What’s up bro, I have the barista touch if my conical burr is at a 4 any clue what my external should be? I use a naked portafilter & it’s sloppy every time 🤦♂️ so confused on if I should’ve even touched the upper burr which was preset at 6.
I can’t tell you what grind setting is right for your coffee or preferences. You need to dial in! How to Dial In Breville Barista Pro ruclips.net/video/D-bV4j-Z-sU/видео.html
Wish you had done that 1.5 years ago when I too was trying to figure that out. My initial assumption was that it gave you a full new range, but after a pile of testing and troubleshooting I came to the same conclusion that it shifted the outer grind settings by 3. Before going through all this I had asked on reddit subs, Breville support, other BE owners; no one had the answer. Anyways, this was good to share for the masses.Thanks!
I know this video is a few years old but I just got the Breville Barista Express and it's all new to me. I couldn't quite figure out why there is a grind adjustment for the upper burr and another adjustment on the side grind, but finally this video explained it. But I wish you had a link to that chart you made.
Interesting findings. Can confirm (barista pro). I was at the upper 6 and external 1 and it didnt work for my beans. Changed the upper to 4 so I have more room to play (italian beens, fine grind, italian espresso). I'm most of the time dialed in with the upper 4, external 4-6
Same for me. I am at 4 on the internal burr and my shots are dialling-in around 4-6 on the external dial (mostly 5). Seems odd to be this far down one end of the range. Two other observations: 1. It takes a few shots at the new setting to really settle down to a consistent time, even if I have taken time to adjust the setting “mid-grind” and discarded both that and the subsequent grind at the new setting before pulling a shot. 2. The difference in shot time between each external setting can be quite large, maybe 2-5 seconds. I believe the dial is stepless though so have tried finding the sweet-spot between settings.
This was helpful as I was maxed at external 1 with inner burr setting 6. Tried inner bur setting 4 and landed on external setting 5, and pulled a great shot today! Thank you.
Interessting indeed. That must have been a lot of work to go through all these settings! I actually found out the same on my Pro. It was always 3 steps. My aim was to use the 7 on the external setting since I like the number :)
those charts really help a lot, I was somewhat confuse with how I should play in the dial, but now i got more guidance. thanks for the videos, your channel is really great 👍
Wow thank you for doing this! Please don’t tell me you tasted all of these too! I have always wondered how much of an impact moving the burr setting had overall. I use a Barista Pro and after about a year, settled on 5 on the burr and for most beans 4-6 on the external knob. That’s just my experience but am glad to see there is quite a bit of range here.
I’ve had my barista touch for about 1.5 months now. I now have it set at 1 on the external grind however haven’t gotten the courage to play with the internal grind level. I weigh my beans at 18 grams and it takes 14 seconds to get 36 grams out. Can’t seem to be able to control that at all. So frustrating. My daughter just got her barista touch and hasn’t changed the factory settings at all and she gets 36 grams out in 25 seconds. I tried to go back to factory settings on my machine and the coffee was undrinkable. I went back to my drinkable but not great shot grind. All that to say that I believe breville grinders are not created equal whether you have a pro, express or touch. It’s most likely the same grinder in every model but they all grind differently. So you’re on your own and have fun playing around with it to get that perfect shot!
Yes, they definitely aren't calibrated to one another from machine to machine. Don't be afraid of the internal burr! It's a far easier process than it looks
You need to adjust the default shot by creating a custom double shot. it is written in the manual how to do that. This helps to prolong the pour time so for 18.5 grams i ended up getting about 45grams of coffee in 32 seconds and the crema is great and tasted good.
I found this video and chart very useful, thanks for the effort and sharing it! In somewhat related question, how often should you replace the upper burr?
Very interesting! There was some questions recently on how closely related the Smart Grinder Pro is to the grinder in the Barista Express, but we had been assuming that the Barista Express and Pro would, surely, be the same... Thanks for bringing some light on this, and dispelling our assumption!
Can you please clarify -- When you say you dialed in a 32g shot, I am assuming that's the weight of the coffee in the cup, not the weight of the ground beans. I am curious what is the weight of your ground beans. I was shooting for around 20g, but found that on my Impress Touch, I'm getting about 14g when the tamper says the basket is properly filled.
Tune in to tomorrow’s video! The dose you can fit in a basket is dependent primarily on how dense your coffee is. Very dark roasts are less dense, so need more space to fit 18g. Dose appropriately for your coffee and basket, and change the brew ratio accordingly
Huge, great video. Do we assume that the grinds are the same in general (idk shape, fine-ness, I'm new here) on the lowest upper burr and highest outer vs highest upper burr and lowest outer dial? Are these adjustments both adjusting the same grinding device i.e. is there only 1 grinder they are adjusting? Thanks so much for this video!
Great video! Would love to know any conclusions you take away for the ideal burr and grind settings. I have my burr at 4 now and grind at 7. Still dialing in my machine as ive only had it for a week or so.
There’s no such thing as the ideal setting, just the ideal one for your coffee and your taste buds. This setting can be drastically different from coffee to coffee
Great video, very helpful. I’ve just purchased simplest Barista Express branded by Sage. Going from old automatic Jura and Nespresso. First was to big for its place, Nespresso produces tons of alu capsules, Sage/Breville was chosen by my wife as suiting our kitchen perfectly, size and design. Day 1. I took relatively cheap espresso beans from local grocery for trying. And failed to build ANY pressure on the gauge, having extraction below 10 sec for 2 caps. Changed the upper setting from factory 6 to 3 - very little progress. Finally, after setting upper to 1 (!) and 2 left/external dial I was able to get right pressure. Is it normal for the new device? Should I contact the service? I assumed upper grinder setting has some range which should be used when grinder gets old. In my case - I have a new device, opened today. Would appreciated any hint on this.
