How to Make a Good Tasting Coffee at Home (Breville Dual Boiler Espresso)

dammit on 01/10/2022 - 10:02

I had been spending $10+ on a daily visit to cafe - in a year that is $3650!…and in true ozbargain fashion decided enough was enough and to buy a coffee machine and DIY to save $$.

I do a 2 shot almond latte & GF a 1 shot oat cap - once a day and that's it.

I got a BES920 Breville Dual Boiler, with Smart Grinder Pro - second hand for $900. It has done 1,000 shots but is under 2 years old.

It had a bit of stagnant water in it (some algae in the water tank) that I gave a good scrub but wondering if I should descale the machine (apparently this can be difficult with the BDB) or do some full cleaning cycle?

I naively bought 1kg Lavazza Intenso from Amazon (impatient) and made my first coffee - it was bitter and tasted dreadful. I measured 18g of beans, ground them to setting 12 (recommended to start with), had the BDB on 93 degrees and 30 seconds. I now know to buy as freshly roasted as possible.

It is quite a learning curve so wanted to post this to try and get the basics / what to start with? I have used barista machines at work before so know the very basics but everything was set so it was more simple.

  1. it came with just 1 single wall 2 cup filter basket ( I think ?? - see photo ) - It seems this is fine for fresh/good coffee beans; do I need a 1 cup version or can just use this and grind less beans? Are any other accessories truly needed that I should buy?

  2. I don't have any of these accessories like water hardness test; cleaning tablets etc - is something like this Breville Eco cleaner all I need?

  3. I think I get the basics; get as FRESHLY roasted beans as you can, measure 18g (double shot) on scales; grind it; tamp it; brew it and need to end up with 1:2 ratio so about 36g of espresso output?

  4. I tend to like a smoother, creamy type coffee often like a Campos in cafes - should I be buying a 'medium dark roast' or what is a good 'beginner bean'??

  5. I have milklab oat/almond and also bonsoy almond so quality milk should be covered.

Would appreciate any advice, tips, resources & videos to get me started without getting too technical and overwhelming!

Food & Grocery

Comments

  • SBOB on 01/10/2022 - 10:10

    measure 18g (double shot) on scales; grind it

    Breville smart grinder isn't a zero retention grinder.
    It's not designed to have single dose grinds measured and ground, so you're unlikely to get consistency doing this.

    • dammit on 01/10/2022 - 10:16
      +1

      Ohh I should say I measured the weight of the portafilter/tared the scale then made sure it had 18g of ground coffee in it.

      • SBOB on 01/10/2022 - 10:20
        +1

        Sounds better :)

        Following all the right steps.

        Personally, I would descale the machine first.

        Then go grab some decent starter beans to practice on. I have the same machine and use aldi medium roast beans pretty much always. They suit our use (lattes) and the times I've tried more expensive roasts I've never been wowed enough to change. If I was drinking espresso then different story.

        Work on getting consistency or repeatability in grind/dose rate and go from there.

  • nilesuan on 01/10/2022 - 10:16
    +1
    • Get a proper scale, distributor and tamper.
    • Like @SBOB said, the grinder retains some grounds, so it's best to tare the portafilter empty before you grind.
    • The BDB has horrible pressure out of the box, I recomend adjusting opv or slayer mod.
    • If you have a budget for it, try getting a better grinder like 1zpresso k-plus.
    • SBOB on 01/10/2022 - 10:21
      +1

      The BDB has horrible pressure out of the box

      I think horrible might a tad harsh ;)

      • nilesuan on 01/10/2022 - 10:24

        agreed, maybe it is. Let's just say it has bad pressure by default.

        • Cyb3rGlitch on 01/10/2022 - 22:10

          Mine has been fine. 10 bar showing when opv is open, which is around 9 bar at the puck.

  • namlub3 on 01/10/2022 - 10:35
    +4

    BES920 is safe to descale just follow the manual correctly and maybe look up a recent YouTube of it. Old ones could have an issue that popped the steam boiler.
    You can use any cleaner and descaler, get a tub of each of Caffeto from alternative brewing for example, give it a clean cycle then a descale cycle. Will last you forever. You could grab a packet of the water filters if you want too, but depends how hard your water really is. If you're doing a decent clean every month or two and a descale once or twice a year you really should be fine .

    Don't try and do a single dose in the double basket, just make a proper double and split the shot. Save half in the fridge for a nice ice latte in the afternoon.

    18g in 36g out and should take 30 seconds. If it's too fast, grind finer, if too slow grind coarser.

