Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[water_dragon]

"Anyone else have an opinion on this? Any other compelling reasons to wait for 30mins?"

I never let it heat up that long 5-10 minutes is long enough wash porta fillter and cup under hot water and dry works for me

[brokenvase]

Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

"Anyone else have an opinion on this? Any other compelling reasons to wait for 30mins?"

I never let it heat up that long 5-10 minutes is long enough wash porta fillter and cup under hot water and dry works for me

So why do some wait 30min. Better Qn, why does the BDB have the wake up timer if we don't have to wait that long?

[Barry_Duncan]

I have my BDB set to turn on 15 minutes before I normally jump out of bed. That way it is ready for me when I am ready for it.

The timer saves me having to turn it on.

Barry

[mrearthpig]

Thanks Barry and Water_Dragon.

I think all the information you provided makes sense Barry, especially the info regarding grinding. I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

[DavidW1960]

So why do some wait 30min. Better Qn, why does the BDB have the wake up timer if we don't have to wait that long?

It will work better if it's properly heated up.

[brokenvase]

Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

It will work better if it's properly heated up.

How long is "properly heated up"? 10? 15? 30mins? I usually wait 30, but now I'm thinking 10-15 is acceptable.

[mrearthpig]

Barry, made the best coffee in the BDB yet, tonight. Even the wife said it tasted good. Although, she complained it wasn't hot enough. So I stuck the steam wand into the cup. That sorted that out!! Think I might need a thermometer.

The shot took 29 seconds. Very happy with the result.

Now I just need to work out how to slow my heart rate down after all these coffees!!

[WiredArabica]

Barry, made the best coffee in the BDB yet, tonight. Even the wife said it tasted good. Although, she complained it wasn't hot enough. So I stuck the steam wand into the cup. That sorted that out!! Think I might need a thermometer.

The shot took 29 seconds. Very happy with the result.

Now I just need to work out how to slow my heart rate down after all these coffees!!

Good to hear of your progress, and welcome to the club!
Make sure to preheat the cups with the hot water first, that helps a lot with serving temperature. If it's a milk based drink I strongly recommend a thermometer, at least to start with.
...also if the machine has been idle for any time, purge a little water through the portafilter first to make sure it's all up to temperature.

There's a lot to take in when you're just starting out but as you've seen it doesn't take too long to start getting things under control, and it's an exciting adventure!

[mrearthpig]

...also if the machine has been idle for any time, purge a little water through the portafilter first to make sure it's all up to temperature.

Is it ok to grind the beans straight into a wet portafilter? I've been avoiding it, but not really sure why. It would certainly help to cut down on the time it takes to make 4 cups of coffee!

There's a lot to take in when you're just starting out but as you've seen it doesn't take too long to start getting things under control, and it's an exciting adventure!

Yeah. It's certainly more complicated than pouring boiling water onto that other muck that comes in jars.

[WiredArabica]

Is it ok to grind the beans straight into a wet portafilter? I've been avoiding it, but not really sure why. It would certainly help to cut down on the time it takes to make 4 cups of coffee!

No, you don't want it wet but a quick wipe out with a cloth is sufficient, I have a dark coloured towel set out in front of my machine for this purpose. And if you're making sequential shots, it's ok to dump the puck and dry wipe the basket and dose again - it doesn't need stripped back with the hot water after each shot (but purge the group though with 2-3 secs of water - press & hold the 1 or 2 cup button). That said, particularly if making a black coffee it's good to wash the spouts before pulling the shot - you can use the group purge water or run under the hot water tap, and consider a quick back flush - think of this as a nice touch to add once you've settled in a bit as you've enough to think about for the moment! It sounds complicated but isn't really.

Yeah. It's certainly more complicated than pouring boiling water onto that other muck that comes in jars.

Tastes better too . But after a bit, once you settle in it becomes a process and actually doesn't take much longer.
It might be messier though ...

[DavidW1960]

How long is "properly heated up"? 10? 15? 30mins? I usually wait 30, but now I'm thinking 10-15 is acceptable.

I'd say 30 minutes myself. Opinions vary.