Thanks for your terrific videos on the Barista Pro. Are you aware of an upgraded burr set for the Barista Pro to swap out the original burrs? It may be from Baratza with their M2 burrs used in their ESP etc. I only do espresso and at this stage I would like to stay with the built-in grinder which is very capable however an upgraded burr set could mean even better espresso without the need to eventually buy a stand alone grinder. Any info would be much appreciated. Cheers.
I just got my machine (Express), so I'm still exploring the world of grinding. It seems to me there's too much variation between steps on the external dial. There's too much of a jump in grind size from, say, 5 to 4. So extraction using one is too fast, and too slow using the other (I'm not an expert at tamping yet either, of course). My question: in which direction should I adjust the inner burr in order to make the steps on the external dial more gradual? Or should I spend more time with the machine before making any adjustment?
It's really helpful, thank you very much! I am still working on the best setting on my BBE. Just only one question, will the finest setting crash the grinder?
I have a Barista Express and it current gives watery shot for upper burr at 6 and external at 4. Should I go for upper burr 4 and external 5 or higher like 8. Please note I don’t weigh up beans and do mostly cappuccino, with a single dose basket. Grind quantity is set to the 1st bar
There’s absolutely no way anyone is going to be able to tell you the correct grind size. It’s different for every coffee and dose. You need to dial in :)
I found on both my Pro machines once altering the upper burr the digital grind size would randomly change at any given time the machine was on. You did not even have to be touching it. Any ideas?
I am looking at the "equivalent" chart for the Barista Pro. The horizontal scale (top) goes from fine (1) to coarse (10) from left to right for the upper burr, while the vertical goes from fine (1) to coarse (30) top to bottom. Taking just one setting as an example, coordinates 6-6 gives a setting of 21. If we just move horizontally one step to the left to coordinate 5-6 (upper burr 5, outer setting 6), we now have a setting of 18. I am questioning as to whether the correct setting at this point should be 24 instead of 18. We are going fine on the outer burr setting, so this should be compensated by an equivalent coarser setting on the external setting (???)....... or have I got it entirely incorrect.
Got my machine last week and had trouble dialing in. I now have a good pre-infusion and extraction time, the flow looks good, but the shot tastes sour. Doing 18g in and about 36g out in total 35 seconds. I had to take the upper burr down to 2 and knob setting down to 3. It just wouldn't be fine enough otherwise. How can I sweeten up my shot and get rid of that sourness?
This is amazing! those tables is very useful really thank you for that. Sure it can be a good reference when I have to dial for a new beans ! However one question for the barista express: can it achieve a filter/drip grinding setting ? what are the best setting for that? Im asking that just because I always ask for ground beans for my drip coffee usage and whole bean for my espresso so maybe I can use the BE grinder for drip?
@@LifestyleLab_ Thank you for the reply. When you say maximum you mean the coarsest setting right ? So it doesn't leave much room for fine tunnining I guess ?
Not necessarily. Start with the default setting and see if you need more range finer or coarser. In many cases, the default inner setting is perfectly adequate
Thank you for that, very helpful! Question: were you able to actually use the grinder from 1/fine to 10/coarse, or did you use extrapolation? In my BBE at some point (very high on the dial) of I try to go finer there's a noise that sounds like the burrs are touching each other. If I go to 5 inner 1 outer I think the grinder would just lock..
Great video. Can you explain: 1. What are the numbers inside the table stand for? 2. How much beans (grams) you put in the machine, is that was consistent for all tests? 3. I understand that the brew time was 25 seconds for all the tests is that true? 4. I have the barista express with the pressure dial. I did not change the inner scale is set on 6 by factory default. My setting is around 12 or 13.where i can find this setting in your table? 5. Can you point out where was the pressure dual in each of the tests? Is was staying all the time in 10 oclock?
Did we ever get an explanation of the chart? I have tried to use the chart hoping the yellow section is where to be. No no! I’m now in the red area (3-3 with a number 10 in the chart ???) 18g giving ~ 40g high speed. 12 sec. 😢 The espresso is good but should it be better?
@torerognmo4311 the chart is simply showing an equivalent coarseness of the grinds. The lower the number, the finer the grounds. If you're running too fast, go down in equivalent number. This chart is useful for when you run out of grinding range and therefore need to use the macro adjustment. Because it tells you where to set the outer dial after making a change on the upper to continue dialling in
Basically if you were at an upper burr of 6 and external was 1 which is 16 on the graph and needed to go finer and changed the upper burr to say 4, then your external would need to be on 7 to pickup where you left off on your last settings (16 on graph) but could now start going finer.
I've had my Barista Pro for a week and this is what I have been really curious about and was hoping there will be a video on this - perfect timing! Thank you! I have my internal/upper on 3 and I seem to be able to get reasonably good shots with outer dial on 14/15. Tastes alright and the dark roasts are rich and creamy, but the last third of the extraction still gushes out quite often - is this a problem that can't be avoided due to the clumping of these grinders, or is there another variable I can control?
