Belgium Coffee Maker | This Is How We Brew It

Danny: It won't be once we light up this bitch.

Welcome to another episode of This is How We Brew it.

Dean: It's how we brew it.

Danny: This is how we brew it.

Dean: It's 2018.

Danny: January.

Dean: And I'm feeling lean.

Danny: Feeling lean?

Dean: No.

Danny: All right. So, today on This Is How We Brew, we are going to go over how to use a Belgium coffee maker. Now it's actually a Belgium royal coffee maker, which-

Dean: Which is only for the upper echelon.

Danny: Yeah. It's a type of siphon coffee maker, so maybe if you look up siphon coffee maker. Some are stacked vertically. Those are referred to as the French balloon. These are Belgium. This is how it works. No electricity needed, so that's nice, and, okay, I've done this once. Dean's done this never, so that's how we like to do these.

Dean: I've never even seen it done.

Danny: Yeah. All right.

Dean: I wasn't even around when it was being done. I wasn't allowed to.

Danny: No. You weren't allowed to. All right, first things first. Down here, this is a-

Dean: What's in there?

Danny: This is basically like a giant candle.

Dean: It looks like a genie's going to come out.

Danny: Yeah. A genie's going to come out. And so inside is actually, some of this bad boy over here, denatured alcohol. So, this involves flames. It involves denatured alcohol, gasoline basically.

Dean: At your local hardware store.

Danny: Yup.

Dean: Bottom ends on. Shifted actually. Going to drink some of it now.

Danny: So, hopefully. Oh first, fill with water. So, unscrew this. This bit here.

Dean: Looks like a chess piece.

Danny: Little chess piece. Little pawn.

Dean: Pawn.

Danny: Little pawn there. I think that's closed. Not sure. And I'm going to fill this part with water. It's going-

Dean: How much water?

Danny: 400 CC's, and I only know that, cause this is supposed to [crosstalk 00:01:44].

Dean: That's a good breast size.

Danny: 400 CC. Like silicon or whatever. It's a good size for all kinds of things I suppose. All right. Last time-

Dean: Every time I think CC's, I just go ... I default to breast implants. Like, when have you ever measured anything in CC's.

Danny: Chemistry class.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: All right. Now, so I got a ... This filled with water.

Dean: You screw in the-

Danny: Screw that back in now. Seal that bad boy up. Screw it back in the pawn. Now, next thing actually is right here, we're going to need to put five tablespoons of coffee in there. So, Dean, I'll put five tablespoons of PR Blend in there.

Dean: So, is that one tablespoon?

Danny: It's one tablespoon. Came with this. It's actually a nice long-

Dean: Yeah. Good for the bag.

Danny: Nice good bag, bag [gator 00:02:33]. Little tablespoon there.

Dean: Thank God these have resealable stuff on them.

Danny: It does make it nice.

Dean: Just saying.

Danny: While you're getting those five tablespoons out, I'm going to start this part, there's a ... It comes with a filter. You need a filter. It's cloth. It's a cloth filter. It has strings on it, and the ends will tie around something. So, there's this little guy here, so I actually put the filter on the ends of this. And we'll tie that up. So it's almost like a little sack. Almost like a little sack on there. Little mini sack or something. Tie that bad boy off. Load of manual labor here.

Dean: Well, that's either five or four. I lost track.

Danny: Yeah. Probably good.

Dean: No, that's fine.

Danny: ????????

Dean: I was kidding.

Danny: All right. There we go. This guy's tied off. Not getting too serious out there. Let your strings hang low. Now, this goes in here, and this part goes in right-

Dean: So, it plugs in like a cork, kind of a cork system.

Danny: Yeah, it's kind of like a cork right there, that makes it tight so it makes a little bit of a, little seal on there. We got the in there with the coffee grounds. Okay. We got a lid. Pop it on this bad boy right here. I don't know if that's what you're supposed to be doing.

Dean: I just wanted it to be more even. I was trying to get it to fall down.

Danny: Oh well, it fills.

Dean: Okay.

Danny: So.

Dean: Oh my God.

Danny: We're going to pause. There we go. All right. Now, all we do is ... don't worry about that. Now, what we do is we open this bad boy here. Oops, spilled a little water. That's key. All right. So, this goes down and now, just by the way, it'll hold that open. Now while-

Dean: This is just gonna use this handle here.

Danny: I didn't know that was an option.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: Go ahead. Push down. Lower for us. There we go. Now we will spark it up. There-

Dean: That thing lights fast.

Danny: Well, it's covered in alcohol.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: Alcohol lights quick. So

Dean: It's a clean burn.

Danny: While this starts going, okay. We are going to go through a few stages here because there is actually there's chilly water in here, so we got straight out of the filter. So, the filtered water so what's gonna happen first is condensation. Then the condensation will dry up, evaporate, and then as the water heats ... Let me explain what's gonna happen. As the water heats, what's gonna happen is then it's going to go through the siphon, through the little hose here, and fill this container.

Dean: Mm-hmm (affirmative)

Danny: As this container fills with water, this will be lighter-

Dean: This chalice.

