# inconsistent shots SAGE BE



## danbaker3000 (Mar 12, 2021)

Hi all. have had my Sage BE machine for a year now, and love it. have worked in cafes across the world so am reasonably OK at making coffee, and this machine does a very good job of it for those on a budget! BUT, the machine seems to be very inconsistent (or maybe the beans are inconsistent) with shot extraction, sometimes on a new bag i havent tried before (fresh enough) it WILL NOT get up to pressure no matter how hard i try! decrease grind size, increase volume etc etc nothing works, just runs out really quickly in like 5-10 seconds and is hugely under extracted, then go back to the beans i normally use from a cafe nearby, and it behaves perfectly!

anyone have the same issue? it seems to expose old/unfresh beans.

TIA.


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## -Mac (Aug 22, 2019)

It does expose old beans. In that situation, I just dose more to get the pressure up and can still make a reasonable shot.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

Yes beans that aren't fresh roasted. I tried a number of them on mine and managed without over dosing - luck I suspect also OK grinding with an SGP.

I used french press before buying the BE so tried some of the Lavazza we liked. Bought off Amazon as more likely to be fresh. Also some supermarket stuff having checked the date on them. The stuff we used tasted entirely different on an espresso machine. Not pleasant at all. An espresso blend they did improved which is odd.

I concluded that the beans just aren't suitable for machines. Some one on here who is into roasting thinks overdoing it. More friable beans - turn to dust more easily. It would explain a lot even the taste change.

Lavazza do a range that is truly suitable. 1kg packs for hotels etc. I tried 2 pure arabica blends. One nice with normal ratios but now rather expensive the other one cheap and needed a 4+ ratio to come alive and was pretty poor even then - too weak for me and boring taste. The beans keep well and all of the bends other than these will have robusta in them. Illy probably do some as well.


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