strange, because it leaves mine pristine apart from a trace of oil. Perhaps the problem is with your pucks?

However, even if it does leave grinds, it doesnt matter. Either youre about to do a clean and backflush or youre about to make more coffee immediately, in which case you are going to do two 3-4 second flushes before you put the loaded portafilter back in. Either way your shower head is going to get cleaned.

On the other hand, running water to drop the puck makes the puck wetter and messier when you dump it, and is an avoidable and unnecessary step anyway - or for me it is.

[peter.wake]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I found this happened all the time with the stock basket which has slopping walls, but rarely happens with the sensesso basket

BeanInPeril wrote Yesterday at 3:04pm:
rustic wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 5:02pm:
BeanInPeril wrote on Jun 19th, 2012 at 3:24pm:
Ive found that if you sort of press up and tilt as you remove the portafilter, it unsticks the puck from the head and it drops down into the basket with zero mess and no need to run any water to get it loose.


That method leaves behind grinds on the shower screen for me


Strange, because it leaves mine pristine apart from a trace of oil. Perhaps the problem is with your pucks?

However, even if it does leave grinds, it doesnt matter. Either youre about to do a clean and backflush or youre about to make more coffee immediately, in which case you are going to do two 3-4 second flushes before you put the loaded portafilter back in. Either way your shower head is going to get cleaned.

On the other hand, running water to drop the puck makes the puck wetter and messier when you dump it, and is an avoidable and unnecessary step anyway - or for me it is.

As comments here made me more curious, I inspected how clean my shower head was when using tilt method to ensure that pucks comes away in basket and doesnt stay stuck to head.

I saw some small variation: sometimes the shower head was left absolutely clean, on other occasions there were just a few small crumbs of coffee - not enough to be worth mentioning once they were rinsed into the basket on the first pre-flush.

Id guess that if you have enough coffee to be an issue stuck on there, then its because your puck is a bit soggy, and that is a topic of its own. Whether or not you care about it would depend on what your coffee tastes like I imagine, but Id guess that in some cases, the soggy puck indicates under dosing, in other cases it might just be down to the bean. Mine are very fresh right now, and I think that helps. Ive found that varying the grind only makes a small difference to the puck (compared to the impact on the extraction), and you are going to see obvious extraction issues if your grind is far enough out of whack to give you a soggy puck without some other contributing factor. I suspect that dosing makes much more of a difference than grind, beans being equal.

[PastorDean]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

i find that having the puck stick to the shower head is a sign my grind or dose is not quite correct. A quick adjustment on the SmartGrinder usually has the puck remaining in the PF again on the next shot.

[dr.a.j.pickering]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

i find that having the puck stick to the shower head is a sign my grind or dose is not quite correct. A quick adjustment on the SmartGrinder usually has the puck remaining in the PF again on the next shot.

I actually found the opposite when using the stock basket the best extractions resulted in a stuck puck, IMHO

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

i find that having the puck stick to the shower head is a sign my grind or dose is not quite correct. A quick adjustment on the SmartGrinder usually has the puck remaining in the PF again on the next shot.

I actually found the opposite when using the stock basket the best extractions resulted in a stuck puck, IMHO

I agree when my puck is stuck its usually a good shot

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

I find no rhyme or reason to a stuck puck. Its just the tapered shape of the basket.

[inertia8]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Sometimes she sticks, sometimes she doesnt is what Im finding...

I must say, my worst coffee made has not been "undrinkable" and still better than "most" coffees you get at non-specialty places... makes it hard to justify buying a coffee when out and about but its usually an excuse for a catchup or chat with a friend/colleague and hence the bad taste is often ignored in good company ;D

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Sometimes she sticks, sometimes she doesnt is what Im finding...

I must say, my worst coffee made has not been "undrinkable" and still better than "most" coffees you get at non-specialty places... makes it hard to justify buying a coffee when out and about but its usually an excuse for a catchup or chat with a friend/colleague and hence the bad taste is often ignored in good company  ;D

the atmosphere is nice i guess but thats about it

[rustic]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Sometimes she sticks, sometimes she doesnt is what Im finding...

+1 for me

my worst coffee made has not been "undrinkable" and still better than "most" coffees you get at non-specialty places... makes it hard to justify buying a coffee

I guess many of us here dont bother visiting non-specialty cafes anymore; if we ever did when our journey into the world of coffee started getting serious. My journey started with specialty cafes before I started making my own coffee.

the atmosphere is nice i guess but thats about it

The atmosphere does draw me in to some degree but it also seems to draw in many of the inner city hipsters at the specialty cafes I visit occasionally. Not sure if its a good thing or a bad thing.

Im from Melbourne by the way so Im blessed when it comes to choice of specialty cafes.

