Breville The Barista Pro under-Extracting

DontNeedThis on 27/12/2023 - 13:54
Last edited 27/12/2023 - 16:02 by 2 other users

Hi all, I bought a Barista Pro yesterday and have spent the whole morning today to try to get a decent shot, but couldn't.

This is my first coffee machine and I'm a real novice following YouTube tutorials. I got some medium ALDI coffee beans and have tried many different grind settings, and I have two problems. First of all, I see in YouTube tutorials that the average grind time is around 20 seconds, however I can't even get close to that. No matter what the grind setting is, the portafilter fills up around 12 to 14 seconds mark.

Second problem is that the extraction time for a double shot is always between 16 to 18. The grind setting doesn't seem to affect it that much.

What am I missing? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for your time.

• 

  Wafflel on 27/12/2023 - 14:09

  +1

  Grind finer

  • 

    DontNeedThis on 27/12/2023 - 14:12

    I've tried 2 external on 4 internal. That's extremely fine, isn't it?

    • 

      AustriaBargain on 27/12/2023 - 18:37

      Why not try 1 and 1.

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  pinchies on 27/12/2023 - 14:10

  +1

  Do you want to borrow a different grinder to play with? If you're in melbourne, feel free to message me.

  Other things that could be going wrong:
  - Ultra stale beans
  - Not tamping hard enough
  - Tamping too hard and causing channeliing
  - Not enough ground coffee in portafilter (e.g. using double basket but only half filled for single shot)

  • 

    DontNeedThis on 27/12/2023 - 14:12

    That's very kind of you. Yes I am in Melbourne. I'll shoot you a DM.

  • 

    ATTS on 29/12/2023 - 20:03

    What are the basics to make good coffee

    I use to have a basic machine and had good crema i thought

    Now i bought a bdb and smart grinder and noticed it does not have crema anymore

    Also the grind amount has a number of 0-30, what does that mean/do?

    I also saw the middle button has 1 or 2 shot, i assume 1 mean 1 shot and 2 mean 2 shots of coffee

    I left the grind size at default for espresso/ fine

    • 

      pinchies on 29/12/2023 - 21:34

      IMHO — don't worry about crema. My understanding is that crema is mostly gases in the beans that indicate how freshly they were roasted, and not really a function of flavour itself.

      The left number on the smart grinder is grind time in seconds. It gives you some control so that you're using roughly the same amount of ground coffee each time you make a shot.

      Yes, your espresso machine will have come with two different baskets that go in the portafilter, for 1 or 2 shots of coffee respectively. You also need the corresponding amount of ground coffee from your grinder, depending on which basket you're using. What is happening is that your espresso machine will put out more water for 2 shots, than for 1 shot. This helps keep the extraction ratio roughly consistent whether you're making 1 or 2 shots of coffee.

      The easiest way to tune a coffee machine is:

      1. Determine how much ground coffee you want to use for a shot. This will be a weight in grams. You may need to buy a precision 500g scale to help you measure this accurately. Start with 8g for a single shot, or 16g for a double shot. Adjust the grinder time till it gives you roughly that amount of ground coffee consistently.

      2. tamp the coffee consistently. Ensure you are pressing down firmly and pressing straight down, and not at an angle.

      3. Run your shot of coffee in your espresso machine. Use a stopwatch to time how long the shot takes, from the time that liquid starts coming out of the portafilter, till the time you hear the machine stop. There will be some time between pressing the button, and liquid coming out — this is the pre-infusion time, do not include that in your measurement.

      4. Adjust the grind fineness to in turn adjust the shot duration. Finer grind will make the shot take longer. Coarser grind will make the shot be shorter. You may also want to waste one shot of ground coffee between adjustments, as there will be some partially ground coffee left in the grinder each time. If the coffee is too bitter, you probably have too long a shot. If the coffee is sour or acidic, you probably have too short a shot. I would suggest to aim for 25 seconds. This part is to your taste, and the time will also vary depending on (a) humidity (b) bean freshness (c) bean roast level (d) consistency with your tamping.

      Hope that gives you somewhere to start. When making espresso, there's a lot you can tweak and tune, but it is really best to get these basics firmly down pat first, before doing anything else, like looking at the pressure gauge, or tinkering with boiler temperatures and water amounts.

      • 

        ATTS on 30/12/2023 - 10:11

        Oh i see re crema

        Oh the left number is grind in seconds, is it also grind amount in grams?