Not necessarily. Each coffee is different, dial in by taste accordingly. If you find you always need more flexibility on the finer side then no problem with going all the way to 1 to keep you closer to the middle on the external grind dial
On most grinders it is possible to go to burr touch. I would not be surprised if Breville had a factor of safety to prevent this. Either way, just be careful to only adjust one step at a time and only as needed. A setting close to burr touch would be MUCH too fine for espresso use
New to Breville. Just bought a Touch and it feels like I am not getting enough coffee dosed. I have dosing set to 28 sec and when I tamp the razor still does not hit the top of the gounds. Is there something I am doing wrong?
A grinder is going to take as long as it takes to reach the desired dose. The finer you grind the longer it will take to reach that does, the coarser, the faster it will grind. This is why timed dosing should only be used once your shot and grind size is fully dialed in. 28 sec of grinding could give you 18 g or 10 g based on the grind size you’re at
Based on your graph it seems like a good base would be the middle setting on the upper burr, and fine tuning it up and down from there. Am i wrong in understanding it this way?
I got a question: I manually adjusted the grinder to 13 using the touchscreen (Barista Touch). The thing is, when I turn the machine off and then turn it on later on, the touchscreen signals the grinder is at 14. Does it do that automatically or is it some kind of mistake? As I reckon the grinder adjustment is only manual
To be a little bit more clear: I set it at 13 using the outer dial, which shows the number on the touchscreen. How did it get back to 14 after turning it off and then on!?
@@rodrigonitrini7144 Same issue here. There are only 18 physical clicks on the Touch between fine and coarse, so 20 effective grind settings (you can't reliably select anything in between clicks). The display reports 1 to 30. So it converts those 20 effective grind settings to a number between 1 and 30 so Breville can outright lie to people that the grinder has 30 "precision" grind settings, even though for all intents and purposes the resolution is only 20. Also, depending on whether you are moving the dial up or down it doesn't report the correct grind setting, until you turn off and on the machine, at which point it has an epiphany and reports the true grind setting. I suspect it has the same (lower) resolution of the express, unlike the Pro. The Touch is pretty much a downgrade from the Pro in many regards, but Breville charges more because people are stupid and think it's a better machine. I only have the Touch because I found a good deal on it used, but if I could do it over I'd get the Pro, so much better in many regards.
Is there a link to the charts? Could not find it in the description or comments. Also, I have a touch (not oracle). Are the charts equivalent to one or the other?
Hi Why is it that my internal burr is at 1 and 1 for the dial Still my shot start a 5 sec and have 36gr in 15 sec Wasted 1 kL of coffee Not sure what I’m doing wrong
Somebody PLEASE help me. My inner burr setting on Sage Barista Pro is already at 2! and outside dial is set on 1...and the shot still runs too fast (35g extraction in just 18 seconds). What am lam doing wrong? I dont want to go down any more. i use fresh medium roasted or dark roasted beans, use a wdt tool AND tamp eavenly btw.
@ today i used my (at least 6 months) old dark beans…and the first time i got a decent shot🤔 i dont understand this. I mean how??? Since everybody says „you need fresh beans, try 2 weeks old“.
@@LifestyleLab_ you may right, i payed attention to the right pressure on tamping and used a new IMS precisionbasket. BUT i didnt changed any settings of the mashine, still used the really fine setting. So I should have a 19gramm shot in like 35 seconds. Thats what I had on my Delonghi dedica when I grinded too fine.
Anyone has an idea why my coffee dashes out watery? I’ve had it set on 1 and internal on 6 (as it comes) and my shots were okay 18g in and coming out at about 18/20seconds (I knew I need them finer but I only just seen your video that you can change the internal grind) then they started dash out at 10 seconds so immediately started to look on here how to change the grind. I have changed the upper burr to 3, and the coffee still dashes out at 10seconds. I just want a good cup of coffee 😩
@Paulina Zalupska, have you solved it? I just bought my coffee machine and first bag of MKCafe ;) Espresso beans gave same result. 30sec after setting upper dial to 1 and external to 1-2. Was not able to build the pressure due to to coarse grinding. I plan to contact service since I it’s the first day of using.
I’m not an expert but I understand that if the coffee dashes out it could indicate a brake in the puck. That means it’s too fine and when water finally gets through it does it by breaking the puck. The result will be a over extracted coffee. Try a courser grind maybe. I’m using internal burr 5, external 9-13 depending on beans. (See Hoffmann’s video about understanding espresso episode #4 I think…)
Thank you for all the work and effort to make this video! I wondered this same question and couldn’t Breville didn’t include this information in their manuals. Question: What do the numbers inside the table mean, and what is the significance of the colors? I am currently using Upper Burr set to 4 and External Dial set to 6 and am happy with the result. This is represented by “16” and orange on your chart, but it’s not clear what this means. Typically green=good and red=bad, so I’m a little confused.
100 bags of beans where probably expended in the making if his reaserch and atill i dont know where a good optimal starting inner burr setting should be.
Start at the default which I believe is 5 or 6. There's no way of knowing beforehand which is right for your machine and your beans. Only way is to pull a shot an adjust accordingly
@@LifestyleLab_ thank you! The out-of-the-box setting for my machine was at 6 for the inner. Went to 5inner/3 dial and shots are still running 48-52grams in 15-20 secs. These are dark roast beans. Tried two other brands just to see if it made a difference, shots were all still very fast. Will try a much lower inner setting. Barista Pro, my butt, sure getting to know the machine. Just wish it was more Pro- friendly. I guess it was one way for Breville to ensure their machine made something liquid and not sludge on the first go.
