How To Use A Syphon Brewer | This Is How We Brew It

Danny: Welcome to another episode of This Is How We Brew It.

Dean: I almost said Gas Station Cappuccino.

Danny: Not today's show. Gas Station Cappuccino, check that out. That's a podcast. We have an episode video as well, but this is how we brew it. We are from Caffeine and Kilos, Danny and Dean, and what were are going to do is we are going to teach you how to use a siphon brewer. Not only are we going to teach you how to use it, neither one of us have actually used it before. It's a really nice kind of realistic take on what to expect. Alright, so first things first, got a little gas lamp here.

Dean: Denatured alcohol.

Danny: Yeah. Denatured alcohol. We just lit it.

Dean: You got to keep it lit.

Danny: You got to keep it lit. We stay lit. You know what I mean? There's that. Then the next thing we need to do is fill this guy with water. Dean, why don't you go ahead, fill it with water there. It says on the side how many cups it holds.

Dean: Who makes this thing?

Danny: This one is made Harrio.

Dean: What's it called again?

Danny: It's a siphon brewer.

Dean: Siphon brewer, okay-

Danny: Previously we've used a Belgium style siphon brewer. This is a vertical siphon brewer.

Dean: Also, the Pyrex is key.

Danny: Yeah, you got to go with Pyrex here. I made sure to brim it so that Dean would. Oh look at that, no problem. Fill it. There it is.

Dean: This is already great.

Danny: Just the Pyrex and filling the-

Dean: Just the whole process here.

Danny: Now what we do is we put the flame directly under the center and let that thing go. Okay? Now, while that is heating up we got a few other steps here.

Dean: Condensation's forming fast here.

Danny: It's cold whatever, so yeah. You can use medium or hot water or whatever, room temperature. Now we take this guy here, which is the top top glass-

Dean: The top part.

Danny: Yeah. And then-

Dean: Is this just a stand?

Danny: That's just a stand, and you can use it for a lid as well. And this is the filter. Now this filter is interesting. It has this long string. It actually has a little bit of a spring in it and it's just a cotton filter that fits right over this.

Dean: Dude, I know what you're supposed to do with this. I'm going to show you. I figured it out, why it has a spring. Check it out. So you go in here-

Danny: It goes in there, yeah, it definitely goes in there.

Dean: Then you pull it and lock it in place.

Danny: Oh yeah. Oh there it is. Now it's got pull hooks.

Dean: Now it keeps a really tight seal.

Danny: Right, so instead of just free floating in there you pull so the hook locks in place. That was not in the instructions, but the instructions were also not in English, so maybe it was.

Dean: Yeah, it was the other symbol next to the other symbols.

Danny: Good, nice. Alright so now we can put that back in there and now we're going to put some coffee in there. Okay? It came with a little scooper, and it says eight-

Dean: What coffee is that?

Danny: This is the Caffeine and Kilos Nitrane blend. It's a dark roast. It has extra, approximately 50% higher caffeine than a standard cup of coffee.

Dean: Dark roast.

Danny: Dark roast, yeah. It comes with this measuring cup that has, or spoon I'd say, that has a little line in there and that's eight grams or all the way is 10 grams and it's basically if you're doing the three cups or the five cups. We're going full boat so we're going full boat.

Dean: Heaping.

Danny: Heaping.

Dean: We always make ours a little stronger too I feel like.

Danny: That goes right in there, and that's the appropriate amount they want.

Dean: Got to do more. Chris told me, my buddy from Five Star Nutrition always said, "What ever the bottle says, you should be able to triple that and you'd be okay."

Danny: There you go. Nitrane blend back there. We got our coffee in here now. Now, what we do is it said to actually, you put this in but you angle. You angle it or maybe you wait while this planning is fine. You put it in there. I think it might have said.

Dean: That looks reckless.

Danny: Once it's simmering. It says you angle it and you let it angle until it hits a slight boil. Then, once the water is boiling, then you upright it. What's going on here is there's a rubber gasket and so right now there's airflow, free flow. It'll help the boil. Once it's boiling, we pop that in there and then it'll create a seal. Right? Anyway, and then it'll help that.

Dean: Do you pour the coffee out of here?

Danny: No.

Dean: It's going to be poured out of there?

Danny: Yeah. How this is going to go down and we'll see it go down.

Dean: That's the handle, how you pour it.