        Yes i use the double basket for 2 shots. Was 7g considered a shot of coffee

        Oh the middle button dictate how much water goes through

        Sometimes i notice when i click the middle/ shot button to 2, it automatically changes the grind time/ amount to 17.8

        1. Oh so 8g was a shot of coffee. Oh so the left button was both the grind time and grind amount in grams? And i need to double check with a separate scale the first time

        2. Thanks Yes i tamp on the machine. Thanks

        3. Thanks for the tip

        4. Thanks for tip

        I use 93 degrees atm

        Thanks for taking time to explain

        Haha also i prefer my home coffee over cafe.

        • 

          pinchies on 30/12/2023 - 12:44

          @ATTS: On Grinder:
          1. No, the left number is seconds only. You need a scale to know how much ground coffee is actually there.
          2. The grinder doubles the grind time for two shots.

          • 

            ATTS on 30/12/2023 - 13:30

            @pinchies: Oh i see thanks

      • 

        ATTS on 31/12/2023 - 03:16

        Just to confirm, you meant the 2 shot button on the coffee machine and not on the smart grinder

        What is happening is that your espresso machine will put out more water for 2 shots, than for 1 shot. This

• 

  Loubon on 27/12/2023 - 14:13

  Grind finer, fill porta filter more, tamp harder. Dont worry too much about pressure gauge, as long as it is in the 'range'. 25 seconds is about right for me for double shot.

  This will all change with each bean.

• 

  swhitmore on 27/12/2023 - 14:27

  +1

  I highly recommend that you get yourself a scale. Grind time is pretty meaningless. The weight of your coffee is important though. The average expresso recipe is 1:2 e.g. if you grind 17g of dry coffee beans you will yield 34g of extracted coffee. This is the recipe I use, but you may like more or less coffee in your drink. A double shot from a cafe is 16-18g of dry coffee.

  You then want to extraction to take between 20-30sec to hit 34g of extracted coffee in your cup. This is where you need to "dial in" your grind size. A too course grind will extract too fast and the coffee will be under-developed. A too fine grind will extract too long and will be too bitter.

  Start by picking an average grind setting. Measure 17g of coffee in your portafilter. Then time how long it takes to extract 34g of coffee in your cup. If it's faster than 20sec, make the next grind finer. If it's longer than 30sec, make the grind courser.

  This is called "dialling-in". You need to do this each time you buy a new bag of beans. Once you get good at it, you can get it pretty spot on in 2-3 grinds.

  Breville have a bunch of recommended recipes for different drinks in the manual and on their website.

  If the finest grind setting is still extracting too fast, you need to change your burr setting. There is a bunch of tutorials of YouTube for this. e.g. https://youtu.be/690oZn8Rivw

  • 

    DontNeedThis on 27/12/2023 - 15:34

    Thanks man.

• 

  Loot N Plunder on 27/12/2023 - 15:20

  +1

  What filter baskets are you using? the single or double walled?
  If you are using the single walled keep grinding finer until it takes 25 seconds for a double shot to make double the weight of the beans to liquid coffee so you must weight the portafilter empty and then weigh it with your double shot tampered then turn it to coffee liquid at twice the tampered portafilter weight in 25 seconds your probly better going over than under in the time like 27 seconds would be better than 23 seconds
  If you are using the double walled then just use the settings in the book for the grind size.

  • 

    DontNeedThis on 27/12/2023 - 15:32

    Thanks. I'm using single walled.

    • 

      Loot N Plunder on 27/12/2023 - 16:15

      You will also have to purge the older/bigger grind out of the system after each adjustment of the grinder at least 10g of beans to be sure its all at the new grind size.
      Changing beans will also likely trigger a grind adjustment
      Only fill your bean hopper daily to keep it as fresh as possible

      • 

        DontNeedThis on 27/12/2023 - 22:34

        Thanks for the advice. Will do.

• 

  jimmyntee on 01/01/2024 - 22:43

  Watch Coffee Kev on YouTube - you need to dial the machine in.

  Use fresh beans when dialling in.

  Avoid light or medium roasts for this machine, look for espresso blends (medium-dark/dark).

  Weigh 16-18g beans and aim for 32-38g out (a 2:1 ratio is good for espresso blends) in approx 28-32secs.

  Use the manual function - hold button for preinfusion for maybe 7+secs, then release. Once dialed in, save your preferences in custom.

  Grind finer and/or also play with adding 1g more beans when dialling in.

  Don't be afraid to adjust internal burr more.

  Andy @ Coffee Warehouse (google) will deliver 3kgs for $90 within 4 days of roasting - this is good value and you can get in 500g bags and freeze ones you want to drink later. I'm not affiliated just a happy customer.

  • 

    DontNeedThis on 02/01/2024 - 00:01

    +1

    Thanks mate for the comprehensive comment. I didn't know I can hold the shot button. Also didn't know I can save my settings.