On my Oracle Touch, the micro dial knob adjustment range is 1 to 45, I “calibrated” my upper burr so that my optimal espresso range lies half way around 22. As the beans stale, I would just adjust finer toward 19. If I remember correctly, each macro upper burr adjustment typically equals to 12 micro adjustment on the dial knob.
I did this and created a rift in the space-time continuum, destroying several populated systems in Epsilon 6. However, I did acheive a slightly thicker crema
If you hit the minimum on the external dial and need to still grind finer, or if you hit the maximum and still need to grind coarser to get the desired flow rate
I just tried upper burr setting at 3 and the grinder started making weird noises as if they were touching at the finer settings. I don't like this grinder smh
@@LifestyleLab_ of course, I'm not expecting the burrs not to touch. But at upper setting 3 and dial at 2, it is kind of an extreme. Could be a singular case with my machine too.
I'm pretty sure trying to make a "good" espresso shot qualifies as Ph.D level research....I have a Ph.D and I am finding this to be so in my case. Easily on par LOL. And perhaps as expensive!?
Curious why anyone would ever adjust their grinder to a setting that is in the green... 🤔 The factory settings on my Pro resulted in absolutely zero crema. Wasn't 'til I watched these videos that I was able to adjust it just right.
This matches my experience when I first changed the upper burr settings on my Barista Pro. I was down to 1 on the outer dial and still couldn’t get my shots right when I learned about the upper burr setting. I opened up the grinder and it was set at 6. I moved it to 3, and went back to dialing in my favorite beans. An exterior setting of 9 is now perfect!
It just has more adjustments. I'm pretty sure the quality of the grind is on par. Which is not nearly as good as a standalone grinder but still does the job!
Adjustable Upper Burr: geni.us/5K6T
(As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases)
What’s up bro, I have the barista touch if my conical burr is at a 4 any clue what my external should be? I use a naked portafilter & it’s sloppy every time 🤦♂️ so confused on if I should’ve even touched the upper burr which was preset at 6.
I can’t tell you what grind setting is right for your coffee or preferences. You need to dial in!
How to Dial In Breville Barista Pro
ruclips.net/video/D-bV4j-Z-sU/видео.html
Wish you had done that 1.5 years ago when I too was trying to figure that out. My initial assumption was that it gave you a full new range, but after a pile of testing and troubleshooting I came to the same conclusion that it shifted the outer grind settings by 3. Before going through all this I had asked on reddit subs, Breville support, other BE owners; no one had the answer. Anyways, this was good to share for the masses.Thanks!
That was a fantastic topic for a video. I always wondered that myself. Thanks for taking the time to experiment and break it down for us. Great job!
Finally! Always wondered what was the trade-off between inner and outer burr settings.
This video couldn’t be better. Packed with info, to the point, short and sweet. Liked, subbed, commented…
Amazing.
Much appreciated!
I know this video is a few years old but I just got the Breville Barista Express and it's all new to me. I couldn't quite figure out why there is a grind adjustment for the upper burr and another adjustment on the side grind, but finally this video explained it. But I wish you had a link to that chart you made.
Take a screenshot! I just did 😊
Crazy, everyone who has this machine and is struggling with grind settings should see this.
Interesting findings. Can confirm (barista pro). I was at the upper 6 and external 1 and it didnt work for my beans. Changed the upper to 4 so I have more room to play (italian beens, fine grind, italian espresso). I'm most of the time dialed in with the upper 4, external 4-6
Same for me. I am at 4 on the internal burr and my shots are dialling-in around 4-6 on the external dial (mostly 5). Seems odd to be this far down one end of the range.
Two other observations:
1. It takes a few shots at the new setting to really settle down to a consistent time, even if I have taken time to adjust the setting “mid-grind” and discarded both that and the subsequent grind at the new setting before pulling a shot.
2. The difference in shot time between each external setting can be quite large, maybe 2-5 seconds. I believe the dial is stepless though so have tried finding the sweet-spot between settings.
This was helpful as I was maxed at external 1 with inner burr setting 6. Tried inner bur setting 4 and landed on external setting 5, and pulled a great shot today! Thank you.
Saaaame. Why are all my beans so close to the fine limit?
this needs to be remembered as part of human history’ a finest
Thanks for the huge effort in data gathering! Much appreciated it!
Was a fun experiment! Glad you found it useful
the information i exactly needed! very detailed and (now) easy to understand!
Interessting indeed. That must have been a lot of work to go through all these settings! I actually found out the same on my Pro. It was always 3 steps. My aim was to use the 7 on the external setting since I like the number :)
those charts really help a lot, I was somewhat confuse with how I should play in the dial, but now i got more guidance.
thanks for the videos, your channel is really great 👍
Glad they were useful!
Wow thank you for doing this! Please don’t tell me you tasted all of these too!
I have always wondered how much of an impact moving the burr setting had overall. I use a Barista Pro and after about a year, settled on 5 on the burr and for most beans 4-6 on the external knob. That’s just my experience but am glad to see there is quite a bit of range here.
Well done for your work with the charts. Great video 🎉
Thank you for this! I’ve had mine for over a year now and has never touched the upper burr but have been planning to do so lately. 😅
Thanks! I've been curious about this since I got my barista pro.
Great video! Perfect length.