Danny: This chalice. Is going to be lighter so the balancing will tip right?

Dean: So, there's a tipping point?

Danny: There's a tipping point. Now, as this goes up from the tipping, it automatically extinguishes the flame.

Dean: Oh, so it's resting on the container.

Danny: This goes up. Then boom, and that's the benefit of this compared to the vertical stacked siphons.

Dean: It doesn't- it doesn't turn off the flame itself.

Danny: You have to cut the flame yourself at the right time. This automatically does it at the right time.

Dean: Oh wow.

Danny: So then the flame-

Dean: This is a way more advanced version here.

Danny: Way more advanced version. Then what happens is this is empty from water, but what happened if all the water that was in here, in a sealed container goes into there? What do we have going on here now? Once the temperature cools.

Dean: Hm.

Danny: We've got a vacuum.

Dean: Oh, so you don't want to open that.

Danny: So then it sucks all the coffee, the coffee and the grounds at the appropriate time once the proper extraction is taking place-

Dean: Sucks it through this bag.

Danny: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's why it's called siphon brewer. It then sucks all the coffee out of the chalice back into the pawn.

Dean: So, this is where you actually pour the coffee out?

Danny: And then we got the little spin froth.

Dean: Oh shit. So there's a spik, like a spout.

Danny: Yeah, really small. Comes out really slow.

Dean: Whatever.

Danny: Yeah.

Dean: That's awesome. I can see that part.

Danny: Yeah.

Dean: I didn't realize that that was what it was.

Danny: Oh, it's a whole thing. One little thing. I don't know if maybe a higher-

Dean: First off, hold on. Why are coffee shops not putting on this fucking display?

Danny: Well, part of it is because this takes like 15 minutes.

Dean: Well, I mean-

Danny: We'll cut out and then we'll come back in when the excitement happens-

Dean: I've waited plenty of times for 15 minutes for a coffee that was ... there was no line, it was strictly ... Go to Phil's coffee or something like that, and you're waiting for 15, 20 minutes for a cup of coffee.

Danny: A lot of times they make these in a copper. Made with copper. We got stainless set. They make different colors. And so, it talks a little bit about it here. A little bit about the history, but also gonna give you a brief overview. The first balancing siphon apparatus was patented in the United States. Go USA.

Dean: But it was a Belgium-

Danny: In 1866.

Dean: So, we basically just made a better version of the Belgium invention.

Danny: Right. In a Belgium style, or balance brewer, the process of making coffee is more elegant. So, that's going on here. A lot of people, a lot of reviews of this when I bought it, people are saying, "Oh, it works great. It's a good conversation piece."

Dean: I was going to say, at a great dinner party or something "Oh, check out this shit."

Danny: Yeah, for after dinner. "Hey, anyone want a cup of coffee?" "Oh, I could use a cup of coffee." All right. And then you slap this bitch on the counter, get out the lighter, and you know what's going on now?

Dean: A show.

Danny: A treat. You got a show. Yup that's exactly it.

Dean: Wow.

Danny: Yup.

Dean: It's very cool.

Danny: All right. Let's ... Downside is, it does take a little bit of time because you have to wait for this whole thing to heat up and then, you know that ... But we'll come back in once things start happening.

Dean: All right.

Danny: So this thing is all sealed off. Oh got a little liquid in there. See it just starts to ...

Dean: There it goes.

Danny: Good things are happening. Here we go. Filling up.

Oh yeah. I told you. The excitement is ... It's hard to contain yourself.

Dean: Yeah, it's pretty impressive.

Danny: This is fun. This is kind of fun.

Dean: Let's get some close-ups of that, Aaron.

Danny: Get on that. Get on that action.

Dean: Here it goes.

Danny: And make sure once this guy starts raising up, you wan-

Dean: It's getting faster and louder.

Danny: It's filling.

Dean: Oh this is pretty awesome. This is awesome.

Danny: It's a whole thing. See how the grounds are expanding while they're taking on water? Oh look things are ha- ... Here it goes. Oh.

Dean: Here comes the dump.

Danny: Ahhh. Whoa. And then it cuts it.

Dean: Flame's out.

Danny: Flame's out. No more le flame, only le flare. And then,

Dean: And now the straw is currently sucking the liquid out.

Danny: Now it is sitting and as the temperature drops in the container, right? So it's just sitting there and now, it has a little pressure in there. Once it starts cooling down, air molecules slow down. And now you can see it sucks it back in, sits it back down.

Dean: That's how fast it sucks it through.

Danny: That's how fast it sucks it through. Vacuum, dog. There it is.

Dean: Now, it's ready to pour and enjoy.

Danny: Now, it's ready to pour and enjoy. So they say first thing to do when you're pouring is-

Dean: You grab a caffeine and kilo certified mug. Certified pure blend consuming mug.

Danny: Say you loosen up this top so a little air gets in there. Otherwise-

Dean: You don't want it shooting out.

Danny: Well if you open the spik, nothing will happen here, you know what I mean?

Dean: Oh okay. Just thought it you went too fast-

Danny: Shit's hot. There we go. It's burn yourself just to touch. And there we go. We have coffee.

