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Breville Sage Precision Brewer: A Comprehensive Guide

Breville Sage Precision Brewer: A Comprehensive Guide

This coffee maker combines the intricate manual brewing technique with the convenience of automatic drip machines. Drip coffee makers have never been fully embraced by specialty coffee enthusiasts.

It’s as if they’ve come to represent the awful, slowly evaporating supermarket coffee we drank throughout the 1990s until we took matters into our own hands and became full-fledged coffee geeks. Instead, the small, carefully crafted pour-over brew came to represent us.

It allows you to brew a fancy pour-over style coffee at home and tweak every possible brewing parameter to make it perfect.

The Precision Brewer by Breville is a specialty coffee geek’s dream, with variable bloom, temperature, and flow control. You can set it and forget it, or you can fiddle with it to your heart’s content—either way, all roads lead to a delicious carafe of coffee.

The Precision Brewer uses a lot of the same technology as the espresso line, so it’ll be interesting to see how it translates to a different type of product.

Let’s dive into the details and take a look over the specifications and features of the Breville Sage Precision Brewer.

Specifications

Below are the specifications of Breville Sage Precision Brewer:

Weight 10.14 lbs
Dimension12.4 x 6.7 x 15.7 in.
Water Tank Capacity60 oz
Power 1650
Voltage110-120 v
Warranty2 years, limited
Price$300
Specifications of Breville Sage Precision Brewer

Features

Breville Sage Precision Brewer is a name of great customizability. It features PID temperature control, different ways of brewing, over-ice setting, and my brew control.

PID Temperature Control

The good news is there is temperature control built into this machine, now you can control temperature however you want. There is plenty of espresso machines over $1000 that offer PID control, so Breville stepped up their standards and added this smart function into their sage precision brewer.

With this PID technology, you can have the roasts that you desire by lowering the temperature.

Six Brewing Modes

Breville sage precision offers six different brewing modes from which you can choose. They are fast, over ice, cold brew, my brew gold, and strong.

These brewing modes are ideal for a coffee lover, it’s the ultimate comfort that you’re looking for at your home.

The fast and strong are exactly the way they sound. However, the gold option makes you a coffee that is according to the Speciality Coffee Association Golden Cup Standards.

The Over Ice setting makes a stronger brew to compensate for brewing hot coffee over ice, whereas the Cold Brew setting is designed to run overnight to produce a delicious and smooth cold brew coffee for you in the morning.

The My Brew setting allows you to brew craft filter coffee just like you would with a manual pour-over, but now you can replicate it exactly every time. You can adjust the brewing time as well as the bloom time (from 0 to 5 minutes) to allow your coffee grounds to degas and achieve the best flavor. You can also adjust the brew temperature and the flow rate (Fast, Medium, or Slow).

Pour Over Mode

Then there’s an on/off switch for the Pour-Over mode. This works best with a separate adapter and allows you to combine your favorite pour-over brewer (V60, Kalita Wave, etc.) with the convenience of an automatic dripper!

Filter Basket Holder

The Breville Precision Brewer Thermal Carafe coffee maker includes a flat-bottom filter basket holder that accepts standard paper filters as well as the included gold-tone filter. For smaller amounts of coffee, you can use a cone filter adapter with paper filters.

When the carafe is not in place, this valve keeps the water in contact with the coffee, and the coffee maker changes its brewing mode automatically if it does not detect the carafe.

Manual Adjustments

With its spinning wheel and bright display, the manual adjustment mechanism is simple and easy to use.

Other variables to experiment with include bloom time, bloom volume, and flow rate. While these things are fun to play with, I believe they are more related to the volume of coffee you’re brewing.

For example, if you’re brewing 2 cups, which is considered a small batch on this coffee maker, it makes sense to use the smallest bloom and a slower flow rate. These items will assist you in stretching out the brew and ensuring a better extraction.

Auto Start Function

Another feature of this machine is an auto-start function, which can be activated by pressing the “auto start” button beneath the LCD screen. This means that the machine will begin brewing coffee at the time the user specifies.

Design

Coffeemaker with two cups  in the interior of modern kitchen closeup
A coffee maker pouring two cups of coffee

The Breville Precision Brewer appears to be a standard Breville product. It has a nice, if somewhat pedestrian, design. It has rounded shapes and is metallic and greyish. The Breville Precision Brewer is a stylish electric drip coffee maker that will complement any kitchen.

Unlike the retro-looking Smeg coffee maker, the Precision brewer has a brushed stainless steel finish that is sleek, stylish, and sturdy. It has a transparent water reservoir made of tough plastic. While it’s not removable, it does have markings that allow you to easily measure your coffee-to-water ratio.

