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- Great tasting results
- Thoughtful features for filter enthusiasts
- Versatile choice of filter baskets
- Tricky to get the hang of at first
- The user manual provides little help
The Luxe Brewer is Sage’s second drip coffee machine, following its Precision Brewer from 2018. The Luxe appears to be a slimmed-down reimagining of the Precision, in both build and features, offering three modes instead of six.
I’ve been using the Luxe Brewer for a few weeks now, and have been able to get good tasting results from even non-specialty coffee. That said, it’s taken me a little while to get my head around some of the features. It’s not necessarily difficult to use, but some trial and error has taught me that the included user manual won’t help you master the machine in an afternoon.
Sage Luxe Brewer: What you need to know
The Sage Luxe Brewer will cost you £250 direct from Sage, as well as third-party retailers such as John Lewis or Lakeland. I tested the version that comes with a thermal carafe. There is a version with a hot plate and a glass carafe, but this one is only available outside of Europe under the Breville name.
The Breville Group Ltd is an Australian company specialising in home and kitchen appliances. In parts of Europe, including the UK, Breville operates under the Sage Appliances brand name. In the UK, there is another kitchen appliance brand called Breville, and, to make matters even more confusing, this UK-based brand also manufactures coffee machines. When you’re shopping for coffee machines in the UK, be mindful that these latter Breville coffee machines are not made by the same folk who manufacture Sage or Breville coffee machines in the US and Australia.
The machine’s removable water tank has a spacious capacity of 1,800ml (12 cups), and its filter basket slots very satisfyingly into the space above the carafe. This basket has a drip stop that opens when the carafe (with lid) is inserted underneath it, or automatically during certain brew programmes (more on this later). You’ve also got a choice of three inserts for the basket: one for conical filter papers (such as these from Melitta), one for flat-bottomed “cupcake-style” filter papers, and one reusable mesh filter that can be used without any consumable papers at all.
My first impression when setting up the Sage Luxe Brewer was that a lot of thought has gone into this machine. It’s quite an involved process that requires you to install a filter in the water tank (there’s one included in the box, and replacements are £15 from Sage) and to test the hardness of your water with the test strip (also included). Once you’ve done this, you need to adjust the settings on the machine to correspond with the hardness of your water before you’re good to go.
Onto the settings: as I said above, Sage has reduced the number of options here. The Precision Brewer had six presets to choose from – Fast, Gold, Strong, My Brew, Pour Over and Cold Brew – the Luxe Brewer has just three. The one-touch Brew setting was previously the “Gold” setting on the Precision Brewer, adjusted to meet “SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) Golden Cup standards”. The Custom setting replaces “My Brew” and allows you to fine-tune water temperature, bloom time, flow rate and other variables. And Cold Brew remains largely unchanged, but you’ve got a bit more flexibility with brew time: up to 36 hours instead of 24. A timer will display the machine’s brewing time as well as “time since brew” when it has finished, and you can also programme it in advance to brew coffee at a specific time.
What’s it like to use?
For the most part, the Sage Luxe Brewer is straightforward to use. Now that Sage has replaced the Precision Brewer’s fixed water tank with a removable one, loading the machine up with water and coffee couldn’t be easier.
I love the versatility that’s afforded by Sage’s decision to include three different filter inserts, and the new reusable mesh filter will be a boon to those who resent having to stock up on filter papers every month (be aware: depending on the grind fineness of your coffee, the mesh filter can let some sediment through. It’s also inevitably more annoying to clean). Some filter coffee machines I’ve tested in the past can be a bit restrictive in their compatibility with only one type of filter paper. For instance, the Melitta Aromaboy – owing to its size – can only be used with the small, size 100 Melitta papers. This isn’t an issue with the Sage Luxe Brewer.
Operating the machine is also relatively easy once you’ve managed to figure out how it all works – “figure out” being the operative phrase here. The user manual that comes with the machine is effectively useless at explaining anything beyond the most basic functions, and even this consists mostly of a storyboard of diagrams that aren’t much more descriptive than an IKEA assembly manual.