Dean: Wow.

Danny: It's a little slow coming out of there.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: But that's all right. Perfect. Sorry about that.

Dean: So how many cups does this make?

Danny: 400 CC's is the water, so a couple of cups.

Dean: Yeah, so maybe ... so it's good for a date night.

Danny: Date night?

Dean: You have a Craigslist friend over-

Danny: Yeah.

Dean: That's nice.

Danny: Boy, do I have a treat for you?

Dean: It'd be a story.

Danny: It'd be a story. There we go. And there's some more in there. I just cut it, you know. So that we could get the-

Dean: So it looks to have a pretty dark-

Danny: Yeah it brews pretty thick. Wanna get in there? Check that out. There it is.

Dean: It smells great, but I mean, our coffee always smells good.

Danny: Yeah.

Dean: This looks really hot. Like it'd be too hot.

Danny: Piping. Someone would describe as piping. Yeah, well let's burn ourselves.

Dean: Yeah, here we go.

Danny: Here we go.

Dean: Oh that's good. Oh. It is dense.

Danny: It's dense.

Dean: Yeah. How it almost has an express density to it.

Danny: It's like between.

Dean: Yeah, it's pretty dense.

Danny: I will say though, not the best tasting coffee I've ever had.

Dean: It's-

Danny: It's not the coffee.

Dean: It's too hard to tell right now.

Danny: It's too hard to tell, but what I'm saying is the brewing ... It is very smooth. Perabum is always pretty smooth, but it does seem a little smoother than some methods, but it's not like, "oh holy shit, that's the best cup of coffee I've ever had." You know what I mean? For example, these are espressos, so it's not exactly the same, but like the time of the arrow press or that one pump guy, the one pump dog, you know what I'm talking about? Pump dog millionaire.

Dean: Yeah. That little pocket express machine-

Danny: The little pocket express ... Those to me in my opinion those actually make the smoothest best. You know?

Dean: This is good.

Danny: It's not bad. In my honest opinion, it's fun, and I love it. I'm going to use it sometimes because it's fun. But does it actually make better coffee than other methods? Eh, debatable.

Dean: I don't know. I really like it.

Danny: Well. Well I guess that's where we differ.

Dean: I feel like you get a lot of flavor.

Danny: Oh yeah.

Dean: I feel like you are getting a lot of-

Danny: There's a lot of flavor in there.

Dean: This is kind of how I make it at home. Maybe that's why. I overkill it with the French press-

Danny: Oh yeah.

Dean: I use a lot of scoops.

Danny: I will say this is very similar to a French press.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: Right. Except for the argument here is that this is actually superior because in a French press, you push it down when the grounds are still intact with the coffee. Whereas here, it is completely taken out because there are no grounds in here, so it helps keep out that last little bit of bitter.

Dean: Yeah, it does feel like very granule free. Like I'm not getting any kind of texture at all.

Danny: None. Yeah. Well there we go-

Dean: Which I really like this. I think I have a little bit different opinion-

Danny: Yeah.

Dean: On it than Danny on this. If you like, I don't know. It's very full flavored, but it does have a little bit of spikiness to it. Do you know what I mean?

Danny: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dean: It gives it a little kick. A little spice.

Danny: Yeah- you really taste the flavors.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: Yeah. Well there you go. So there you go. Whether ... I will say this. The Belgium Royal Coffeemaker is definitely fun.

Dean: It retails for $120 dollars?

Danny: Well, they're all over the place. They would be-

Dean: This model here.

Danny: Oh yeah, they're between $120 and $180. About. If you don't like Amazon. That's where we bought it. So it's right in that kind of range-

Dean: It's not your budget apparatus.

Danny: Not a budget ... You know what it is? It's like we talked about. You have people over, after dinner you make a pot of coffee-

Dean: Or Craigslist friend.

Danny: Craigslist friend over. You know. And there you go.

Dean: Yeah. There it is. Very cool. Well that's good. That was fun.

Danny: Yeah.

Dean: Definitely one of the most visual pleasing coffee making experiences I've ever been through.

Danny: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Dean: You can say that again. You know what I mean? Like does it get much better than that? As far as a showman's?

Speaker 1: The whole thing is like there is a balance. Science is involved. You actually get to light something on fire.

Dean: Yeah.

Speaker 1: Who doesn't like that?

Dean: Who doesn't like fire, balance, science, shiny-

Danny: It's a weighted balancing thing here, actually the (inaudible) closes, it's open but that as this lifts up, it closed down because these are weighted. So it's a balancing act there as well. So the whole thing is-

Dean: It' also a safety mechanism too, that it shuts off itself-

Danny: Shuts off itself-

Dean: So, you're in another room, it's done, you don't gotta worry about it falling over, burning the house down-

Danny: That's the things about vertical siphons. The vertical vacuum brewers, or siphon brewers. They shut ... Once they're empty, you shut it down yourself. This has a little more control over that.

Dean: Wow.

Danny: So there you go.

Dean: Very cool.

Danny: This is how we brew it.

Dean: This is how we brew it. See you guys.