Visited some family this past week and they had one of these. I had a basic nespresso pod machine and once I got a taste of their fresh espresso I was hooked and had this guy delivered the next day lol
Couple questions if you would
1) I know to buy locally roasted fresh beans but should I be looking at specific espresso style beans or will a dark or medium roasted bean work? First bag I bought was off the shelf espresso style roast.
2) How long does it normally take to dial in a new bean? The first bag of espresso style beans I bought it took me almost the whole bag to finally get a good crema and pour, I had to adjust the internal grind setting and once I did that I was finally able to get a decent pour. Wish I would’ve tried that sooner lol
3) I was getting way more espresso ground and it was overfilling the portafilter, I finally got it dialed down to exactly how much it should be after tamping, that’s basically what I want it dialed to right? Enough ground into the portafilter that after tamping it’s the right amount?
Thanks all! I have slowly entered into the rabbit hole lol
by mattfl
12 Comments
1. You can make espresso out of anything. It will just be harder with some beans (for instance, most light roasts).
2. My brother worked as a barista for a while and can dial in his machine in 2-3 shots. It takes me more.
3. You’re going to get a lot of folks telling you to single dose (only put as much beans as you’ll use for a single shot in the hopper) and if it’s not too big a pain in the ass for you, you should listen to them. At least for now, while you’re getting a hang of things.
Welcome aboard OP, you are in for a wild ride down the many rabbit holes this community and it’s uncanny love for all things Expresso 👏🏽👍🏽🙏🏽
I made the mistake of getting my daugter hooked on coffee. Bought her this machine for college it’s a nice little setup it does take some getting used to as we used to do everything by weight but this is going to do you well once you get things settled in.
My best advice is make sure you’re only changing one variable at a time, either grind size or time to grind (on this machine). Also when you do change grind size the retention on this grinder is more than other so the next shot will have a mix of grounds from the previous grind size, so really you want to examine the second shot after a grind size change.
I’ve been doing espresso for a few years now and even then this took me probably 1/3 lb to get it to a point where I pulled a satisfactory shot.
Someone else mentioned single dosing, i’m not sure that would be beneficial in this setup, but would be a good experiment to see. You’ll likely get much more consistent weights of coffee but then you lose some of the convenience this machine offers, and the grind by time feature as long as you have beans in the hopper will do just fine. If you want to chase something specific then weighing everything is the next step to obsession.
Hope that helps!
Have exact same model and color. 6 years hasnt skipped a beat. Good choice.
Here’s some stuff I recommend you do that doesn’t cost money.
(1) remove the spout from the portafilter by unscrewing it.
(2) open the portafilter and remove the black plastic insert
(3) use the double basket with the non pressurized wall
(4) stay closer to the minimum line of the milk pitcher.
(5) Press and hold the double button until it says manual and immediately let go. This will allow you to skip preinfusion. Keep that out of the equation for now. I find that it makes things worse. I’ve had the machine for maybe a month or two and haven’t played with it because it causes channeling and the coffee comes out very sour.
To answer your questions
(1) The darker the easier to dial in, I have medium and medium decaf (which tends darker)
(2) it takes time if you don’t grind fine enough. Always start fine then go the other way.
(3) there’s the razor tool you can use to limit the height. If the screw is imprinting its probably too much volume of coffee. I put in 18g.
Money stuff
(1) get a scale that has 0.1g sensitivity.
(2) WDT (I’m waiting on this one)
Welcome to the Breville Barista fam!
That’s a beauty. I often wish I had gotten the Damson instead of the stainless.
The fresher the better. Old expensive beans aren’t as good as cheaper fresh ones. Buy the grinder separately
Is this the barista pro?
https://preview.redd.it/ldmmkynlwftd1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b087cb2f430f34c66cab1e6c02331415971bdd22
I think what you mean for Q3 is it overflowing from the grinder. It should have come with a funnel thing that you can use while grinding, then you can tamp with it installed so it doesn’t overflow.
She’s pretty… so is your backsplash!
I have the same machine (in matte black).
Swap your hopper for a single dose hopper. Something like this:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/1456294540/aro-espresso-single-dose-hopper-o
This one has a weight to put on top of your beans while they grind so that they can’t shoot out. You also have a bellow to push ground beans through the grinder afterward.
Weigh your beans before and after grinding to make sure you end up with the weight you want.
I also recommend upgrading your tamper. I really like the normcore V4. It has a spring to help you both do a level press and to help apply additional force.
Lastly, use the machine manually. Hold the double shot button and let it preinfuse your shot. I always wait until the countdown gets to 10 to let go.
You may also want to warm up your porta filter and cup before putting the ground beans into the porta filter. Just hit your single shot button and rinse the porta filter under the hot water for a moment. Do it over your cup do that it also gets heated up. Then hit the single dose button again to turn it off.