Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

[Tupinamba]

I have been pulling some excellent shots lately when, all of a sudden, coffee comes under extracted. I try a couple of times more with similar results. I am quite sure dosing and tamping is ok (as it all was working well until yesterday morning). I am grinding at -3. By looking at the grounds they look a bit too coarse for -3.

I remove the upper burr for cleaning after each session. Is it possible something has disadjusted in the grinder? Have you had or heard of any similar story? I have not played with the lower burr at all.

[Barry_Duncan]

You need to constantly adjust your grinder as coffee ages and with changes in the weather. A good busy barista may adjust their grinder a dozen times a day. As beans age they need a finer grind.

Under extraction may be due to either grinding too coarse or channelling through the puck due to inadequate tamping.

Don’t be too fixed on numbers, If flow is too fast grind finer, if too slow go coarser.

Barry

[Yelta]

You need to constantly adjust your grinder as coffee ages and with changes in the weather. A good busy barista may adjust their grinder a dozen times a day. As beans age they need a finer grind.

Under extraction may be due to either grinding too coarse or channelling through the puck due to inadequate tamping.

Don’t be too fixed on numbers, If flow is too fast grind finer, if too slow go coarser.

Barry

Barry is spot on with this observation, this is a fact seldom mentioned in relation to grinding/dosing/tamping, the grinder setting that is spot on today will flow way too fast in a few days time.

[shadoxity]

Can anyone give me some advice on getting my grinder working better?

I have the SG and the BES900.

The dosage just seems to be all over the place.

Example, i currently have Bean bay espresso WOW.

I need to have the grinder on minus 3 dose, and a couple clicks away from finest on the double dose.

This will get me around a 30sec double shot.
Trying to play around with the dose/grind just gets me nowhere.
I.e. getting a bit more dose and courser, if i change it to minus 2 dose and make it courser then the grinds will totally overflow the double basket and be way too much!
I need to have it at minus 4 dose and to the right of the "o" in espresso and that will get me around a 28 second double shot.

Leaving it at minus 4 dose and going finer seems to make the dose too small so it just runs through and do a quick extraction.

So in summary, im having all these issues getting my grinds right for a double.

When i was playing around with single basket and single shots the changes (dose for example) didnt seem to make such a huge change.

I dont know if there is just a function of the grinder im not understanding, or im doing something wrong :S?

But I was hoping you guys could point me in the direction of how i can get it working better, or if i should be doing a different method? I might call Breville and get a shim kit just in case.

Thanks in advance!

[prydey]

i don't have the dual boiler ( i have em6910) but i have the smart grinder with espresso wow beans in it, and i have the dose 'less 2' and the grind is under the 'o' on espresso. not much help really given i'm running a different machine.

what i do on mine though is only grind 1 shot at a time, so grind a shot, tap it down and then grind another shot and tamp etc, rather than grind in the full 2 shots in one hit. whether it makes a difference or not....

[coffeechris]

Im sure its more thank just the question i have to ask you as i have had one of these as well...
My Question to you is, are you happy with the taste of the coffee you are extracting? If so thats a good start. Like you when i first got my grinder it was all over the place depending on what beans how old the beans where. It was beginning to annoy me. Then it clicked in my head that even though i was changing the grind setting here there and everywhere all the coffee i was making was better that what i thought it would be....Keep it simple

[shadoxity]

i don't have the dual boiler ( i have em6910) but i have the smart grinder with espresso wow beans in it, and i have the dose 'less 2' and the grind is under the 'o' on espresso. not much help really given i'm running a different machine.

what i do on mine though is only grind 1 shot at a time, so grind a shot, tap it down and then grind another shot and tamp etc, rather than grind in the full 2 shots in one hit. whether it makes a difference or not....

I might try doing that!
Ill see if it makes any difference


EDIT: I gave this a go this morning. I had to have my grinder on minus 4 dose for it not to completely overfill the basket... Maybe the dosing is off on my grinder? But i seemed to get a half decent shot out of that. Seemed like there was just a little bit more volume being able to do the 2 singles into it than the 1 double.

Im sure its more thank just the question i have to ask you as i have had one of these as well...
My Question to you is, are you happy with the taste of the coffee you are extracting? If so thats a good start. Like you when i first got my grinder it was all over the place depending on what beans how old the beans where. It was beginning to annoy me. Then it clicked in my head that even though i was changing the grind setting here there and everywhere all the coffee i was making was better that what i thought it would be....Keep it simple

No im not entirely happy with the shots that i have been pulling lately.
I got pretty consistent with the single basket, but then decided i want stronger coffee's so i started using the double with a slightly larger cup.
I have gotten some good tasting ones with the double, but i just cant seem to fine tune the grinder to try and change the taste, i just want to experiment a little.

Cheers

[Barry_Duncan]

Don’t worry about numbers too much. I set mine at 2 with maximum bars and usually get just enough to fill my single dose basket. The amount varies with the fineness. Sometime I have to grind a little more. Don’t overdose your basket. Go on the taste of your brew.

Weak coffee can be due to uneven extraction due to channelling from inadequate tamping. I use a naked portafilter which shows up any channelling with spurting.

Barry

[Tupinamba]

You need to constantly adjust your grinder as coffee ages and with changes in the weather. A good busy barista may adjust their grinder a dozen times a day. As beans age they need a finer grind.

Under extraction may be due to either grinding too coarse or channelling through the puck due to inadequate tamping.

Don’t be too fixed on numbers, If flow is too fast grind finer, if too slow go coarser.

Barry

Thanks, after some adjustment coffee is coming nicely again. The beans I am using are about 1 week old and I am grinding them one notch below the finest possible.

[stuuu]

Are there any specials around on the BCG800 at the moment? Prices seem to moved a long way from the $169 that was on offer a few months ago.

[shadoxity]

Don’t worry about numbers too much. I set mine at 2 with maximum bars and usually get just enough to fill my single dose basket. The amount varies with the fineness. Sometime I have to grind a little more. Don’t overdose your basket. Go on the taste of your brew.

Weak coffee can be due to uneven extraction due to channelling from inadequate tamping. I use a naked portafilter which shows up any channelling with spurting.

Barry

Thanks Barry, i will have a bit more of a play around

I was getting a better tasting coffee from doing the 2 single grinds than having it set to 2 cups.

[rafroel]

I would also recommend a good, deep clean if you feel like the grind has "changed" over time. I found that after I took mine apart and cleaned it thoroughly (which took very little effort), my shots were noticeably better.

[Iain]

Re BCG800, has any one look inside for any fine adjustments for "amount". I would like to re-cailabrate the settings on mine.

[iamtakai]

Are there any specials around on the BCG800 at the moment? Prices seem to moved a long way from the $169 that was on offer a few months ago.

Anyone know on this one? Its tempting to get this as a replacement for my modded Sunbeam which is currently flogging out one of the top bushes and making the burr wander..

[brokenvase]

Breville BCG800 Smart Grinder

I'm shimmed to the max and still find that it's not fine enough for my 18g VST for Swiss water decaf beans. Anyone else have this issue?