Breville Brew & Grind BDC650BSS will not produce a good cup of coffee

by Jimmy Miller
(Commerce, Georgia)

Our own Breville brewer

QUESTION:

I recently purchased this coffee maker so I could have a great cup of coffee at home and have not been able to get the machine to make a decent cup of coffee. I cannot seem to find the right setting when trying to make a single cup of coffee. I have tried following what the manufacture recommends in their instructions (use a grind of 3 a strength setting of 4) which produced a strong bitter cup of coffee.

I have tried adjusting the grind up a level (4) and down a level (2) and leaving my strength at 4. I have also taken the opposite approach of increasing or decreasing the strength of the cup. All attempts thus far have yielded a strong bitter cup of coffee.

I remember reading somewhere that a user had suggested a grind of 5. Which I have now tried and left my strength again at 4. This time the machine produced a weak cup of coffee but the machine was still streaming the coffee into my cup for at least 5 minutes afterwards well beyond the time that the machine beeped notifying me that my coffee was ready.

I am frustrated as hell at my inability to make a great cup of coffee. All of the reviews that I have read including yours all say that this is the best brew and grind coffee maker on the market today.

Any ideas and suggestions would be appreciated as to what grind level and strength I should be using would be appreciated.

Coffee brands and used thus far have been Starbucks Pike's Roast (Medium), Jittery Joes Sul De Menas (Medium Brazil Roast)


ANSWER:

Jimmy, hi

Sorry to hear about your struggles!

Like you say, we have a Breville Grind and Brew ourselves, and have never had the problems you’re describing.

The steps you have taken so far are similar to what I would have recommended… that is to say, adjust the grind, and the proportion of water to ground coffee, until you get the brew strength you like.

One thing… you talk a lot about your experiments with the grind levels, but not so much about the volume of ground coffee to water. Have to tried adjusting that too?

Something that does sound super-weird is when you say, “the machine was still streaming the coffee into my cup for at least 5 minutes afterwards”.

That may warrant a call to Breville customer service.

Good luck… and if you don’t find a solution, see if you can return the brewer for a replacement.

Nick

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