    You'll probably want lighter roasts, Australia mostly has light roasts anyway.

    You should be able to get good coffees with what you have, a nicer grinder is always nice but the smart grinder is totally fine if you're weighing your dose anyway.

    Maybe watch a couple James Hoffman videos for simple distribution and tamping techniques just to get that consistent, again with a cheaper grinder you don't need to go over the top with distribution, it will be a bit of wasted effort after a point.

    Enjoy and good luck 🙂

    • black coral on 01/10/2022 - 12:11
      +1

      Yeh I think the key is getting the grind right as @namlub3 said. If it’s not pouring 36g in 30 seconds you need to adjust. I have to tweak my grind regularly because it fluctuates depending on how long the beans have been sitting in the hopper. Also use the manual pour and not the 1-2 cup preset.

      I prefer getting beans from a cafe so they’re always fresh. Campos is good, just grab a bag of that and see if you can get it tasting similar to what you like from the cafe.

      Another tip, I run water through the head to heat it up before using and also pour boiling water over the portafilter and make sure cups are hot (i fill them with boiling water).

      • dammit on 01/10/2022 - 12:30

        Thanks for all the advice :)

        I was doing some experimenting and noticed that it only seems to reach pressure of bar ~4-ish within the time to deliver my 36g of espresso - does that mean I'm not tamping hard enough? I thought it is supposed to get to 9 bar during each shot but I could be wrong.

        Also have been doing preinfusion of about 7-10 seconds, does that sound normal?

        At first doing a 30 second pour was getting 80+g output, so have been trying finer to slow it down. A lot of trial and error!

        • SBOB on 01/10/2022 - 12:54

          seems to reach pressure of bar ~4-ish

          Grind to course would be the starting point

        • BHR on 01/10/2022 - 17:01

          Going to start with saying I’m not familiar with your machine at all, so take with a grain of salt. YouTube is usually fantastic.

          Machine should be getting to 9 bar and staying there pretty much straight away. 4 bar sounds more like a preinfusion setting. For medium to dark roasts I’d say preinfusion is a waste of time. Set it to the lowest possible setting.

          Set the pour timer to 25 seconds instead of 30.

          You can get cafetto tablets pretty cheaply from anywhere selling coffee machines to clean the group head. (I usually do it each time I get another kilo of coffee)

          Alright with that out the way if your Amazon beans are more than six weeks old, they’re good beans to learn your grinder. With 9 bar and 25 seconds, make the grinder your only variable for now.

          Start with your setting of 12, how many ml of coffee does it get you. What does 11 get you? What does 13 get you? Now you’ve got a quick rule of thumb to go up and down if you don’t get 36ml from your pour.

          Get some fresh beans from your local cafe, you should now be able to get pretty close to 36ml in a couple of quick trial shots.

          Now enjoy your coffee :)

        • namlub3 on 01/10/2022 - 21:56

          The default setting for pre-infusion is 7sec I think, you don't need to change that.
          After pre-infusion the pressure should go straight up to 9-9.5(unless previous owner has fiddled the OPV) and you'll hear the pump work hard, then after another few seconds the coffee should come through fairly slow and syrupy and gradually flow quicker. If it's not getting to pressure and just gushing then you might be tamping too lightly (you should put your weight into a tamp, not strain yourself like you'll pop a vein but watch a barista lean into it, about 15kg of weight) but most likely you're grinding too coarsely.
          As black coral said, use manual button and watch the scale and the timer, stop it when it hits 30g and it will dribble out to about 36g, you'll get used to when to stop it to hit 36g exactly. Then look at the shot timer and that will tell you which way to adjust the grind. 80g out in 30s is just a gusher, so old crap beans (that need a double wall basket) and/or grind way too coarse. Double wall baskets work by artificially creating resistance to slow the flow down.
          If the pump is not getting over 4bar, then it might be buggered. There is a known issue after a while that the pumps don't like being run at partial power (pre-infusing) and can eventually fail so only deliver low pressure. It's actually not too hard to replace the pump if that's the case but I really think it's just beans and grind.

          • dammit on 04/10/2022 - 08:54

            @namlub3: I put the grey silicon disk in to test the pump pressure and it got up to 11, so pretty sure the pump is good. It definitely doesn't rise to 9 bar straight after preinfusion, it goes up really slowly. Does this mean maybe the OPV has been tinkered with? From my google it appears to be a screw rather than a setting. Should I do a factory reset of settings or no point?