As a result, my experience testing the Luxe Brewer involved a lot of trial and error. For example, if you’re brewing coffee with the water filled under, or up to, the ‘4 cup’ mark, the machine will prompt you to remove the carafe lid that holds the drip stop open. Like the Clever Dripper, it will then allow the coffee to steep in the filter basket before automatically opening the drip stop and allowing the brewed coffee to drip through. It really is a neat feature. The issue was, I had no idea the machine could automatically open the drip stop, and, rather than only removing the lid from the carafe, I took the whole carafe away – assuming the coffee wouldn’t flow until I put it back. So I panicked when, after a few minutes, the coffee started pouring out with nothing to contain it, and I’d already made a considerable mess by the time I’d shoved the carafe back into its place. You might fairly accuse me of being a bit daft here, because the Luxe Brewer did specify to remove the carafe lid. But nevertheless, I find it a bit baffling that this process isn’t explained in the manual.
It also took a bit of fiddling around to work out how to tweak the settings for the Custom and Cold Brew modes. To do this, you need to press the settings button underneath the main dial before selecting the mode you want to adjust. Working out how to stop a brew process once it had started wasn’t obvious, either. I worked out that you simply need to hold down the same dial button used for starting the machine, which is an easy solution, but not something I should have to work out by myself.
Now, for all my complaining about the instruction manual included with the machine, it would be unfair if I didn’t point out that a much more comprehensive manual is available via Sage’s website, which explains in detail how to work the machine, including tips and several pages on troubleshooting. Personally, I would prefer to have a hard copy of this, as I don’t like to read documents on my phone, but I cannot in good faith accuse Sage of not providing proper instructions anywhere. And as I said above, once you’ve worked out how everything works, the Sage Luxe Brewer becomes a very simple machine to use.
Before I move on, I will add that there was one thing I appreciated in the machine’s otherwise scant paper manual: the dosage chart. If you don’t already know what dosages to use (I personally find 6g of coffee per 100ml of water is generally a good rule of thumb for filter brewing), there’s a handy chart with suggestions for each fill line on the water tank.
What’s the coffee like?
I’ll admit I broke a bit of a personal rule when testing the Sage Luxe Brewer: instead of sourcing whole bean coffee and grinding it myself, I bought some pre-ground coffee from my local cafe. Nevertheless, I found that the Luxe Brewer made an excellent cup of coffee.
I did fiddle around with the Custom mode, tweaking the water temperature and bloom time, but found that the SCA-optimised Brew setting made a very balanced cup. I was even pleasantly surprised by the results produced from some cheap supermarket own-brand ground coffee. Some credit is perhaps due to the tank’s water filter, though exactly how big a difference this makes is difficult to determine.
I also tested the machine’s cold brew feature, brewing a few cups’ worth for around one hour, and was very pleased with the results, more so than I was expecting.
As for the carafe, this does a pretty good job of keeping your coffee warm. I found that, if I brewed a big jug of coffee at around 8am or 9am, it would still be warm enough for another cup after lunchtime.
What could be improved?
Beyond including a hard copy of its more comprehensive instruction manual in the box, there are only a few very minor things Sage could do to improve on the Luxe Brewer.
I’ve seen some reviewers grumble that the ring handle on the water tank is too small, and while I’ll agree that it can make things a bit awkward if you’re filling the tank up to the top, it’s a minor inconvenience. I also found that the dripper is prone to spilling some coffee over the top of the carafe lid, but this is rarely anything more than a few drops.
There’s no denying that the Luxe Brewer is an investment, but comparing it against the Moccamaster KGB Select – another excellent filter machine that’s priced similarly – I’d argue it’s better value. If you’re serious about drip filter coffee and don’t want to go down the manual pour-over route, the Luxe Brewer’s price is one worth paying.
