Hi All,

I am using a Breville Barista Express, (for about a week now.)

I've been using Colombian coffee with the grind quite fine (3-4) and volume almost set at the minimum and have pulled very good beginner double shots. (19-20sec and needle at higher end of espresso range/delicious lattes). I changed to Ethiopian Limu today and the shot was very long and just dripped. I tried again with a much coarser grind and amount turned down and it got marginally better but still awful. No crema and low volume-a mess.

Can beans be so different? Have I broken my machine?

Thanks

Joffie,

Beans, roast, and freshness can make a huge difference in the outcome. If the freshness of the new beans is in the proper range and you are being consistent with the weight of the beans for each shot, then as you continue to adjust the grind I suspect you will end up with a proper extraction.

Rocky

joffieb wrote:Hi All,

I am using a Breville Barista Express, (for about a week now.)

I've been using Colombian coffee with the grind quite fine (3-4) and volume almost set at the minimum and have pulled very good beginner double shots. (19-20sec and needle at higher end of espresso range/delicious lattes). I changed to Ethiopian Limu today and the shot was very long and just dripped. I tried again with a much coarser grind and amount turned down and it got marginally better but still awful. No crema and low volume-a mess.

Can beans be so different? Have I broken my machine?

Thanks

Don't worry your machine is acting normal
Sometimes when you change beans you have to make changes in your grinder.
Were the new beans fresh? If not that would be the problem.
As far as grinder settings goes, there isn't any "magic" number we can tell you...
When ppl start out it can be frustrating and sometimes you feel like giving up..
For more espresso volume, you grind coarser; for less espresso volume, grind finer


Most important, enjoy!

Randy

It's been a while but I think my Ethiopian Limu shots used a wildly different grind setting to dial in. I was underdosing to 16g (compared to my usual 19g) and pulling around 1:1.5. I can't remember if I had to go much finer or coarser but I do remember it being a good 10-15 points on my grinder whereas with most beans I only need to adjust it less than 5. We have different roasters and equipment though, so your parameters would be different.

Don't worry about breaking your machine, While it's not the most durable one around, the only part ever to "break" on me was the grouphead gasket at around 8 months of daily use. And it was already 2 months overdue by then.

And yes. Ive had identical beans from 2 different countries roasted alike (to the point where you could not tell which one was which besides the smell as the roasted bean shades overlap) Naturally, I thought that the grind would be very similar. Reality is, It took me 3 notches to stop the machine from choking on the new bean while calibrating. Around 6 notches apart before identical time:brew ratios were recorded.

Point is, each time you change coffee, accuracy and precision is very important in order to dial in god shot.

I've found Ethiopian coffees take a more coarse grind in general. Sumatran in general much finer. Central Americans in general in the middle. Seems to be rather consistent despite changes in age and roast of the coffee (within reason)
Likely there is nothing wrong with your equipment as long as you can still pull a shot in the 30 second range.

Oh and Colombian usually has more creama than Ethiopian depending on the processing.