I go more by visual and audio cues than time, but I do tilt the wand about halfway between the drip tray and its outermost position. Chefsteps and lamarzocco home, and home barista have a great set of how to videos on YouTube

SQroot...

Tilting the pitcher is perfectly fine... if you find that makes a great vortex... try it out.. you might make some killer microfoam!

But i don't really tilt... i just dip the wand in an angle while my pitcher is sitting on the drip tray.. I know... it's really lazy

But it's a no brainer for me.. i dont even hold the pitcher while steaming..

Oh and you should check out Dritan Alsela's videos.. he doesnt hold the pitchers..

Actually he inspired me to go "hands-free"

With powerful steamers I can see how this would be great.. but the Breville steam wand would go too far down into the milk to create a decent whirlpool.

I have always steamed out to the front with any machine I use then slightly tilt the pitcher back towards me and the counter.. Then until when I get the right amount of foam to dunk the tip.

LukeFlynn wrote:Ok, I GIVE IN! I just got my BDB, and I can say without a doubt.. it is the BEST machine I've used to date for a home setting. Screw better steam power, the microfoam produced by the tip is crazy silky.. better than anything I've gotten on a commercial machine or my Oscar. I made a latte and capp, they where both better than anything I've had in the city... I am mostly attributing that to the pre-infusion capabilities..

Not to split hairs on you mate, since you've already discovered how amazing the BDB is, but it's not the pre-infusion that is the reason the BDB makes such good espresso. The reason the BDB is so good is the same reason the GS/3, Slayer, Cyncra, (insert other saturated brew group machine here)... And that is, thermal stability. Those guys do it with huge, powerful boilers and special brew groups, kept "saturated" with boiler water. The BDB does it with microprocessor control of not one, but two heating elements, the coup de grace being a PID controlled element right in the brew group itself, to apply the final heating "trim" to the brew water so it's always exactly what you set, not only right through the whole shot, but again and again, shot after shot, as if it has a limitless reservoir of water at the exact temperature you set.

-Peter

I didn't take that into consideration.. it is extremely consistent from what I've noticed.. the temp never drops during the shot.. and almost instantly responds to increases or decreases of temperature... I am still curious to see how this stacks up to the Linea Mini.. I wonder how much of a taste difference there is if any. I can still confidently say I'll likely be skipping the $2k-4k e61 DBs (maybe not the vesuvius), and going straight to a GS/3 or something in that range.. the shots I pump out of the machine match, if not exceed quality of local cafes.. I also attribute this to me using a high end commercial grinder. That said, the pre-infusion + OPV probably helped since my Oscar had no OPV or pre-infusion. I have to tip my hat to Breville, I honestly didn't expect this much from a home appliance manufacturer.. but damn.. I had the most wonderful shot of CC Apollo earlier this afternoon.. it was amazing.