Full transcript
0:00[Music]
0:31today we're going to review this it's
0:33the precision brewer from sage or
0:36breville depending where you are in the
0:37world for me it's sage and i'm going to
0:40tell you why this has been my go-to
0:42brewer for the last two years at home
0:45this review has been two years in the
0:47making it's because about two years ago
0:50sage got in touch and said can we send
0:51you a machine let us know what you think
0:53and i said sure that would be good and i
0:55got it took it home and it was kind of
0:57like a us version but with uk power
1:00through it it wasn't the dedicated uk
1:02machine that was going to come a couple
1:03months later two years later well here
1:06we are they've finally released the
1:07machine and i gather they had some
1:09issues the uk london in particular has
1:12very hard water and they found that a
1:14challenge in testing for this brewer in
1:16this market so they've gone away changed
1:18a few things added some upgrades i'll
1:20talk about that in a second and it is
1:22now available so it's a kind of odd one
1:24for me most of my reviews are powered by
1:26patreon it means i go and buy products
1:28and i don't owe anyone anything
1:30this is different because this was sent
1:33to me originally or the first one before
1:35i had a patreon and i said i would
1:37review it and i will honour my
1:38commitment but know that
1:40unlike other patreon reviews this was
1:44sent to me by the manufacturer i'm not
1:46being paid to make the video they don't
1:47get any influence or input into the
1:49video but you should know i didn't pay
1:52for this and i've had one for two years
1:55so let's dive into some just quick
1:57overview specs of this whole thing it's
1:59an interesting approach to home brewers
2:01it's 250 pounds in the uk which puts it
2:03at the upper end of the the sort of
2:05small batch brewer market for the home
2:07but
2:08not at the very top which i think is
2:10interesting
2:11it's a very sage product it looks like a
2:13sage product it feels like a safe
2:15product the brush metals they use the
2:16kind of plastics
2:18the whole design aesthetic is very sage
2:21and if you like that you'll like this if
2:23you hate that
2:24you'll hate this but i like it i've got
2:26a couple sage things at home and it kind
2:28of fits for me unusually this thing can
2:30brew up to 1.8 liters which is a lot of
2:34coffee certainly for the home that's a
2:35lot of cups of coffee in the morning for
2:37a family but
2:39it doesn't have to brew at that kind of
2:40volume it does a kind of clever thing
2:42inside the brew basket
2:45you've got two brew sort of cones you've
2:48got one cone like this which is designed
2:50to use the kind of molita style papers i
2:52really like the filtropa papers myself
2:54but if you take that out you've actually
2:55got a kind of flat bottomed brewer and
2:58it does come with papers for it so you
2:59can brew larger volumes in this with the
3:02cone brewer which is my preferred brewer
3:05you can brew up to 1.2 liters which
3:06frankly
3:07is a lot it's enough it's more than i
3:09would need but the extra is kind of
3:12interesting more than that you don't
3:14even have to use this brew basket there
3:16is an adapter set that lets you put in a
3:18v6d or a kolita or something change the
3:21shower head and change the sort of piece
3:22here where it sits and you can use
3:24whatever flat bottom to pour over brewer
3:27you want whatever cone-shaped brewer you
3:28want you've got it you want to use it
3:30you can use it you can have an automated
3:31version of the thing that you brew with
3:33all the rest of the time
3:35that's kind of cool it does also come
3:37with a metal filter basket if you want
3:40to do that if you want to go zero waste
3:41and not use paper whatsoever this is an
3:44option
3:44i'm generally not a huge fan of these
3:46things i like them in principle i just
3:49personally
3:50always prefer the taste of paper
3:52filtered coffee underneath you've got a
3:54carafe it is a thermal carafe which is
3:56good they do i think a version that is
3:58glass with the heating plate that nobody
4:00should buy ever just get the thermal
4:02carafe just get the thermal carafe and
4:05then the tanks at the back pretty simple
4:08pretty obvious so far in the tank in the
4:10uk now they've added one extra thing
4:12which is this it's a it's a water
4:14softener it's a little filter uh it
