I've been brewing in a Yama TCA-5 for a while now and thought it was as good as it gets. After breaking the funnel I was forced to return to press pot. This just wouldn't cut it. I ordered a new funnel and a Clever Coffee Dripper to use if and when I broke part of the Yama again. Well, that time came sooner than later and onto learning the CCD I went.
This just wouldn't fly for my taste buds. No matter how I brewed I always got an astringent and muddy cup with generic coffee flavors dominated by sharp bitterness. I had an occasionally misleading cup that gave the impression of success, bit never really got to the heart and soul of the bean.
I'd also recently tested my new roaster and was beginning to think it just couldn't produce delicious roasted beans. Nothing overly defective stood out, I just wasn't getting any flavors like the origins descriptions would lead me to expect.
But alas, my roaster kicks butt. I finally ponied up the bidding fingers and won a Cory DX set and there rods. It took an eon to arrive and when it did the funnel tube was cracked. Grrrrrrrrr. But being the glutton for disappointment I am I decided to wash her, fill her, and gently throw her on the stove. I'm still talking about the vacuum pot, get your mind out of the gutter. She bubbled and she rose and she dropped without troubles. 70 grams were ground to a fine auto drip consistency and 40 ounces of filtered water was preheated in my kettle. Yada yada yada, gurgle gurgle, whoosh, hiss. Inspected coffee for glass and the funnel tube for additional breakage. and I poured a small cup.
I've been seriously considering a Sunbeam electric model. Do you find the steel detracts in any way from the flavor?
My roaster is a self built 800 watt drum roaster. I built a mild steel shell with a double walled back and insulated it using refractory wool I used no inner skin and am using just the wool coated in a light spray of thinned mortar which was then re-sprayed after heat curing. This created almost a kiln like shell under the steel. Two one inch steel rods run front to back with bolts connecting the front and back walls yo the rods. These act as aligners and I mounted a 500 watt halogen lamp holder and reflector to each rod, facing up at the drum. These only draw 400 watts each though and I've tried four brands of bulbs so it's an 800 watt not a 1k like planned. A solid walled perforated back style stainless steel drum with ten alternating vanes turns by a dc window motor via a pulley set at 64 rpm. As of now it's passive ventilation stainless it I will add another 500 watt lamp and a cyclone to boost the capacity. Now it's 330 grams max before to much chaff and steam and light tipping.
A full thread with pics is forthcoming I swear.
I can say that coffees I thought were over roasted and astringent two days ago in the CCD were exquisite in my new Cory. I'm drinking a Colombian now that I taste guava and melon rind along with hot cocoa and vanilla custard. It is surreal how good it is. I think I have been using too cool water in the CCD and not accounting for cooling down once it his the coffee bed and plastic. I always poured in at 205 but I tested today and after 30 seconds it sank to 186 so I think I found the issue there but nothing compares to the siphons for brewed coffee. I knew it wasn't my roaster when I brewed fresh Intelligentsia and it was less than stellar in the CCD. I just had no other frame of reference since purchasing well brewed coffee means driving a 88 mile round trip.
No off flavors. Comparing metal to glass;
Because of the big heavy heating element and the metal housing, the 'cool off to vacuum' sequence seemed a little longer than the glass.
Sometimes I'll speed it up by wiping the lower vessel with wet cloth.
If you find one...buy it! -Scott
I've been seriously considering a Sunbeam electric model. Do you find the steel detracts in any way from the flavor?
Jamie
The vacuum brewer is my all time favorite brewing device hands down!
The only time I've noticed any altered flavor with metal versus glass is when the plating thins to the point where brass or copper is exposed to the brew. With good plating you should not be able to tell in a blind cupping. I've cupped the same coffee from my Nicro stainless and through a Kona D and could not tell the difference.
Allen
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
I have a cafetino balance brewer (one of the original dutch ones by that dude that hand made them.. forget who it was), and it's my favorite in terms of both taste and mad scientist factor.
It has drawbacks which make me use it much much less than I want to. If you don't care about cleaning the items thoroughly, it's pretty quick and easy to use, but I do and it's a real pain to clean out the carafe and the vac line. It's also a pretty big pain to release coffee into your drinking vessel, the spigot just kind of dribbles, so I end up pulling the vac line out and just pouring it. Given all the trouble, I only use it for show or when I have a really tasty coffee.
I have a cafetino balance brewer (one of the original dutch ones by that dude that hand made them.. forget who it was), and it's my favorite in terms of both taste and mad scientist factor.
It has drawbacks which make me use it much much less than I want to. If you don't care about cleaning the items thoroughly, it's pretty quick and easy to use, but I do and it's a real pain to clean out the carafe and the vac line. It's also a pretty big pain to release coffee into your drinking vessel, the spigot just kind of dribbles, so I end up pulling the vac line out and just pouring it. Given all the trouble, I only use it for show or when I have a really tasty coffee.
For some time I've wanted to experiment with a cafetino to see if the brew quality was the same/better than a standard vacuum brewer but was hesitant to fork over the $ in case it was a flop. Sounds like the brew quality is very good. Very cool brewer!
The Napier would be a neat build project for experimentation purposes
allenb attached the following image:
1/2 lb and 1 lb drum, Siemens Sirocco fluidbed, presspot, chemex, cajun biggin brewer from the backwoods of Louisiana
I can attest to folks being out and about. Me and Julie were out hitting the garden centers for loading flower pots all day. Nice weather! Tomorrow the Kamado/egg gets fired up!
ginny
05/18/2013 17:32
Jack, it is quiet today, I think the lovely day has folks out and about.
ginny
05/18/2013 17:31
sbonder
thanks for joining us...
JackH
05/18/2013 15:28
Quiet here today.
zombie coffee
05/17/2013 11:02
ricksroasters
thank you for taking time to join us...
allenb
05/15/2013 15:56
nikijack Howdy and Welcome to HRO!
freshbeans
05/15/2013 13:57
FataMorganaCafe
ginny
05/15/2013 03:04
blong2001 thanks for joining us...
ginny
05/14/2013 13:54
that is sweet... thanks for posting lylabrown...
for you
thanks for joining.
for you