Live - How to fix Espresso Channeling | Breville Barista Express

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[quaxenleaf]

Have been using Robot with bottomless portafilter and have switched from tamping to just WDT tool with 4 needles strapped to a wine cork. NO TAMPING! Shots pulled perfectly with no channeling . No spurting and perfect shot! Used fresh roasted beans, espresso grind from CEADO 5P grinder. Also no futzing with no preheating... love the quality and simplicity!

[BlackIce]

I keep getting consistent shots.... let me clarify that. Consistent channeling shots. Some are better than others. I have tried dose changes, tamping, WDT, distribution, etc... I have yet to have a "perfect" shot using the Breville Barista Express without some type of "squirt". This video was done in 2020, but here I am in 2022 in the rabbit hole. Love your educational videos. I want to purchase several other upgrades for the machine, but believe I will continue to have the same issues. I have seen people upgrade shower head and basket and still have channeling issues :(

[fred_ed]

Honestly I think the quality of your grinder and the quality of your filter basket play a big roll in getting a clean shot. You can prep the puck as good as possible, but if the equipment you are using is not high quality, you will have inconsistent shots.. that’s just what it is and we have to come to terms with it.
What you can do in order to get the most consistent shots is:
1) Always weighing your coffee dose and yield.
2) Try to find the “right” grinder setting to get the ratio you prefers in 25-35 seconds.
3) only change one variable at a time.. only change the dose if the steps of your grinder are too big (more than 10 seconds)
4) distribut the coffee as evenly as possible and try to get rid of all the clums
5) when tamping, make sure all your angles are right and you tamp as evenly as possible (do not twist while ramping! this will cause unevenness in your puck)
6) make sure your water is hot enough but not too hot! Between 90-94 degrees celsius
7) have fun and enjoy

[matteostainer]

Nice video. I own a Barista Pro and have recently replaced the filter basket with a basket from a big Chinese platform company. The new basket is slightly bigger which makes it easier to use 20 grams. Thus far I had better extrations with the new basket than we the default one i.e. no more channeling. I do however stur the grounded coffee quite excessively with a WDT, which in my case is a multiple needle tool used for felting.

[BryanSuter]

Thanks Hoon. I just got my machine a few days ago and Your channel is helping me so much with it. I am just using the “cheater” cups right now until I get the hang of it with the single wall filters. I hope to make some newbie tutorial videos for my channel too.

[JLondon]

Hey Hoon! Thanks for the videos. I just got Barista Express last week!

[claudebbg]

You can also see if there is not serious channeling by removing de dual spout, if its ok the flow goes right in the middle with no side leaks or geysers.

[ccnt]

I have one and it helped me perfect my shots by changing different variables such as dosage to stop the channeling. I found that the channeling was worse using 16-17 grams than using 18 grams.

When using 18 grams it was better although this is not set in stone, darker roasts tend to be more dense and oily. 16 grams of a dark roast can look exactly the same as a medium roast in the basket as the lesser the dose I found to be more dry in consistency when ground.

There is another variable which affects the consistency of the ground coffee and its of course the type of beans (altitude grown, origin etc).

Conclusion: The dryer consistency ground coffee you should put the maximum that the razor tool allows and weigh the dosage.

For the more dense coffees and darker roasts anywhere between 16-18 grams which ever works best for them specific beans. Hope this helps.

[anthonysalyer]

Thanks for the videos. I've learned a lot from watching them and have figured out better methods. Keep up the great informative videos they are truly appreciated

[nicbug]

i have a bottomless portafilter and the coffee flow is really nice from the center of the filter. have breville barista pro! but i have a few really fine splashes squirting everywhere. what might be the reason for that? I also use a distribution tool to level the coffee powder.

[CalebTalbot]

I’ve had the Breville Touch for about a year and it has started to pull more heavily on the left. I cleaned things and took off the group head and ran the water, and the water distribution/faucet thing itself is pouring more water to the left. Any ideas?

[beer_goggler]

Hey Hoon. I just got the naked portafilter for the BE. So far just channels. I use 17g coffee in, so thinking on increasing to 18, 19, 20 with progressively courser grinds to compensate for dose. Theory is more coffee at courser grind will give shot at lower pressure and hence less likely to channel. Also notice the basket that came with naked portafilter has a very different profile to the original.

[fisherman]

Hey, I was wondering if you account for the residual coffee grounds that remain in your grinder after grinding. In my Barista express, I'll have up to 1.5 g of coffee grounds that are not released. Of course in your Niche grinder that will not be an issue since it has virtually zero retention. To solve that problem on my Breville I literally blow the grounds out. I achieve this by putting a bag over the hopper and then squeezing the air out, thereby pushing air through the grinder and blowing out all the grounds.
I also get channeling on my shots, especially towards the end. They also spray around and make a mess. However, the shots still taste well extracted. Still trying to figure out how to get rid of the "spritzing".
Anyway, I very much enjoyed your video. Thank you!

[doutsh]

I get almost no channeling, pretty consistently. The way I got to it as by advice for some pro friends -
I used a set amount of 16gr (to not choke the machine) and started going down more and more in grinder size until the shot was (almost) perfect.
This is my sweet spot and I move just a bit with the different beans I used.
If you use fresh beans you should be able to get pretty greta bottomless shots consistently.
I'll try to upload a video later

[patrickbennett]

Ive been having issues lately with shots spraying really bad. Really really bad. Its a fairly new machine, ive been trying different dosing amounts, distribution techniques, tamping pressures, im using an IMS basket, dont have wdt just the round tool and tamper. Its my breville barista express grinder. Maybe it needs cleaning, maybe its inconsistant grind size. Man what a mess. Its been getting worse n worse and used to not be a problem. Ive tried flushing machine, descaling, everything but a wdt. Thats next but i dont feel like i need it. Its probably that breville grinder. I might just paper clip tool distribution and see if that fixes it. Im just not liking that one step of wdt basically so im trying to avoid it. Group head gasket is good. No leaking during cleaning. hmmmm very frustrating though because im not exactly sure wth.

[quaxenleaf]

Love your channel! Subscribed!! Good work, good info and great presentation!

[renehugues]

Hi, my name iis Rene an I subscribed to your channel, quuestion do you add the 7 seconds pre infusion to your extraction time 25 se extraction time plus 7sec = 32seconds

[Jack_Hunt]

Hoon i noticed in the portafilter that wasn't bottomless you didn't have the black plastic insert that is seen in the regular Breville portafilter. Did you take that out?

[philp]

Bit late, but I get same problem with channeling and it is messy. I tried a lot with fresh beans and the only way to get got shot is using 18g with in and out ratio of 1:2, 5 in about 30 sec including preinfusion. The problem with this is that the pressure ist going very high on this shots. It raises in scale on 2 o'clock position I think. Any tricks helping me with that?
By the way, loving your videos. Alway great and I have learned a lot about making better coffee with my barista express.

[monsieurdiecasts]

Where you get your T-shirts Hoon? They look very comfortable