I’ve had my barista touch for about 1.5 months now. I now have it set at 1 on the external grind however haven’t gotten the courage to play with the internal grind level. I weigh my beans at 18 grams and it takes 14 seconds to get 36 grams out. Can’t seem to be able to control that at all. So frustrating. My daughter just got her barista touch and hasn’t changed the factory settings at all and she gets 36 grams out in 25 seconds. I tried to go back to factory settings on my machine and the coffee was undrinkable. I went back to my drinkable but not great shot grind. All that to say that I believe breville grinders are not created equal whether you have a pro, express or touch. It’s most likely the same grinder in every model but they all grind differently. So you’re on your own and have fun playing around with it to get that perfect shot!
Yes, they definitely aren't calibrated to one another from machine to machine.
Don't be afraid of the internal burr! It's a far easier process than it looks
@@LifestyleLab_ I’m so scared to mess things up with the internal grinder but I’ll definitely try. Thanks!
You need to adjust the default shot by creating a custom double shot. it is written in the manual how to do that. This helps to prolong the pour time so for 18.5 grams i ended up getting about 45grams of coffee in 32 seconds and the crema is great and tasted good.
Hey may I ask, what has happened to your dial in?
Coffee beans saving video!! Thanks
I found this video and chart very useful, thanks for the effort and sharing it! In somewhat related question, how often should you replace the upper burr?
Thanks for the graph you made. I wish you can share in a downloadable format
This was exactly what I was looking for!
Amazing, So grateful someone had the smarts and plan to calculate this, THANK YOU!
Thank you for your hard work to give us a ball park figure to play around. This saves us lots of coffee beans!
Thanks so much for putting this together!
Thanks for tuning in!
Wow…the question that has plagued me his been tackled.
Excellent job!👍…Now I would love to see the same for the df64
Very interesting! There was some questions recently on how closely related the Smart Grinder Pro is to the grinder in the Barista Express, but we had been assuming that the Barista Express and Pro would, surely, be the same... Thanks for bringing some light on this, and dispelling our assumption!
Any guesses how many shots I pulled in total to figure this all out?
102
60 Shots I guess?
470 shots total
I should say, At least 470 shots
judging from what it takes to actually get the Barista Express dialed in...I'd say close to 200
now That’s quality info. Do you think Breville Smart Grinder Pro works the same?
Yes!
This is exactly what I was wondering! Thanks for this video!
This video should be included in Breville machine handbooks, everyone should watch it before dial in
Great work and well explained!
This is fantastic - super helpful - thank you! 😀
Can you please clarify -- When you say you dialed in a 32g shot, I am assuming that's the weight of the coffee in the cup, not the weight of the ground beans. I am curious what is the weight of your ground beans. I was shooting for around 20g, but found that on my Impress Touch, I'm getting about 14g when the tamper says the basket is properly filled.
Tune in to tomorrow’s video!
The dose you can fit in a basket is dependent primarily on how dense your coffee is. Very dark roasts are less dense, so need more space to fit 18g. Dose appropriately for your coffee and basket, and change the brew ratio accordingly
This is exactly the information I was looking for!!!! 10/10 Thank you!!!
Thanks for doing the experiment for us.
Huge, great video. Do we assume that the grinds are the same in general (idk shape, fine-ness, I'm new here) on the lowest upper burr and highest outer vs highest upper burr and lowest outer dial? Are these adjustments both adjusting the same grinding device i.e. is there only 1 grinder they are adjusting? Thanks so much for this video!
Very interesting to learn about the capabilities of my espresso machine. I can only imagine how much time this took you 😲
So so much time, but I was glad that there were very clear and repeatable results!
"I hope my experiments are useful to someone"....YES!!!
Yes they absolutely were. 😊
What does the red and green mean for the grind settings? Does the red mean the ideal grind size?
There is no "ideal" grind size. It's just to visualize the particle size / grind coarseness
Great video! Would love to know any conclusions you take away for the ideal burr and grind settings. I have my burr at 4 now and grind at 7. Still dialing in my machine as ive only had it for a week or so.
There’s no such thing as the ideal setting, just the ideal one for your coffee and your taste buds. This setting can be drastically different from coffee to coffee
Very well done!
Always wondered this
Great video, very helpful.
I’ve just purchased simplest Barista Express branded by Sage. Going from old automatic Jura and Nespresso. First was to big for its place, Nespresso produces tons of alu capsules, Sage/Breville was chosen by my wife as suiting our kitchen perfectly, size and design.
Day 1. I took relatively cheap espresso beans from local grocery for trying. And failed to build ANY pressure on the gauge, having extraction below 10 sec for 2 caps.
Changed the upper setting from factory 6 to 3 - very little progress. Finally, after setting upper to 1 (!) and 2 left/external dial I was able to get right pressure.
Is it normal for the new device? Should I contact the service? I assumed upper grinder setting has some range which should be used when grinder gets old. In my case - I have a new device, opened today. Would appreciated any hint on this.
Great video!
Thanks for your terrific videos on the Barista Pro. Are you aware of an upgraded burr set for the Barista Pro to swap out the original burrs? It may be from Baratza with their M2 burrs used in their ESP etc. I only do espresso and at this stage I would like to stay with the built-in grinder which is very capable however an upgraded burr set could mean even better espresso without the need to eventually buy a stand alone grinder. Any info would be much appreciated. Cheers.
I just got my machine (Express), so I'm still exploring the world of grinding. It seems to me there's too much variation between steps on the external dial. There's too much of a jump in grind size from, say, 5 to 4. So extraction using one is too fast, and too slow using the other (I'm not an expert at tamping yet either, of course). My question: in which direction should I adjust the inner burr in order to make the steps on the external dial more gradual? Or should I spend more time with the machine before making any adjustment?