            • namlub3 on 05/10/2022 - 13:12

              @dammit: This sounds like old beans, grind too coarse, tamp too light. Maybe you are dosing too little as well. After tamping the top of the coffee should be no more than 5mm below the rim of the portafilter.
              All those things above contribute to creating resistance. If the pump makes pressure with the disc it will make pressure with the right puck prep

        • spasto on 08/10/2022 - 09:01
          +1

          For a single shot, I set my SGP to grind @ 2 for 11 second. This provides ~10g coffee and the most consistent flavour for me (fresh beans). I only drink long black / espresso.

          For a double shot, I make the single shot twice mainly because I can’t get the pressure right whenever I use the double filter.

          I rarely buy supermarket beans as I find it hard to extract the flavour. When I do, I use the double wall filter. Unfortunately, it makes the shot creamier - which I don’t like for an espresso.

          I found tampering to be quite challenging initially - just press enough so that your fingers lightly touch the edge of the portafilter.

          • kiitos on 09/10/2022 - 20:23

            @spasto:

            For a double shot, I make the single shot twice mainly because I can’t get the pressure right whenever I use the double filter.

            I find this too, single shots get the right pressure but doubles are half the pressure. Not sure what I'm doing wrong.

  • CoVaH on 01/10/2022 - 12:30

    I normally just try to aim for the right pressure, so the water passes through the grounds at the correct rate.

    If the coffee is bitter, then the water may have passed through too quickly and burnt the coffee.

    Adjust pressure by adjusting tamper, ground size, amount of grounds in the basket.

    You can also just run the machine with no grounds just to make sure the water coming out isnt smelling/tasting to funky.

    • Cyb3rGlitch on 01/10/2022 - 16:24

      Water passing through quickly is likely to be underextracted and sour, not bitter. You can't burn coffee with hot water, it's been roasted at over 188c for several minutes at minimum.

  • snowcold on 01/10/2022 - 13:09
    +1

    I naively bought 1kg Lavazza Intenso from Amazon (impatient) and made my first coffee

    Go to your cafe and get some freshly roasted coffee. Anything you buy off Amazon/local supermarket will taste like vomit anyway

  • drilly on 02/10/2022 - 14:49

    I have the same set up but I couldn't get the right pressure until I used 23g for a double shot. Even now I have to grind it to close to the finest setting (2) and I have a stainless steel puck now so 21g seems to work.

    • kiitos on 04/10/2022 - 12:25

      Maybe this is my problem too. I find that single shots in the single shot basket are good pressure, 9 bar or even more, but in the double basket with more coffee it's lower pressure. Was using Lavazza and the double basket shots were 5 or 6 bars, with fresh coffee it's closer to 7 to 9 bars but still lower than the equivalent single shot.

      • drilly on 23/10/2022 - 20:39
        +1

        so I had a friend come over and they adjusted my SGP, you have to unlock the hopper and take out the parts inside and there's numbers in the grinder you need to manually adjust. Mine was at 6 and we changed it to a 2 and the beans are much finer now. I can now pull a double shot with only 18g and the puck with no pressure lost at about a 9 setting on the screen.

  • BellaWii on 04/10/2022 - 23:02

    Coincidentally, I bought a 2nd hand BDB on the weekend. Did a clean cycle and the pressure went up to 10/11 bars and stayed there. Haven't had a chance to descale as yet. Using Campos Superior beans which are 5 weeks old, grind size of 8, my first shot of 20g using a single wall, 2 cup basket, pressure went up to 5 bars and it didn't taste very nice. This morning changed grind size to 6, 20g, pressure briefly hit 8 bars then started dropping. Tasted better but the flow is still too fast.
    Want to slow the flow and hit and hold at 8/9 bars. Will try 22g tomorrow.

    • BellaWii on 05/10/2022 - 21:46

      Tried 21g this morning and it hit 9 bars for a sec and then slowly went down. Forgot to observe the flow, doh! Had a bit of a sour taste so still not happy.
      Will try 22g and then try the single shot basket to see which tastes better.
      If anyone can recommend a bottomless portafilter for the BDB, WDT and dosing funnel that will be appreciated. I suspect there is channeling which is causing the fast flow.

  • BellaWii on 05/10/2022 - 22:32
    +1

    Found this link on how to access the diagnostic menu of the BDB:
    https://outwestcoffee.com.au/index.php/2018/12/01/how-to-acc…
    It will also show the number of shots made to date. Mine is 33 which means around 330.
    Interestingly my machine is displaying 2 errors, 08:01 and 11:99. Error 11 Steam NTC Over Temp has happened 99 times or even more. Will have to reset the error log and monitor if error 11 keeps happening.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join