# Bialetti brikka -burnt taste-help!



## Karola

Hi all

I got great help on this forum some time ago when choosing coffee maker. I ended up buying Bialetti Brikka-2 cup one, and hario grinder. I loved my coffee until recently things started going wrong. The coffee has strong burnt taste and it's horrible! I thought it was beans (problems started when we got barrista blend), but just made coffee with fresh blue sumatra (my favourite) and it's awful! do you have any idea on what went wrong?

It used to spit coffee in second, but now coffee fills the top jug slowly, and looks like it's boiling in the top jug.

didn't change cooker/settings.

Could it be seal?

Thank you

karola


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## vintagecigarman

Is the weight at the top of the delivery spout moving feely? They can clog up in time. Give it a good push-pull to check. If you hold the lower part of the weight you can unscrew to top part, which helps with cleaning. The whole principle of the Brikka is that the weight holds the fluid back until it all comes out at once in a rush. If it's just filling slowly I suspect either the weight is stuck, or the delivery spout is covered in gunge. Seems unlikely to be the seal if coffee is eventually finding its way though.

Hope this helps, but if not, please get back in touch.

And thanks for the post - it's just inspired me to get the Brikka out again after a long absence!


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## DonRJ

I`m with Vintage on this, give it a strip down and clean, take the weight assembly apart for a clean and winkle out the seal and filter plate too. Coincidentally my Brikka has just been dug out to get it ready for the first of my holiday outings this year.


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## Karola

right, I took my brikka apart and cleaned every possible bit of it using water only (and brush+bottle brush), and the taste of coffee is still awful

what I do (as the reason might be here, however I did the same things for last 6 months or so and it was OK): I use cold filtered water-to the line, freshly ground beans tBlue Sumatra, from coffee-direct, about 5 days old-I know it's too early, but ran out of coffee before expected, Hario grinder), not tampered, but full, put this on electric cooker: heat 1-12, I use 12 for a minute and then take it down to 11.As soon as I hear coffee coming through I take off the heat, then I see coffee rushing through to the top jug. that's it. it used to produce nice (enough, for me) coffee. now it's undrinkable.

It wouldn't be beans, would it?

I only have barrista blend and blue sumatra, both from coffee-direct. I might try with supermarket coffee today again, I know this isn't best test, but just to roll out roasting as a cause of my trauma!







(3 days with no decent coffee, and horrible aftertaste instead).

I was so hoping that cleaning clears the problem

oh, my husband noticed this as well, so it's not my taste buds going mad!

Thanks for your help up to now, but I might need more of it


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## DonRJ

Well, if the Brikka is spickety span it is down to the beans and the grind, so keep the grind at the usual setting and try some new beans.


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## DonRJ

Forgot to add, do check your grinder out in case the setting has slipped as the slow fill of the top could be due to an overly fine grind with an associated burnt taste.

Don


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## Glenn

Agree with Don about the grind. Try coarser by a click on the Hario and see what happens, then bring back a 1/3 or a turn until the desired flow is achieved


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## Karola

my post has just disappeared,wrr

once again:

Morning,

I have tried coarser grind with both sumatra and barista blend, brewing looked ok, but taste was awful.

I used preground supermarket coffee this morning, but can't really decided about it, maybe it was better, or maybe I just had more milk with it.

I have ordered cafetiere grind and beans of Sumatra coffee from has bean, to compare, will let you know what happens when this arrives.

Can you suggest coffee for my brikka, something easy to brew and drink? not very acidic...

I still have this horrible aftertaste in my mouth, can't get rid of it, so it's difficult to taste anything else..


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## Karola

Hello everyone, t's been a while.

Thanks for all your suggestions, tried anything I could think of, but didn't get my brikka to work again. It's just not the same coffee anymore. To make things worse, I am now spoiled , and can't just have coffee at cafe Nero at train station, as it's not as I want it to be.

I seriously started thinking it's my taste buds...

If it was down to grind, could too course grind be as bad as too fine?

I have 4 types of beans, from 2 sources, all tasting awful (some more than other).

I am thinking it might be the temperature/heating. Coffee slowly comes up for 30 s or so, and then rushes out. Also since problem with taste started we had no crema at all, or very little. I know we shouldn't expect much crema from stovetop, but we had a lot of it, and nice tasting coffee before. Have no idea what went wrong..

I am tempted to buy Gaggia classic, but worried that won't be able to troubleshoot it, if I can't get simple brikka to work..

By the way, is hario skreton enough to produce ok coffee from gaggia classic?


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## MikeHag

Maybe your water is bad. Could try using filtered.


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## Karola

I am using filtered water, I wish it was that simple. The solution probably is simple, as there is little that can break in brikka..


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## RolandG

A couple of comments:

1) Tastes/palette can change surprisingly quickly - what is acceptable/not certainly has jumped for me in the past.

2) For coffees, typical Brazils and other south american coffees might be a good starting point (big big generalisation).

3) Technique wise, try running the bottom under cold water when you get the first signs of water flow running out (i.e. bubbles appearing) to stop the water before too much steam is forced through the grounds (risking burnt flavours again)









4) And finally, if you want another alternative to stove-top or espresso machine, Aeropress is always an option - it gives a strong coffee (very intense filter style) and is very easy and reliable.


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## Karola

Reading more on this forum I realised I have never ever cleaned the grinder (hario skerton). Could this be why my coffee is so bad? Do I need to clean the manual grinder??


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## Guest

The same happened to me. I think the problem is that the brikka has a limited life span


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