For the life of me I cannot get a good pull on my Breville Barista Express. Fresh beans, grind size set to finest setting, inner grinder set to the finest setting. Shots still pulling way too fast with no crema. I gotta be doing something stupid. Also apologize for the shaky hands, I've been drinking all the bad shots bc beans are so damn expensive I don't want to waste them.
by No_Bike4326
29 Comments
Grind finer!
Perhaps your grinder just can’t grind fine enough
How do you ascertain your beans are fresh?
either
too coarse (still)
not tamp hard enough
solutions:
tamp harder
add puck screen
find grinder
If you haven’t already, try adjusting the burr grind wire inside the grinder to grind finer. They have videos on how to pop out the wire to make it finer
https://preview.redd.it/jboedjb9gfhf1.jpeg?width=630&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=46a2b10e341e7c661443b71d84d7a9112f8ecd27
it certainly looks like you’re grinding too coarse. if the built in grinder can’t grind fine enough, maybe try using the pressurized basket that comes with the machine, instead of the normcore naked one.
If everything is set to the finest setting, you might be getting channelling.
Biiiig change for me is when I discovered how to extend the pre infusion. Instead of just pressing the button, hold it down and the pressure won’t go as high as quick, I usually release after around 12 seconds or when I start to see coffee come out.
have you adjusted the inner bur ? remember the barista express has 2 dials for the grinder . the one on the side and one that you have to remove the top of the grinder to get access to.
Pull the burrs out and manually adjust the grind setting, then put them back in and you’ll basically have whole new scale with your grind size dial. Had to do this with mine when it was new. Plenty of YouTube videos out there on it.
Once you get that dialed and have longer shots, I usually do a 6 second or so pre-infusion then start the shot. Seems to help quite a bit.
Everything else you’re doing looks good as far as I can tell.
Assuming you truly cannot grind finer, which I feel you should be able to somehow, I would lose the puck screen and up the does 1g at a time. Looks like you’re doing this in a 20 or 21g filter basket. Not enough coffee and too much headroom equals channeling.
Nobody has mentioned WDT. Likely need to just grind finer, but I dont think you should be poking it like that. Look up WDT technique
Make sure you tamp that down with the might of Thor.
It looked like you were poking the grounds with the wdt tool. You want to stir the grounds with the tool. If that is the case it could cause channeling because the grounds are not distributed uniformly
I had a Barista Express for 5 years. Took some practice but you can get GREAT espresso from it.
Some basics I found through trial and error.
Fresh beans obviously. Get a puck screen.
Practise your puck prep. Make sure you’re tamping hard enough
Even with that I could never get Citrusy / Fruity profiles to pull properly so I stopped buying them and stuck with chocolate / nutty / malty espresso blends on medium to dark roast side.
I used to grind at setting 4 and get good shots with thick crema.
I made a thread on here I think asking for tips on how I could get more out of my BE before replacing it a couple of years ago. I bought IMS precision baskets following that which allowed me to drop my grind settings from 4 down to 2 and my shots were fantastic.
You may also want to try adding more beans. Go to 20g in 0.5g increments and see if that helps.You can usually tell this if the puck has sitting water afterwards (more noticeable with a puck screen) or is mushy rather than a solid cake if that makes sense.
Also I got some bellows that made it more straightforward to ensure less retention. And a funnel for the grinder.
Also when you think of upgrading. Don’t. Spend the money on a grinder. Buy a new machine down the road.
Hope this helps.
It’s been said by several so I’m just summarizing…
If you are grinding as fine as the grinder will go, you should look at doing the following:
1) Watch a video on cleaning and servicing the grinder. Not sure if those internal grinders can be shimmed to help grind finer but many can, YouTube is your friend. Often oil or debris can prevent the conical burrs from doing their job.
2) puck prep….increase the dose size, watch a video on proper wdt…tamp 30lbs, shower screen is fine.
3) puck dose…increase dose size to increase pressure
Basically you are flowing water too fast through the puck meaning you need more resistance. Only way to increase resistance is to grind finer, increase dose size, tamp and wdt correctly. You don’t look like your off by much. My guess is you have a dirty grinder…and your burr gap is too large due to wear or debris from usage..I would start by cleaning it first before messing with the puck items..
If you use dark beans that grinder could be a mess. If you use light roast it could be small particles hard as a rock. Either way, proper cleaning might be your issue.
Notice that when the shot starts to pull the espresso is coming from one side of the basket first? That’s a sign you might be channeling. Try using an auto-leveling tamper.
Does your Breville come with a razor to check the tamped height? If so you can see if you’re adding enough beans. If not you can just try grinding more beans at a time.
I have this machine and the factory grind setting isnt always good enough. Watch a tutorial on YouTube about how to adjust it and go from there. I normally have it set between 6 and 8 post reset.
What number is your inner burr settings on?
Since you are weighing before, I would also recommend weighing after grinding. It ensures that the total amount of coffee you think you ground actually ends up in the portafilter. Then pour the grounds into the portafilter as per normal. Also grind finer, fresh beans, and all that.
When was the last time you cleaned your grinder?
Ditch the puck screen. It’s just a dumb fad.
G
I have the same machine and same porta filter. I’m using 19.5g as a dose for some VERY dark coffee. This porta filter has a larger open surface area than the one that comes with the machine, so I found it needs a higher dose and finer grind to get adequate pressure for a good extraction. If what I’m saying isn’t accurate, please let me know, as I was having a similar issue and an increased dose helped immensely.
I have that same machine.
I suggest you try a 18 or may be 19g dose 17g seems too small of a dose to build enough pressure.
Use medium to dark roast as they are easier to pull especially when you have little control with the temperature.
Rest the beans at least a week from its roast date before use to allow it to degas.
Weigh the ground beans to make sure that you are getting the 17 grams you’ve put in it.
Spend time doing WDT with proper technique (making small circles around the portafilter, going up the puck from the base to the top), ensure you break down all the clumps.
Tap the portafilter once to allow the coffee ground to settle into the air pockets. Make sure that the ground is level before tamping.
Tamp as hard as you can ensuring the puck is flat and level.
Do about 6 to 8 seconds of preinfusion.
Hope this helps.
Okk sooo, since you said you’ve adjusted the inner and outer burr to the finest serrings, the problem js probably the normcore basket.
You can do 1 of 3 things
– Up the dose on the normcore basket by 1 gram increments, those baskets can handle a bit more than the breville ones
– revert to the breville non-pressurized basket as the flow on these is slower.
– nuclear option js to buy a grinder that can go fine enough for the normcore basket
Also, note that light roasted beans are a nightmare for aftermarket baskets if you don’t have a grind that goes fine enough.
Stop stabbing with the WDT and swirl it to thoroughly remove clumps.
Oh yeah, you might have heard… grind finer until your output gets to about double your input weight in about 25-30 seconds. Then you’re ready to dial in more finely to taste.
You are weighing 18g and then dumping that into a grinder that is not designed for or good at single dosing. I would not be surprised if you only got 16g of those beans out and the rest is beans left over from before. That will mess you up a bit.
You appear to be using an aftermarket basket. I can’t tell but if it is a high extraction basket that would mean you have to grind even finer than the stock basket even with the same beans.
The built in grinder is mediocre at best. If it is dirty clogged or the burrs are just worn out your results will not be good.
Up your dose
Make sure you have the correct head space (coin test)
I’m very new to this, but I was having the same issue, did a factory reset (I have a cuisinart machine) and the shot time went was back to its regular.