4:16lasts about three months and so you just
4:18set it and it will soften your water
4:20when you turn on the machine for the
4:21first time it will ask you how hard your
4:22water is there's a test strip and stuff
4:24that basically tells the machine how
4:26often to prompt you to descale it while
4:28this is nice i would still strongly
4:30recommend just putting good
4:32soft clean water into your machine and
4:34not letting this do the softening but if
4:37you have no option then this is a good
4:39thing so now we need to talk about why
4:40this is called the precision brewer why
4:42it's a sort of smarter than average
4:44brewer and and how the features inside
4:46might stack up to other brewers in the
4:48market
4:50so in the control panel
4:52day to day there are three settings that
4:54you can use as kind of pre-programmed
4:55settings for brewing
4:57they are fast gold and strong
5:01and they're really going to change the
5:02flow rate for the machine
5:04a fast brew is designed to just pump
5:06more water into the basket quicker
5:09allowing your brew to happen in a
5:10quicker way in the morning i've never
5:12really wanted to use that nothing about
5:13fast appeals to me but it's a function
5:15and it's available and again strong
5:19that's going to be sort of more
5:21extracted which in many ways is often
5:23good but for me
5:25i use the gold setting or i use my own
5:27programming most of the time now you can
5:30go in and set up what's called my brew
5:32it's kind of custom brewing setup with
5:34that you can control the bloom volume as
5:36well as the balloon time
5:38you can control your overall flow rate
5:40from very slow to much quicker and then
5:43you can control your brew temperature
5:45and that gives you a single degree
5:47celsius increments to change your blue
5:48temperature which is
5:50extremely accurate so this is kind of
5:52billed as being a very controllable very
5:56programmable brewer that does deliver
5:59consistent temperature and in my
6:00experience
6:02yet it really does so beyond that
6:04there's a couple more things to talk
6:05about in the menu one of which i'm not
6:08super interested in which is the cold
6:09brew functionality
6:11it's designed to sort of run overnight
6:13so you can have it run for i think up to
6:1414 hours where it'll slowly pump water
6:17cold water into your brew basket
6:19you don't put the lid on the carafe it
6:22steeps it for a long time and then
6:23eventually drains it i don't really like
6:25the taste of coffee brewed that way
6:26that's just me so i've had no interest
6:29whatsoever in using it i don't use it
6:32there's one more thing though that i do
6:34use on this
6:36that i'm a little bit ashamed of in a
6:38way
6:39this machine has an auto start and
6:42sometimes
6:43sometimes
6:44i might grind my coffee before going to
6:47bed and put it in the brew basket and
6:50have the machine come on at like six in
6:51the morning if i have to get up early
6:53and i kind of love getting up to
6:56fresh-made coffee it's it's a wonderful
6:58thing
6:59i'm aware that grinding fresh is best
7:01but i'm also aware that if it's an eight
7:03hour window yeah i'm losing something
7:06but i'm not the world's most perceptive
7:08coffee taster at six in the morning i
7:09just want it to taste really good so i'm
7:12happy to lose a little bit of aromatic
7:15complexity in exchange for someone
7:17having me a fresh pot of coffee ready at
7:206am that's the deal so i use that more
7:22than i suspect i should tell people i do
7:25i like it it's a nice little function
7:27it's not unique to this but it's a nice
7:29function to have there
7:31so so far i've had nothing really bad to
7:34say about this brewer and in fairness i
7:36have really enjoyed using it for the
7:38last two years it's been a
7:40steady staple reliable part of my
7:43morning brewing routine
7:45that doesn't mean that i have no
7:47complaints or quibbles or things that i
7:50should highlight along the way
7:52so firstly
7:54the water tank in the uk version
7:57they've done a kind of annoying thing to
7:58me they've converted it from imperial to
8:00metric thank you very much but they have
8:03left the lines in the same place which
8:05were i think 20 30
8:0840 ounces
8:10and then i think 60 ounces for the
8:11larger size so on here you've got like a
8:14like a 900 mil mark
8:16i'm just not brewing 900 mils of coffee