Super useful. Thanks!
Doing the Science so we don't have to. That chart is gonna be so useful. Bless 🙏
🤓🤓🤓
I got my breville setup to the finest setting, 1 & 1. 17gr in and 36 gr out.
Outside and inside conf you put 1?
It's really helpful, thank you very much! I am still working on the best setting on my BBE. Just only one question, will the finest setting crash the grinder?
Have you tried yet? do you have answer? 😄
@@PH-gm2qe I just gave up the BBE grinder and bought the Nichi Zero. It is a totally difference level
@@jackalngai yep, could be but I think I will teach how to deal with inbuilt grinder. I dont want to have another box in the kitchen.
Brilliant thinking! Thank you for this!!
My pleasure
I have a Barista Express and it current gives watery shot for upper burr at 6 and external at 4.
Should I go for upper burr 4 and external 5 or higher like 8.
Please note I don’t weigh up beans and do mostly cappuccino, with a single dose basket. Grind quantity is set to the 1st bar
There’s absolutely no way anyone is going to be able to tell you the correct grind size. It’s different for every coffee and dose. You need to dial in :)
I found on both my Pro machines once altering the upper burr the digital grind size would randomly change at any given time the machine was on. You did not even have to be touching it. Any ideas?
I am looking at the "equivalent" chart for the Barista Pro. The horizontal scale (top) goes from fine (1) to coarse (10) from left to right for the upper burr, while the vertical goes from fine (1) to coarse (30) top to bottom. Taking just one setting as an example, coordinates 6-6 gives a setting of 21. If we just move horizontally one step to the left to coordinate 5-6 (upper burr 5, outer setting 6), we now have a setting of 18. I am questioning as to whether the correct setting at this point should be 24 instead of 18. We are going fine on the outer burr setting, so this should be compensated by an equivalent coarser setting on the external setting (???)....... or have I got it entirely incorrect.
The chart is correct.
Moving the upper burr on click finer is the equivalent of moving the outer adjustment 3 clicks finer (hence 21-18)
Got my machine last week and had trouble dialing in. I now have a good pre-infusion and extraction time, the flow looks good, but the shot tastes sour. Doing 18g in and about 36g out in total 35 seconds. I had to take the upper burr down to 2 and knob setting down to 3. It just wouldn't be fine enough otherwise. How can I sweeten up my shot and get rid of that sourness?
Increase brew ratio :)
Try a 1:3 or 1:2.5
This is amazing! those tables is very useful really thank you for that. Sure it can be a good reference when I have to dial for a new beans ! However one question for the barista express: can it achieve a filter/drip grinding setting ? what are the best setting for that? Im asking that just because I always ask for ground beans for my drip coffee usage and whole bean for my espresso so maybe I can use the BE grinder for drip?
The maximum I could get was around 650 microns, which would be quite fine for drip / pour over
@@LifestyleLab_ Thank you for the reply. When you say maximum you mean the coarsest setting right ? So it doesn't leave much room for fine tunnining I guess ?
Yes, the courses upper burr, and coarsest on the external dial yielded a 650 micron particle size. You can go much finer, but no coarser than that
@@LifestyleLab_ THank you. and sorry for the other comment. I was giving an example no ad was intended
If you do espresso then, would you move the burr setting to 1 and just play around with the wheel depending on the kind of coffee bean type?
Not necessarily. Start with the default setting and see if you need more range finer or coarser. In many cases, the default inner setting is perfectly adequate
Thank you! Ill do 😊
Thank you for that, very helpful!
Question: were you able to actually use the grinder from 1/fine to 10/coarse, or did you use extrapolation?
In my BBE at some point (very high on the dial) of I try to go finer there's a noise that sounds like the burrs are touching each other.
If I go to 5 inner 1 outer I think the grinder would just lock..
Great video.
Can you explain:
1. What are the numbers inside the table stand for?
2. How much beans (grams) you put in the machine, is that was consistent for all tests?
3. I understand that the brew time was 25 seconds for all the tests is that true?
4. I have the barista express with the pressure dial. I did not change the inner scale is set on 6 by factory default. My setting is around 12 or 13.where i can find this setting in your table?
5. Can you point out where was the pressure dual in each of the tests? Is was staying all the time in 10 oclock?
Did we ever get an explanation of the chart?
I have tried to use the chart hoping the yellow section is where to be. No no!
I’m now in the red area (3-3 with a number 10 in the chart ???) 18g giving ~ 40g high speed. 12 sec. 😢
The espresso is good but should it be better?
@torerognmo4311 the chart is simply showing an equivalent coarseness of the grinds. The lower the number, the finer the grounds. If you're running too fast, go down in equivalent number. This chart is useful for when you run out of grinding range and therefore need to use the macro adjustment. Because it tells you where to set the outer dial after making a change on the upper to continue dialling in
Basically if you were at an upper burr of 6 and external was 1 which is 16 on the graph and needed to go finer and changed the upper burr to say 4, then your external would need to be on 7 to pickup where you left off on your last settings (16 on graph) but could now start going finer.
I've had my Barista Pro for a week and this is what I have been really curious about and was hoping there will be a video on this - perfect timing! Thank you!
I have my internal/upper on 3 and I seem to be able to get reasonably good shots with outer dial on 14/15. Tastes alright and the dark roasts are rich and creamy, but the last third of the extraction still gushes out quite often - is this a problem that can't be avoided due to the clumping of these grinders, or is there another variable I can control?
Darker roasts tend to lose puck integrity quite severely towards the end of a shot, so this is not necessarily abnormal
If I’m primarily doing high altitude light roasts, should I just put the burr on 1?
Not necessarily. Each coffee is different, dial in by taste accordingly. If you find you always need more flexibility on the finer side then no problem with going all the way to 1 to keep you closer to the middle on the external grind dial
Is there a risk of causing the upper burr and the conical burr to make physical contact when setting the upper burr to a very low number?
On most grinders it is possible to go to burr touch. I would not be surprised if Breville had a factor of safety to prevent this. Either way, just be careful to only adjust one step at a time and only as needed. A setting close to burr touch would be MUCH too fine for espresso use
What about the smart grinder pro ?!
Is it safe to just put the top burr at 1? I really light light roast and the recipes always call for very fine grinds
Yes, Breville's won't let you get all the way to burr touch, so there's no risk to the machine
How about the advice from Breville/Sage themselves not to adjust the upper bur but leave as adjustment for wear on the bur?
If you need to grind finer or coarser than the outer dial allows, there’s nothing wrong with moving it. It’s just an offset
Very help. Thank you
Could you please help me with something!?, I need the washer for bearing dimensions, the one is on the bottom of the grinder.
Final grinding size = 3 * ( [Upper Burr setting] - 1 ) + [External dial setting]
New to Breville. Just bought a Touch and it feels like I am not getting enough coffee dosed. I have dosing set to 28 sec and when I tamp the razor still does not hit the top of the gounds. Is there something I am doing wrong?
A grinder is going to take as long as it takes to reach the desired dose. The finer you grind the longer it will take to reach that does, the coarser, the faster it will grind. This is why timed dosing should only be used once your shot and grind size is fully dialed in. 28 sec of grinding could give you 18 g or 10 g based on the grind size you’re at
Based on your graph it seems like a good base would be the middle setting on the upper burr, and fine tuning it up and down from there. Am i wrong in understanding it this way?
Yes, that’s a good natural assumption:)
Does 32g fit inside the 54mm cup of Breville portafilter?
For me, 22g barely fits.
32g ???
Ideal dose is generally 16-20g
Thank you! I was thinking about this yesterday. Damn RUclips reading my brain... Or was it you?
🤫🤫🤫
thank you!! so helpful
I got a question: I manually adjusted the grinder to 13 using the touchscreen (Barista Touch). The thing is, when I turn the machine off and then turn it on later on, the touchscreen signals the grinder is at 14. Does it do that automatically or is it some kind of mistake? As I reckon the grinder adjustment is only manual
To be a little bit more clear: I set it at 13 using the outer dial, which shows the number on the touchscreen. How did it get back to 14 after turning it off and then on!?
I’m not sure… it shouldn’t be changing on its own
@@rodrigonitrini7144 Same issue here. There are only 18 physical clicks on the Touch between fine and coarse, so 20 effective grind settings (you can't reliably select anything in between clicks). The display reports 1 to 30. So it converts those 20 effective grind settings to a number between 1 and 30 so Breville can outright lie to people that the grinder has 30 "precision" grind settings, even though for all intents and purposes the resolution is only 20. Also, depending on whether you are moving the dial up or down it doesn't report the correct grind setting, until you turn off and on the machine, at which point it has an epiphany and reports the true grind setting. I suspect it has the same (lower) resolution of the express, unlike the Pro. The Touch is pretty much a downgrade from the Pro in many regards, but Breville charges more because people are stupid and think it's a better machine. I only have the Touch because I found a good deal on it used, but if I could do it over I'd get the Pro, so much better in many regards.
Is there a link to the charts? Could not find it in the description or comments. Also, I have a touch (not oracle). Are the charts equivalent to one or the other?
The Barista Touch would be the same as the Barista Express chart
Perhaps you just found out that the Pro doesn't have double the grind resolution. It might simply have extended range towards finer and coarser grind.
This may be incorrect now as the BBP has baratza burrs now
Depending on burr supply, the BBP is actually still a mix of burrs on the market
@@LifestyleLab_ do you think the details are the same for the newer burrs?
@joek292 same burrs, the newer machines just get manufacturing priority
Yes, it will be very similar if not exactly the same because this is a chart of the burr gap. The mechanism for adjusting that gap has not changed
Am I not reading the chart right on the pro? If upper burr is set at a 3 my external grind size should be a 19?? Or what??
The numbers in the chart are an arbitrary coarseness value. It is demonstrating how much of an overlap there is between macro adjustments.
@@LifestyleLab_I’m still confused. lol not sure what my external should be at now that the internal is at a 3…
@ashleyphillips6835 there's not grind you "should" be at. You need to dial in the grind to your specific coffee. No chart can tell you
Good information
Life saver!
Hi
Why is it that my internal burr is at 1 and 1 for the dial
Still my shot start a 5 sec and have 36gr in 15 sec
Wasted 1 kL of coffee
Not sure what I’m doing wrong
Somebody PLEASE help me. My inner burr setting on Sage Barista Pro is already at 2! and outside dial is set on
1...and the shot still runs too fast (35g extraction in just 18 seconds). What am lam doing wrong? I dont want to go down any more. i use fresh medium roasted or dark roasted beans, use a wdt tool AND tamp eavenly btw.
Don't be afraid to go finer, but also you are probably just using stale coffee from the grocery store. Buy fresh.
