Breville Dual Boiler pre-infusion - what's your setting?

#1: Post by **jasiano** » July 9th, 2021, 1:58 am

had a BDB for a week and a bit, and today I got the official Breville bottomless filter to go with it so have already pulled 3 shots in the space of 30mins with it.
I had thought my shot was reasonably dialled in when using the spouted filter, but of course it wasn't, first shot out with the naked PF started quite 'donut', no spraying but it channeled and starting blonding pretty quick.

BUT - I found that (using the manual button) extending the pre-infusion out a bit longer has improved by not just reducing the channeling but also seems to have slowed down the blonding, the shot itself is looking quite good, maybe a 7.5/10.

So just wondering, all you other BDB afficionados - how long (and what pressure) do you run your pre-infusion?
Mine is not (yet) Slayed, I wanted to master it 'stock' before I get fancy.
Currently drinking a medium/dark roast, 19g dose in the stock double shot basket - so far with the naked PF I am at 21s PI and then 28/29sec shot to get ~38g out.
I will probably wait until tomorrow to do more dialling in as I've had way too much caffeine already today

#2: Post by **Henry_k** » July 9th, 2021, 7:19 am

I've set Pr00/PP55 and I'm happy with it

If you have problems with extraction, solve them and not try to find a workaround.

#3: Post by **tennisman03110** » July 9th, 2021, 9:49 am

Every coffee is different. Judge by taste. Do you like it? Okay, maybe vary something, but only one thing a little. Like it more? Keep going.

That said -- 21 second pre-infusion on a medium/dark roast seems long. I don't use more than a few seconds on darker roasts, I just find it more enjoyable. That's complex enough for me.

July 9th, 2021, 10:57 am

Henry_k wrote:I've set Pr00/PP55 and I'm happy with it
If you have problems with extraction, solve them and not try to find a workaround.

Not so much a workaround as just trying to find the right balance. Definitely still working on puck prep regardless.

Your setting pr00/pp55 - so no pre infusion at all?

July 9th, 2021, 11:00 am

tennisman03110 wrote:Every coffee is different. Judge by taste. Do you like it? Okay, maybe vary something, but only one thing a little. Like it more? Keep going.

That said -- 21 second pre-infusion on a medium/dark roast seems long. I don't use more than a few seconds on darker roasts, I just find it more enjoyable. That's complex enough for me.

Taste is good. But like lots of others there is always the desire for (and thinking/believing there is) 'more'.
I too would have thought anything more than 10sec PI is long but then I see some BDB owners, especially those with slayer mods basically doing PI up to 40/50/60 seconds even.

#6: Post by **tennisman03110** » July 9th, 2021, 11:38 am

As an over-generalization, I believe the extremely long pre-infusions are with lighter roasts. And generally being done by those who are very experienced already (not me). Not that you can't go there soon into your journey, but it's not required.

Edit: Maybe check this out, one of many Long Preinfusion Good / Long Extraction Bad?

July 12th, 2021, 9:42 pm

yep i've gone down that rabbit hole

tried longer and shorter PI, still getting some channeling and blonding a bit quick so I know it's not the length of PI that is affecting my shot.
Probably 1 out of 5 shots I would say on the bottomless PF actually look good and tastes more even than the others. Doing WDt with a LC ultra, even got a proper 58.5 (heavy) tamper... I am (frustratingly) going through a 1kg bag of beans pretty fast trying to get that perfect shot !

#8: Post by **Jeff** » July 13th, 2021, 1:48 am

A video would likely confirm, but you've got problems with one or more of your grinder, your puck prep, or really stale coffee.

The Sette is a reasonable grinder, so I'd put my money on the other two. Stale coffee is pretty easy to rule out either by getting a fresh bag locally, or through a respected, regional roaster.

#9: Post by **Henry_k** » July 13th, 2021, 5:59 am

jasiano wrote:Not so much a workaround as just trying to find the right balance. Definitely still working on puck prep regardless.
Your setting pr00/pp55 - so no pre infusion at all?

I use pre-infusion only on very light roasts to get some taste out of them. But only as a exception - such coffees should be brewed in V60 or Aeropress, and not in espresso machine.
Pre-infusion depends also on machine - it is some help in bad machines, which have problems with water distribution (old levers, E61, etc.). So it's not a "required step" for a good coffee. Limit variables before you master distribution and tamping.

#10: Post by **iploya** » July 13th, 2021, 10:58 pm

I'm not nearly as sophisticated as others on this forum so perhaps I'm still thinking a bit 1-dimensionally. I stray occasionally, but tend to circle back to the factory preset of 7 seconds at 60%. I played around with PI quite a bit in the past and wasn't able to obtain results that were noticeably better.

Edit: although after seeing this thread, I went back to playing around with the trick where you set PI > shot time at like 85%.