I’ll post a report on the Brazen at some point, but may be an unreliable witness, because I really have no prior experience working with good equipment.
Does ‘blooming’ have an effect similar to that of soaking in a French press?
Good thread, thanks again to Yaacov and others who commented.
It’s that “blooming” setting that most interests me, frankly. I do that manually with my Technivorm and I do think it makes a difference in the richness extracted into the coffee. So, the feature is a big plus, if it works. I think the machine also more evenly distributes the spray than does the Technivorm. But, I’ve never seen/used one.
ian - yes. blooming basically prepares the coffee for maximum infusion or extraction depending on the method. for example, better espresso machines call this (ironically) pre-infusion; a certain amount of water is released at a lower pressure to soak the puck before it ramps up to brew pressure. it also has the added benefit of soaking as much coffee as possible. if you pour water through coffee, it will find the easiest path and stick with that and some of your grounds will stay dry - in espresso, this is called channeling. if you watch a video of pour over technique, you’ll see the barista pour it slowly in a circle to achieve this.
the better drip machines will indeed have a shower screen that evenly distributes the water over the grounds and will also likely have the option to pre-soak the grounds by closing off the machine before it brews into the carafe, etc, and then opening it.
This Brazen machine apparently not only has the best, even spray, but , also, has a setting where the machine can be set for a variable time to allow for the blooming, and then start again automatically. No manual work required.
The prospect of messing around with this brewer is something to look forward to on Christmas.
I know most of us on here have some coffee geeky devices. Mine aren’t expensive but I like the results. My go to are a vacuum insulated french press with dual screens (something I got from kickstarter), a mokapot, and a manual drip with ceramic filter holder and chemex filters. I don’t go for espresso, lattes, and the sort. A plain Americano or strong drip coffee works for me. Hario manual burr grinder, Barefoot or Blue Bottle beans.
But recently I’ve been experimenting with non-coffee geek devices and beans to see how good of a cup my noncoffee geek friends can get. In my opinion, one can have a pretty decent cup. I have an old blade grinder and a Krups drip coffee machine that I break out when we have a lot of guests over. The difficulty with blade grinders is that you the bottom of the cup can be cut really fine while the top of the cup are big boulders. So I do a shaking tapping thing to help get the beans get evenly ground. Not perfect but the best one can do with a cheap blade grinder. For the coffee machine, mine has the spring valve so that when the carafe is removed, no coffee drips down. When I start the machine, I purposely remove the carafe so that I get the bloom and soak effect for the first cup of water or so. For the water itself, I find the machine doesn’t heat the water hot enough so I use tepid/warm water to fill the machine. For beans, I used Trader Joes single origin (kinda) beans like their tanzania peaberry, bali blue moon, etc… no more than $9 for 13 ozs.
The end result is pretty good I have to say.
I have two of the Espro presses as well, and they are awesome. Amazing heat retention (in addition to the grit reduction). The company is also pretty well-established outside of kickstarter. I have one of their training tampers too.
Mike – I read the Bonavita doesn’t brew well if you’re making less than a full pot. Has this been your experience?
I read the same thing before I bought it, but I brew a full pot every time, so I’ve never had to worry about it. The pot isn’t huge - Lauren and I drain it almost entirely every day without trying too hard.
BTW - I’ve been buying beans from Red Bird for the last few weeks and really like the product for the price - basically grocery store prices with a big step up in quality.
Completely switched my gear over the holidays and now have been using it a week.
Using a r58 and a k10. While I am not near perfection, the difference between this setup and the Silvia is night and day. Let’s just say I have yet to make a sink shot in many many tries.
We’ve been brewing in the Brazen for a week now , grinding with a Capressa. The Brazen is a nice set-up with decent control options, as discussed upthread. Makes a nice, clean cup of coffee. I can’t compare with Technivorm, never having tasted coffee brewed with one, but it comes near to the best quality we get from Central Roasters, our area roasting place. Large quality step up from Cuisineart, and easier to use.
I’ve had some overflow issue using just the metal seive, without a paper liner, but think this may be a grind issue: if I grind a bit coarser, the problem diminishes. The instructions say something about this, but I’m surprised at how coarse the grind must be to wholly eschew the problem. Even when there’s no overflow, the soak apparently floats the grounds all the way up to the level of the spray/drip nozzles, so a wipe to clean is mandatory after every pot. But these aren’t serious complaints.
The Capressa is very adequate so far for my very moderate coffee geek.
ummm, yeah. that’ll work. i’m kinda jealous. enjoy!
I think all of those machines that brew at the Brazen/Technivorm temps are huge steps up from the consumer brands. I was a skeptic as decade ago, but…when I bought my Technivorm, I was totally convinced of the effect of temperatures. (And, that could be the only significant difference…though the Brazen seems to have some other helpful features that Technivorm, Newco don’t.)
Re: grind size, I’ve had the overflow problem when I ground too fine. I used to think finer was better…up to a point. But…that point is way coarser than I would intuit.
Have you used the bloom feature? I really think blooming does matter…this am, I forgot to stop my machine for a couple of minutes and the coffee was noticeably less rich and, when I dumped the grinds, found portions of them dry and non-participants in the drip process. Blooming would spread the moistening and, therefore, oils.
Right, same here.
[…]Have you used the bloom feature? I really think blooming does matter…
I’ve been doing a 30-second, as recommended in the instructions for coffee that is roasted more than a few days prior to grinding. We haven’t learned to manage our procurement to ensure we get freshly-roasted beans - this may be our next job.
I recall the first few times I had a really clear cup of coffee at Central Roasters - a real eye-opener. Interesting the little things you can do to improve quality of life.
+1, especially of the K10 Fresh!
It’s a k10 pb. Have almost gotten the doser figured out. I clean the chute before I grind with a 1 in paint brush. Turn on the switch for a four count and fill my 18 gram vst basket. Pretty happy with the results so far
TMI! ![[wow.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/7/7d450e9830889c8943b674446a21b7254cad657e.gif "wow"){kind=small}
is the vst basket legit or vapor? seems like high-end speaker cables to me. but haven’t tried.
I don’t know what Mark thinks about his, but I use the VST 20g basket and I think it’s a pretty decent investment. However, more novice users will see a bigger jump in consistent extraction since it offsets to a degree problems behind the portafilter or with a less consistent grind. I doubt it would be that revelatory for someone at your skill level, but I bet you’d appreciate it just the same. Less than a Zalto.
Even though I have. Ice toys now, my skill is still developing. I am also one of those guys who try’s lots of things simply to note the difference.
I seem to be able to pull my best shots for straight espresso with my vst 15. I use my vst 18 for my cappas in the am. I have yet to get a really good pull from the 20. I can’t tell you why. I feel as though I need to move the grind back a bit courser on the 20 than I do on the 15-18. I don’t really like moving the grind once I have a bag of beans dialed in…I waste enough coffee now.
Is it better than my standard double basket…hmm. I don’t know on the same dose, but since I use the 18 most of all I think getting a slightly larger basket is worth the 20 bucks
interesting - thanks. i typically resist any changes once i get what i want - but that’s a somewhat moving target. 18.5g on my machine seems optimal for about 32-34g of espresso. lots of richness, but very balanced.