@ today i used my (at least 6 months) old dark beans…and the first time i got a decent shot🤔 i dont understand this. I mean how??? Since everybody says „you need fresh beans, try 2 weeks old“.
Stale beans don't build pressure as well. But if you're having inconsistency, it's likely something to do with your puck prep or tamping.
@@LifestyleLab_ you may right, i payed attention to the right pressure on tamping and used a new IMS precisionbasket. BUT i didnt changed any settings of the mashine, still used the really fine setting. So I should have a 19gramm shot in like 35 seconds. Thats what I had on my Delonghi dedica when I grinded too fine.
Anyone has an idea why my coffee dashes out watery? I’ve had it set on 1 and internal on 6 (as it comes) and my shots were okay 18g in and coming out at about 18/20seconds (I knew I need them finer but I only just seen your video that you can change the internal grind) then they started dash out at 10 seconds so immediately started to look on here how to change the grind. I have changed the upper burr to 3, and the coffee still dashes out at 10seconds. I just want a good cup of coffee 😩
@Paulina Zalupska, have you solved it? I just bought my coffee machine and first bag of MKCafe ;) Espresso beans gave same result. 30sec after setting upper dial to 1 and external to 1-2. Was not able to build the pressure due to to coarse grinding. I plan to contact service since I it’s the first day of using.
I’m not an expert but I understand that if the coffee dashes out it could indicate a brake in the puck. That means it’s too fine and when water finally gets through it does it by breaking the puck. The result will be a over extracted coffee. Try a courser grind maybe. I’m using internal burr 5, external 9-13 depending on beans. (See Hoffmann’s video about understanding espresso episode #4 I think…)
Thank you for all the work and effort to make this video! I wondered this same question and couldn’t Breville didn’t include this information in their manuals.
Question: What do the numbers inside the table mean, and what is the significance of the colors?
I am currently using Upper Burr set to 4 and External Dial set to 6 and am happy with the result. This is represented by “16” and orange on your chart, but it’s not clear what this means. Typically green=good and red=bad, so I’m a little confused.
The numbers in the chart are a completely arbitrary “coarseness” number
What are the numbers on your chart?
Just an arbitrary "equivalent coarseness" value that runs from the absolute finest to the absolute coarsest the machine can offer
100 bags of beans where probably expended in the making if his reaserch and atill i dont know where a good optimal starting inner burr setting should be.
Start at the default which I believe is 5 or 6. There's no way of knowing beforehand which is right for your machine and your beans. Only way is to pull a shot an adjust accordingly
@@LifestyleLab_ thank you! The out-of-the-box setting for my machine was at 6 for the inner. Went to 5inner/3 dial and shots are still running 48-52grams in 15-20 secs. These are dark roast beans. Tried two other brands just to see if it made a difference, shots were all still very fast. Will try a much lower inner setting. Barista Pro, my butt, sure getting to know the machine. Just wish it was more Pro- friendly. I guess it was one way for Breville to ensure their machine made something liquid and not sludge on the first go.
Now do the same for the Breville Smart Grinder Pro
On my Oracle Touch, the micro dial knob adjustment range is 1 to 45, I “calibrated” my upper burr so that my optimal espresso range lies half way around 22. As the beans stale, I would just adjust finer toward 19.
If I remember correctly, each macro upper burr adjustment typically equals to 12 micro adjustment on the dial knob.
What happens if I put the dial in between grind settings?
I did this and created a rift in the space-time continuum, destroying several populated systems in Epsilon 6. However, I did acheive a slightly thicker crema
@@jonhatcher788 😮😮😮
Did you use (300 + 180) * 16 = 7.168 kg of coffee to make this video?
So the question is, when and why would I change the setting in the upper burr?
If you hit the minimum on the external dial and need to still grind finer, or if you hit the maximum and still need to grind coarser to get the desired flow rate
I just tried upper burr setting at 3 and the grinder started making weird noises as if they were touching at the finer settings. I don't like this grinder smh
All grinders will reach a touching point. Even $6000 ones. This is “true” zero.
@@LifestyleLab_ of course, I'm not expecting the burrs not to touch. But at upper setting 3 and dial at 2, it is kind of an extreme. Could be a singular case with my machine too.
how to read ur BBE chart ? is it a guide for burr n grind setting ?
@@LifestyleLab_ so where did the data of upper 1 and lower 1 come from? Extrapolation? Is there a point of contact setting for the barista pro?
very useful and interesting content, thanks !
Interesting video. Like I am doing Ph.D research lol.
I'm pretty sure trying to make a "good" espresso shot qualifies as Ph.D level research....I have a Ph.D and I am finding this to be so in my case. Easily on par LOL. And perhaps as expensive!?
Curious why anyone would ever adjust their grinder to a setting that is in the green... 🤔 The factory settings on my Pro resulted in absolutely zero crema. Wasn't 'til I watched these videos that I was able to adjust it just right.
Different coffees can require very different grind settings :)
The chance of the "factory setting" being correct for your coffee is slim to none
This matches my experience when I first changed the upper burr settings on my Barista Pro. I was down to 1 on the outer dial and still couldn’t get my shots right when I learned about the upper burr setting. I opened up the grinder and it was set at 6. I moved it to 3, and went back to dialing in my favorite beans. An exterior setting of 9 is now perfect!
So i guess this proves that the Pro has a better grinder than the express…in a matter of speaking of course.
It just has more adjustments. I'm pretty sure the quality of the grind is on par. Which is not nearly as good as a standalone grinder but still does the job!
170+300=470