[Barry_Duncan]

Barry, made the best coffee in the BDB yet, tonight.

I suggest that you take your free 90 minute barista course as soon as you can. They will be able to demonstrate things to you that are difficult for us to explain to you here.

Make use of the Advanced Search in the top right of this page, to gain information within the CS site. As well as learning how to brew coffee you will need to find out about things like cleaning, backflushing and scale prevention of your BDB.

I hope you don’t find it all too hard and go back to a spoonful of muck from a jar. I did drink a lot of instant years ago but now I can't stand the stuff.

I found that as my homebrewed coffee improved it was harder to find cafes or friends who make coffee I like.

Barry

[jaredw]

After my BES840 sprung a leak with in the first 30 days i took the chance to upgrade to the BES900. Solid machine and seems more than capable of pouring a good espresso from what i have read. After almost destroying my heart after trying every tip here and many bags of beans later i am still unable to pour a shot anything close to acceptable.

I am able to get the pressure gauge around the 9 bar range, however even then sometimes i have had it pour in 15-20seconds, on other attempts it has been over 35 seconds pressure gauge always in the 9 bar range. I have bought a bag of pre ground coffee so i can practice my dosing and tamping rather than messing with grind settings. It has not really improved things.

Holding out until i can take part in the barrista course, but until then any advice you gurus could depart would be most appreciated.

Some more information i am using a bcg800. Pre infusion temperature etc are all factory setting. I am using beans roasted about a week ago have been sourced from either mecca or from little marionette. Reading everything i can my grind feels like it should, the dose seems to be ok (even resorted to using scales). My tamp could really do with some practice but most things i read state that with a pre infusion it becomes less important.

[WiredArabica]

After my BES840 sprung a leak with in the first 30 days i took the chance to upgrade to the BES900. Solid machine and seems more than capable of pouring a good espresso from what i have read. After almost destroying my heart after trying every tip here and many bags of beans later i am still unable to pour a shot anything close to acceptable.

I am able to get the pressure gauge around the 9 bar range, however even then sometimes i have had it pour in 15-20seconds, on other attempts it has been over 35 seconds pressure gauge always in the 9 bar range. I have bought a bag of pre ground coffee so i can practice my dosing and tamping rather than messing with grind settings. It has not really improved things.

Holding out until i can take part in the barrista course, but until then any advice you gurus could depart would be most appreciated.

Some more information i am using a bcg800. Pre infusion temperature etc are all factory setting. I am using beans roasted about a week ago have been sourced from either mecca or from little marionette. Reading everything i can my grind feels like it should, the dose seems to be ok (even resorted to using scales). My tamp could really do with some practice but most things i read state that with a pre infusion it becomes less important.

Welcome!
You seem to understand that fresh coffee is a necessity, and have a capable grinder in the BCG800 - so why are you bothering with pre-ground? That's really not going to help you and is almost certainly the cause of your angst. The course will help immensely, as will lots of reading here.
Start with getting the dose right - you can weigh if you really really want but try this:

1. Use single wall, double shot basket
2. Grind enough to slightly overfill the basket
3. Firmly tap the portafilter twice on a hard surface. Coffee should still slightly overfill the basket
4. Level coffee with a knife or straight edge of index finger
5. Tamp firmly - metal part of tamper should be level with top of basket
6. Lock portafilter into the group and pull the shot. Aim for about 60ml in 30 secs, but don't get too hung up on the numbers

If it's too fast, fine up the grind. Too slow, make the grind coarser. Note that each click of the knob is an adjustment step and there are 3 or 4 of these per indent on the LCD.

[jaredw]

I spent a lot of time dialling in the grinder. So just asked them to grind half my beans to give me a reference point for feel and to eliminate grind as a cause for my woes. Have now dialed in the grinder to a similar level to their feel.

I am using the single walls, process sounds similar to what i am doing. My only question should i ditch the single shot basket? I have seen this come up a few times in this thread. I only drink singles but have noticed a big difference when using the double shot basket. So perhaps best to perfect using the double?

Thanks for the advice.