But this thing is huge. It occupies more space than most other home coffee makers. You’ll need some extra countertop space with a width of 12.4 inches (31 cm) and a height of 15.7 inches (40 cm). The reason for the size is self-evident. It has a capacity of 60 oz (1.7 liters) and is a 12-cup coffee maker. It will be a large product if you want a large water tank and carafe.

There are two versions of the Breville Precision Brewer: one with a thermal carafe and one with a glass carafe. It may be more prudent to choose the metal version, as some users have complained that it’s impossible to obtain a replacement carafe in the event of an accident.

Yes, the item is listed as a spare part on Breville’s website, but it appears to have been unavailable for some time.

The glass model has a heat plate, but the thermal carafe model does not. Apart from that, the two brewers are identical. However, you don’t really wanna waste your money buying a glass model since it’s more prone to accidents.

Ease Of Use

Because of its numerous features, you might take some time to get used to the Breville Sage Precision Brewer.

The Breville Precision Brewer is simple to operate. The instructions and quick-start guides do an excellent job of explaining everything. The most time-consuming aspect of it is – once again – its extensive set of options. However, once I understood what everything meant, it became a less daunting experience.

Brew times differ depending on the preset. The Breville made four cups of coffee in about five minutes on the Gold setting; the same amount took about three minutes and 40 seconds in Fast mode.

Warm, soapy water is recommended for cleaning the plastic brew basket, mesh basket filter, and glass carafe. If necessary, the showerhead can be removed and wiped down. When the machine has calcium buildup and needs to be cleaned, the LCD will flash ‘Descale.’

The Breville will emit a short series of beeps once the brewing process is complete. However, because this machine is very loud, those beeps may not be necessary because the relative silence will prove that your coffee is ready.

The Downside

Some of the downsides of Breville Sage Precision Brewer are:

  • There is no replacement carafe, which is unfortunate because you cannot buy the glass carafe version with confidence. I understand that many people prefer the thermal carafe, but why offer a glass version if a replacement carafe is not widely available? Breville needs to get that sorted.
  • No conversion kit: I’m not sure why the “pour-over conversion kit” isn’t standard. Why not just add the parts, which appear to be relatively inexpensive to produce? The machine is already expensive, so a conversion kit could’ve done much better.
  • The Basket: In general, the machine is easy to clean, but when it comes to the filter basket, you should be aware that the dual filter style mode requires you to remove the cone filter insert each time to clean the entire filter holder properly.

Let’s have some pros and cons discussed here:

ProsCons
Larger Brew CapacityNon-removable water tank
Multiple Filter BasketThe shower head has quite a narrow area of coverage
Smart FeaturesQuite loud
Table of pros and cons of Breville Sage Precision Brewer

FAQS

Let’s have a look at some frequently asked questions:

Does Breville Make Good Cold Brew?

Yes, Breville makes an exceptional cold brew, that gives you great tasting when it comes to grounds and water control for brewing.

Here’s how you can make it:

How to make cold brew with Breville Sage Precision Brewer?

How Do You Clean Breville Sage Precision Brewer?

Regular cleaning after each use is required to keep this machine in good working order. This entails simply rinsing the filter basket, the reusable mesh filter (if used), and the carafe with warm water.

The user guide suggests using soapy, warm water for a deeper clean. The exterior and LCD screen can both be cleaned and polished with a soft, damp cloth. The use of dry paper towels or abrasive cloths is discouraged by the guide because they may scratch the surface. Wiping the shower head should be done regularly.

Is Breville Sage Worth The Price?

The Breville Precision Brewer costs around $300, which may seem expensive for a coffee maker. Average coffee makers cost between $100 and $150, but this one goes above and beyond. It has a lovely design and can make cold brew, iced coffee, single servings, and large batches of coffee. With all that it can do, the price is completely justified.

Alternatives

Here are some of the alternatives that you can choose from:

  • Zojirushi EC-YTC100XB Coffee Maker- Best Pour Control
  • Bonavita Connoisseur 8-Cup One-Touch Coffee Maker- Best Counter Space Saver
  • De’Longhi All-In-One Combination Coffee Maker- Best Coffee Maker With Espresso Capabilities
  • OXO Brew 9 Cup Stainless Steel Coffee Maker- Best Overall Coffee Maker

Summary

  • With the ability to tailor everything from bloom time to water flow, it’s impossible not to find that winning combination of variables that results in your ideal cup of coffee
  • If like me, you prefer a suitable shortcut, the Breville Precision Brewer also offers a series of presets for Golden Cup-standard coffee, exceptional cold brew, and iced coffee that is anything but weak and watered-down
  • The Breville Precision Brewer is not a cheap machine, even though it’s less expensive than the Technivorm Moccamaster KBGV Select. However, if you visit coffee shops regularly, you could save money in the long run by making your drinks at home with the Breville

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