# Sage Barista Express



## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

A friend of mine has just bought one. Any tips on using one?

How long does it take to warm up?

Flush before pulling a shot?

How do you purge in between changing grind setting?

All advice tips welcome.


----------



## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

How long - not long at all - it's ready when the machine indicates it is.

BUT Heating the portafilter can make a big difference to taste. Leaving in place wont add any significant heat. Many don't seem to bother. I ran a shot through an empty pressurised basket. That can get it really hot. The last of 3 shots on the trot can as well. They stop a lot of the heat from the coffee being taken out if it isn't preheated by adding a teflon insert into the base of the portafilter.

Flush briefly - yes.

Retention is around a gram so may not have much effect when the setting is changed. Start at 8 and only 1 step change at a time. I reckon it can take 40g odd through for the grinder to settle down from clean. Rather than try and set a time for some weight which will in any case change as the setting is changed use of the razor tool makes a lot more sense or weigh beans in while tuning. Once the grinder has settle variation in output is small but will increase when the setting is changed. If short which is usually what happens after a change just feed another few beans through. Weighing in all of the time may not be a good idea on some beans as it may choke at some point.

Bear in mind it is a volumetric machine so once set for some shot in x secs the x secs will vary a bit mostly depending on how consistent prep is.

Read the manual - when it gets to pressure gauge behaviour bear in mind that you may want to go either higher or lower -







its serves as a sort of strength of taste indicator. Go past the espresso range and the OPV opens - a little going that way is ok but lots spoils consistency. I generally found that there has to be some pressure shown during infusion.

Finer tuning can be done by adjusting the dose. Go too low and the usual happens. Go too high and at some point the puck usually stocks and another 1/10g or so stops that - that's about the limit. Go even higher and the puck will be very difficult to knock out. A distinct pip on the puck from the hole in the shower screen fixing screw is usually far too high. A slight sign of it is ok. Only seems to work on beans that need rather fine grinding.

John

-


----------



## urbanbumpkin (Jan 30, 2013)

Cheers John

So the grinder you can adjust fine coarseness and time for the amount it doses? Or is that manual?


----------



## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

The timer can be used to set the dose or it can be used manually. If the portafilter is pressed in and released it runs via the timer. Keep it pressed in and it switches to manual. I didn't have any problem using it either way but if it's pushed in for too long when some one intends to use the timer it'll say hey I'm in manual. A sort of casual press in and release gets it to use the timer.







My son pressed it in for too long a few times.

As with any timer grinder setting the dose to a fraction of a gram is a bit tricky.

John

-


----------



## mohass (Feb 26, 2019)

I found the Sage BE on a decent offer, do you think it produces significantly worse coffee than a gaggia classic with a mid range grinder like the iberital mc2?


----------