8:18very much
8:19i would like a liter mark i would like a
8:21half liter mark i i just feel that's a
8:23reasonable thing to ask for i've come to
8:25accept this i mean i'm already brewing
8:26us ratios at home but i had hoped with
8:28the release of a uk brewer they'd have
8:30just that have just gone in at the kind
8:32of half one liter thing you know now
8:35when it comes to the two brewers in here
8:37i think the cone-shaped brewer brews
8:40significantly better than the
8:41flat-bottomed brewer
8:43my theory is it's the shower head that's
8:45really optimized for that kind of cone
8:48shape in terms of coverage in terms of
8:51agitation disruption as it's brewing
8:53it brews really nicely i just struggled
8:56to match the quality on the 1.8 litre
8:59bruise on the flat bottomed bruise even
9:00with a thicker bed depth it just i've
9:02just struggled to really really really
9:05get the same quality in the cup it's a
9:07funny thing but i also wish this was a
9:09removable water container i think there
9:11are a couple of brewers out there like
9:12the the top end wilfred brewer where you
9:14can just take the water tank out it just
9:15makes it easier to fill i just i think
9:17it's a nicer experience it's not
9:19particularly difficult to do i don't
9:21think this has to be mounted on here
9:23with the carafe i do like the design but
9:25it suffers the same frustrations that
9:28every carafe suffers which is you can't
9:31pour out absolutely everything there's
9:34always just like a little bit left over
9:35i don't understand it's in every carafe
9:38and it just makes me angry when you're
9:40brewing with the the cone-shaped filter
9:43some coffee will get out
9:46into the kind of open basket area
9:49if you just rinse out the cone and don't
9:52remove this you will not rinse out all
9:54the coffee that's under here so it's
9:56easy to have a little bit of
9:57accumulation here
9:59you know and you pull this out now
10:00you're gonna be like uh
10:02and it needs a clean so um
10:04i was a bit lazy to start with until i
10:06opened this up one day and was slightly
10:08disgusted with myself but just be aware
10:11you need to pull this out every time to
10:12clean it properly
10:14and so there it is there is the sage
10:15precision brewer it's a brewer that i
10:17have enjoyed using for two years at 250
10:20pounds it's not cheap but i think it's
10:22actually a pretty great investment in
10:24your morning brews
10:26i think if you need something to do
10:28larger volumes something like one and a
10:30half to two liters often then i would
10:33buy a small commercial brewer they're
10:34not much more expensive but the the
10:37shower head and basket combo is usually
10:39a little bit more effective at brewing
10:40that way
10:41that said i can't think of many cheaper
10:44commercial brewers that have the level
10:46of control
10:48and programmability that this thing has
10:52so i could see these in small offices
10:55you know it's a batch brew in cafes that
10:57don't sell much batch brew i have no
10:58idea on commercial warranties but at
11:00home
11:02it's good it's big no question and you
11:04know that's a
11:06big old thing i'm okay with that i've
11:07got the space it's never really bothered
11:09me but
11:10so in comparison to other brewers in the
11:12past i've had both a tecniform and also
11:15the the sort of high-end wilfer brewer
11:17as well i like both of those brewers i
11:19enjoyed the coffee that they made but
11:21neither of them had the kind of feature
11:23set and the reliability and the control
11:26that this thing has it's it's a
11:28different brewer in many regards to
11:30those brewers i'm genuinely impressed uh
11:32and i find it an easy recommendation and
11:35so i'd really be interested to hear from
11:36you do you have one of these i mean
11:38these have been out for two three years
11:39not a lot of the world
11:41do you still have it do you still use it
11:42every day have you had issues that i
11:44haven't mentioned yet
11:46what did i miss what didn't i talk about
11:48i'd really be interested to hear your
11:50thoughts and maybe there's another
11:52brewer at the price point that i'm just
11:53not seeing that i should check out leave
11:56me a comment down below
11:58i'm going to say thank you so much for
11:59watching
12:00i hope you have a great day
12:04[Music]
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