If you want your coffee maker to have it all, design, great experience and durability, look no further than Breville’s machines. Creators of customer favorite – the Creatista and Barista Express, Breville knows how to deliver great results without compromises.
Breville’s Precision Brewer is a versatile drip coffee maker that is certified by the Specialty Coffee Association. The name Precision Brewer comes from the fact that it has the precision required to craft a cup of coffee that is to the SCA’s exact standards, automatically.
The Precision Brewer has 6 presets to get you started:
- Fast: A standard coffee brew.
- Gold: Brews to SCA Gold Cup standard.
- Over Ice: Specially optimized setting that adjusts temperature and strength to brew coffee that will not taste watered down when melted with ice.
- My Brew: Your own customized settings.
- Cold Brew: Machine steeps coffee for up to 24 hours for a delicious cold brew.
Adjustable Settings:
You can adjust temperature, flow rate and contact time. You can choose from 3 flow rates and adjust temperature using the digital temperature control.
Auto ‘Steep and Release’ Technology:
This is Breville’s Patent-pending technology. The Steep and Release valve holds the water in contact with coffee grounds when brewing small volume of coffee without using a carafe.
Capacity:
Precision Brewer has a large 60 oz water reservoir. It can brew up to 12 cups of coffee.
Filter Baskets:
Whether you are brewing a small amount or a large amount of coffee, you can use either a flat bottom or cone filter basket, both are included with your machine.
Brewing Pour Over Coffee Using Breville Precision Brewer:
One of this machine’s unique features is that it can brew a nice cup of pour-over automatically. Whether you want to use a V60 dripper, a Kalita or whichever dripper you choose. Using the My Brew setting, you can adjust the machine’s bloom time, flow rate and temperature and it will automatically pour water and deliver pour over coffee. The machine’s showerspay style head allows for great coffee ground saturation.
To use this feature, you will need a special pour-over adapter that’s sold separately.
Your Coffee, Just the Way You Like It
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Breville Precision Brewer is one of very few (if any) drip coffee makers to offer this much variety and customization. You get to customize every detail of the brewing process to get the coffee you like. And if you don’t feel like being precise? Use any of the automatic presets and you’ll still get a great cup of coffee!
Should You Buy It?
If you’re not quite particular about the exact details of your coffee’s brewing process, then the Precision Brewer might not be for you. There are other options for SCA certified machines that still brew a great cup of coffee without any customization. Read the comparisons below to learn more.
If you enjoy experimenting with your coffee and really want to adjust your coffee’s properties and get the most out of coffee grounds (I’d recommend using fresh specialty beans in this case), you’ll love using the Precision Brewer.
Pros:
- High quality machine, full stainless steel body and great overall design.
- Presets and customizations are both great. You’ll find something for every mood.
- Unique features like Pour-over brewing and Cold Brew.
Cons:
- It can get a little overwhelming for a beginner to use the precise settings to achieve a great cup. But like everything else, practice makes perfect.
- Water reservoir is not removable. Which is okay, but can be hard to clean after a while of use.
Breville Precision Brewer vs. Breville Grind Control
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The Grind Control is a popular coffee maker by Breville. However, it’s a totally different thing than the Precision Brewer.
The Grind Control is a drip coffee maker with built-in conical burr grinder. The machine will automatically grind a batch of fresh coffee at each brew. You can use pre-ground coffee, too.
The machine allows you to adjust your coffee brew by selecting from 8 coffee strength and different grind coarseness. You can also choose to brew a full carafe, a travel mug or a single cup. There is no temperature adjustment on the Grind Control.
The Grind Control has a 60 oz water reservoir capacity, similar to the Precision Brewer. And it has a 1/2 lbs bean hopper capacity. It includes a dual wall stainless steel thermal carafe and gold tone filter.
So the Grind Control is more of a classic coffee maker. There’s not much room for customization and it’s not SCA certified. You can expect great results from the Grind Control, but if you’re a specialty coffee fan and want to bring out those special notes from your beans, this isn’t the machine for you.
Breville Precision Brewer vs. Technivorm Moccamaster
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Technivorm’s Moccamaster is one of the earliest and most popular SCA certified out there. Technivorm is one of those rare companies that still pays high attention to quality. Each of their machines continues to be made in their factory in the Netherlands, and fully tested before shipment.
The Moccamaster is a very simple one button operation machine. Put in the filter basket, fill the reservoir and hit the on button. There’s no programmability, no customization… nothing other than the on/off button.
The machine brews to the Gold Cup standard, so you don’t have to worry about the temperature being off or getting bad results. However, there’s no room for experimentation, if that’s what you’re looking for. The Moccamaster brews pour-over style coffee, automatically, and that’s all there is to it.
So, should you choose it over all the bells and whistles of the Breville Precision Brewer?
- If you’re not looking for excessive customization.
- If you want better build quality and something that’s not China made (not that it’s necessarily a bad thing, but I know it’s a preference for some).
- If you want better warranty, the Moccamaster comes with 5 years warranty.
Breville Precision Brewer vs. Bonavita
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The Bonavita is also a SCA-certified coffee maker that’s as simple as they come. With an 8-cup capacity, it brews coffee at 195 to 205 F within minutes. Like the Moccamaster, the Bonavita has no special features or customization settings. It’s a one-button machine. One great thing about it though, is that it has an optional pre-infusion mode. This mode allows the machine to saturate the coffee ground with enough water to degass it before brewing it. It’s an important step when using fresh coffee beans.
The Bonavita is a great choice for someone who wants SCA certified machine at a budget. It’s price point is more affordable than both the Precision Brewer and Moccamaster. But it’s not to their quality level, for sure.
Breville Precision Brewer vs. Cuisinart CPO850 Coffee Brewer
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Cuisinart’s SCA-Certified brewer, CPO850 is an affordable choice and it offers some customization settings to fine-tune your coffee. The brewer allows you to:
- Select from three strength settings: mild, medium and bold.
- Select from two temperature settings: hot and extra hot.
Thanks to the digital clock, you can set it to auto brew at any given time. And that’s as much customization as you can get from the Cuisinart. It includes a thermal 8-cup carafe and has 40oz water reservoir capacity.
While the Cuisinart CPO850 has some customization selections, it’s till not as precise as the Precision Brewer which allows you to set a precise temperature, flow rate and contact time.
Conclusion
To conclude our comparisons, it’s safe to say that none of these SCA-certified coffee makers offers the same versatility that the Precision Brewer does. None of the machines have extra features like the Over Ice or Cold Brew features, or precise customization like temperature, flow rate and contact time.
Does that mean it’s better than the Moccamaster, Bonavita or Cuisinart? No, that’s not necessarily true. After all, it all depends on what you’re looking for.
The Breville Precision Brewer offers a great amount of features, high quality and great design, and it all comes at a cost. If those features are what you’re looking for, then rest assured that it does what it’s supposed to do and it’s worth its price.
Since there’s a lot of features to go with the Breville Precision Brewer, I would recommend you go over the manual to understand what each feature does. If you still have not bought the machine, have a look at this video which explains how it works: