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Help, underextraction on Breville Bambino Plus

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  • SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean
    replied
    I am really excited. Today I made a coffee that I'm pretty happy with. I'm not even sure what it is that I'm doing differently but maybe level3ninja is right, just takes lots of practice! Latte art is still kind of awful.. but I'm working on that. I'm really enjoying this new lockdown hobby. I'm jittering so much I'm surprised I can type at all.

    Thanks everyone.

    Leave a comment:


  • jafa1970
    commented on 's reply
    I weigh the output. Have set the two shot button to be very large and use the scales to let me know when to stop.

  • level3ninja
    replied
    There is a fair bit of muscle memory required in order to make very consistent shots (not just in grams and seconds but extraction etc). Keep making more coffee and you'll gradually build more muscle memory. Once that happens you'll be able to make very small adjustments for fine tuning.

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  • SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean
    replied
    Trying new beans (Crave, the ones that come from Breville as part of the fathers day promotion) the last couple of days has improved things, the extraction seems to be ticking all the boxes in terms of dose, time, yield, no channeling... it tastes all right but not fantastic. Is this just a case of finding the right beans to suit my tastes or is there something else I could be doing better?

    Thanks for all comments so far.

    Leave a comment:


  • SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean
    commented on 's reply
    Do you stop the extraction when you get to 32g or is that what you get when it automatically stops? sorry, beginner questions here.

  • jafa1970
    commented on 's reply
    I go for a 2:1 ration, so aiming for 32g from 16g.

    Regarding gap, before brewing, there is probably 5mm, maybe a bit more.

  • SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean
    commented on 's reply
    How much of a gap is left at the top of the breville basket, and how much coffee do you get from 16g?

  • SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean
    replied
    Well I think I had a breakthrough. I changed the grind setting in the burr down by one to "5" from "6" as suggested, and changed the grind size setting to 12, then 8, then 5. At 5, I finally got an extraction that lasted 28 seconds, giving 39 grams of coffee out (22g of coffee in the basket). Now I think it's possibly a little bitter, maybe the last few seconds are overextracted. Still not a "sweet" coffee but an improvement away from the sour coffee from yesterday. The finer grind meant that tamping pressure was less, too. I am using the razor provided to check the level of coffee in the basket. I think the distribution is probably okay because I'm not getting much channeling and it only lasts maybe a second when it happens.

    Happily, the Breville basket arrives in the post today so I can experiment with that too (the MATOW basket is probably not the highest quality).

    Leave a comment:


  • jafa1970
    replied
    Hi SMMMB,

    I started out with the same combo, the Bambino with the SGP. I was generally around grind setting 12 with fresh beans. Makes me wonder if the grinder is set differently, per level3ninja's comment above.


    Edited to add:
    I now use the Breville single wall double basket with 16g (wife does the single wall single basket with 9g) and this works out ok. I do have a different grinder now. Is making me think the volume of coffee is not the thing affecting your results.



    Leave a comment:


  • SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean
    commented on 's reply
    Interesting, I didn't know that. Will have a look tomorrow. I'll try a finer grind. Would explain why people talk about a grind size of over 10 which seems massive to me on the normal setting.

  • level3ninja
    replied
    The Breville SGP has an inner burr adjustment that moves the grind setting numbers about 5 or 10 numbers (finer or coarser depending on the adjustment, if you move it 1 marker finer the number that used to be 5 will now be roughly equivalent to 10 or 15). Read the manual for how to adjust.

    Leave a comment:


  • WoweeZowee
    replied
    Can you try grinding even finer?

    Leave a comment:


  • SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean
    replied
    Update, tried upping the dose to 22.5g (because why not). Now I have an imprint of the shower screen after extracting so maybe the dose wasn't enough before? This slowed extraction time to 26 seconds and it was a bit less runny. Still a bit on the sour side of things but an improvement. I forgot to weigh the coffee output though. Next time.

    Leave a comment:


  • SylvesterMcMonkeyMcBean
    replied
    Originally posted by Blues1143 View Post
    Maybe try wdt with a paperclip until you can order some 0.4 mm acupuncture needles to stick on a cork or 3d print a body.
    I think that's a little beyond my scope. I'm using a dosing cup and distributing that way, before using the distributor/tamp. I have read about WDT though and did try it with a bamboo skewer. I don't think the results were any better than the dosing cup.

    I got beans from Cafe Cherry Beans, which is within the dreaded 5km lockdown zone. There are other local roasters but they don't do pick-up orders at the moment.

    This is what I'm trying to do with the distribution: https://youtu.be/C9u9S_-PcwQ?t=452

    Not sure how to upload a video. Looking after 2 littlies full time so getting a video might not be possible for a while.

    Stats today: 21g coffee in, extraction 22 secs, 44g coffee out. Still kind of sour but marginally less watery coming out. Using fresh beans hasn't made much of a difference.

    And get this... after I go out and buy new beans today, the bonus promotional fathers day coffee beans arrive in the post today with no warning! so I now have six new bags of coffee, and three open bags of stale beans.

    I appreciate everybody taking the time to read and reply. It's a big learning curve for me but all of it helps.

    Leave a comment:


  • SanderP
    commented on 's reply
    Comment of the month.

    Cheers
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