Its nice to grab a good coffee, enjoy it, buy a bag of bean, and then compare the shots youre able to pull against the cafes

[Thirteen13]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

U r very lucky. Over here in Perth, im yet to find a cafe thats worthy of my money at a time that suits me! Which is usually weekend hours and the good ones are shut

[Wes_V]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Just wanted to say Hi. I have been a user here since 07 but mostly just an observer. I bought a dual boiler a week ago, so I thought I would go the the source for user information with the most history with the dual boiler  and that would be you guys.
So far this has been a real step up from the pided/silvia and what has impressed me the most is the quality of "textured" milk (always find the difference in terms between countries interesting like sac/bag us/can at 7-11) we called it steamed milk here. I never really liked lattes before but that has changed. 
I have been going through coffee tremendous rate and enjoying the process. One observation I have made is that 18g of coffee will not fit in a double basket that came with the machine. No matter what coffee I use  and that 10g on a single shot is too little as when tamping the tamper will actually touch the first ridge preventing any more compression. (The manual suggests these weights) Just wondering if this is common. I dont have any way to judge the accuracy of the scale but it has been reviewed as one of the more accurate. thx

[DavidW1960]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

14g for the single shot basket is needed to dose it properly.

[nickoyang]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Just wanted to say Hi. I have been a user here since 07 but mostly just an observer. I bought a dual boiler a week ago, so I thought I would go the the source for user information with the most history with the dual boiler  and that would be you guys.
So far this has been a real step up from the pided/silvia and what has impressed me the most is the quality of "textured" milk (always find the difference in terms between countries interesting like sac/bag us/can at 7-11) we called it steamed milk here. I never really liked lattes before but that has changed. 
I have been going through coffee tremendous rate and enjoying the process. One observation I have made is that 18g of coffee will not fit in a double basket that came with the machine. No matter what coffee I use  and that 10g on a single shot is too little as when tamping the tamper will actually touch the first ridge preventing any more compression. (The manual suggests these weights) Just wondering if this is common. I dont have any way to judge the accuracy of the scale but it has been reviewed as one of the more accurate. thx

Hi,

I think there is no rigid rule in how much coffee for a single-cup or two-cup baskets. The first thing needs to ask is how well is the extraction in term of pouring pressure, dosing volume and time to complete.

In my case of using BDB with Berreza stepless grinder, weighted 12g ground coffee is just perfect for 1-cup basket to meet above perfect conditions. How sensitive in my case? when the coffee is 12.5g, the extraction pressure will go up to the limit set by the OPV. If 12g exactly, moderate temping will be just good to make a perfect espresso compared with Alex Duetto 2.

My Alex Duetto 2 with Mazzer SJ, 1-cup basket needs exactly 12.5g weighted ground coffee (same coffee beans used in Breville BDB) to make a perfect espresso. Same thing in temping as BDB, I just apply moderate force only.

In my both cases, 8 out of 10, the coffe punk will not stick to the shower screen after the pouring and they look moderate wet or dry. Also, I found the amount of backflushed hot water from group head to drip tray after a pouring is pretty small. Both BDB and Duetto 2 make equivalent pouring in my configurations and settings.

Cheers

[IronKen]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Hi Everyone.

First timer here.  Just got my BDB two weeks ago and I am loving it.   As described by others it is a fantastic machine and I am looking forward to getting many years of happy espresso out it.

Just a couple comments to make...

1.  As stated by many, it is very easy to steam and get great textured milk.....still working on getting latte art out of it.
2.  As for dosing, I am regularly getting 18g out of a double basket, so I am not sure why someone from earlier is stating they cant get much espresso in the basket.  Heck I can get 20g if I want to.
3.  Auto-start feature is Awesome and I love to wake up in the morning with a already warmed up BDB.   
4.  Temperature control is great and love it.  Havent played around with temperature changes and affects on flavor yet.
5.  I did have to adjust my OPV a little to get the correct pressure, but as soo many have stated, it really isnt hard to do.

I do have a question.................

I believe I have the machine pretty much set well and have been making espresso everyday since I had the machine, but shots still seem on the BITTER side.

I am not sure what to change next to get a more sweeter shot.

I am currently doing.....

7 sec pre-infusion with 34 second total shot and getting 60ml.  Temperature is 201 degrees and I am using a Calibrated tamper.  Espresso in only 6 days old.




Could it be I just have yucky espresso and do I need to play around with the Temperature more.




Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

[rustic]

Re: Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

Welcome to the CS forums 

Sounds like you havent got your dose quite right.
I average about 20-21 grams depending on the grind setting. I use to dose by weight alone but now find volume is a much easier indication of the correct dose as suggested by others in the thread.

A couple of tips:
- The coarser the grind the less weight (i.e. amount of bean) required for optimum dosage
- When using fresh bean a coarser grind is required

7 sec pre-infusion with 34 second total shot and getting 60ml.  Temperature is 201 degrees and I am using a Calibrated tamper.  Espresso in only 6 days old.

How long does it take till the espresso pours? (including pre-infusion time)

Try to aim for 11 seconds.

I think your pours might be starting early hence the bitter shots caused by overextraction.