Danny: You got it. How this is going to work and again you'll see it momentarily, is as this boils, we'll flip it. Then this will all go up into here with the coffee. While it's in there we stir it with a spoon. Use the spoon to stir it, and then for I think like 30 seconds or so. Then remove the heat. Once it stops. Then I'll go back down into there, and then we'll pour.

Dean: Very cool.

Danny: This is going to take a little bit of time for this to boil. We'll be right back. You won't even know the difference. We'll get it edited. You going to send them?

Dean: Yeah. We'll see you guys later.

Danny: It's been about seven minutes or so. We're bubbling away.

Dean: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Danny: Is that a boil? Plug this in. That extinguishes itself. You get a little water on it. Pull that out of the way.

Dean: is that supposed to come off, turn off?

Danny: Well no I wasn't supposed to get water on it and come off, bu that's kind of how it goes. Oh it's happening though. Water's getting pulled up in. This actually should still be lit though.

Dean: Yeah, light it.

Danny: Now its all wet though. I don't know if it'll light. This is great.

Dean: I didn't know it was going to catch on fire like that.

Danny: You mean the water? Yeah.

Dean: Oh I thought you had it.

Danny: Me too. Makes for great video. It's realistic. You got to be careful not to overfill that thing, because if the water boils over. Oh, we got a solution right here. Pull that puppy down.

Dean: Good thing we have a back up.

Danny: You grab your other alcohol lamp. Get some heat there. There we go. That's real life right here. Sometimes the not perfect videos are actually the best ones.

Dean: Yeah, we didn't expect that.

Danny: There you go. There's a warning when you use one. Make sure you don't overfill the water. If it boils over, it will put out your lamp. Now we got it going again. The water is heating up again. You can see it's starting to go up the tube.

Dean: When does the extraction take place?

Danny: When it's in here. Once the water actually goes up in this, during the boil, which it has, and is still doing it. It'll go into here and once all the water is in there, we then stir it for about 30 seconds or so, and then after that, we remove the heat. At that point, and it goes back through.

Dean: Now, that the air can't escape, it's now sucking it all through.

Danny: Either when it heats up, it's pushing it through the tube.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: Pretty soon we'll start seeing this get filled with water, which should be starting.

Dean: It looks like the water is starting to go down.

Danny: Go up there. Yeah. A little seepage. A little moisture and seepage in there.

Dean: There we go.

Danny: Here it is. The moment we've all been waiting for. Look at that. It's kind of cool.

Dean: Ooh that smells good.

Danny: Fresh coffee. Like I said, this is a full on chemistry experiment.

Dean: Oh this is great.

Danny: Smell it from here.

Dean: Smells good huh. Um bitch. What's that from.

Danny: Going to start stirring here as it continues.

Dean: There's like a Dave Chappelle marathon on the other day. I was just fully invested.

Danny: Oh dude. That's on, that's what you're doing. Get all the water out of there. As soon as all the water's out, alright go ahead and slide that out now. Wait actually, let's get the last bit of that water out of there. Alright, I think that's pretty much.

Dean: Okay.

Danny: Pop that thing out.

Dean: Normally, this is when you would extinguish the flame.

Danny: Then you'd extinguish the flame, which we did. Not in the classic way. We have our own technique.

Dean: I wonder if this relights yet.

Danny: No, it's got to dry out first. It takes time. Okay. Here we go. There's that.

Dean: Oh almost had it.

Danny: Alright, come back down in. As the temperature cools in here, the coffee goes back down in there.

Dean: We're doing this with the-

Danny: Nitrane.

Dean: Nitrane.

Danny: Yeah. Just got it in the warehouse a couple days ago.

Dean: Yeah, I haven't had the Nitrane on anything besides French press so far.

Danny: Oh. Yeah.

Dean: We should be doing-

Danny: This is cool man.

Dean: That's really cool. This is another great party trick.

Danny: Yep.

Dean: It's by no way, shape, or form a practical way of making coffee in 2018.

Danny: Anybody want some coffee? I'll have some coffee. Okay, yeah.

Dean: You're going to stay the night?

Danny: You pull this thing out. I think there it is. This guy comes out.

Dean: Is it hot?

Danny: A little bit. You rock back and forth, a little sketchy but it says rock back and forth to get it to disengage.

Dean: I don't want you to drop that ball.

Danny: I do not want to drop that ball.

Dean: It's hot too.

Danny: Yeah. There we go.

Dean: There you go.

Danny: There we go.

Dean: There we are. How can we-

Danny: This goes back into your stand.

Dean: How do we make sure that this is tight before we start the pouring.

Danny: I don't think you can. There's this here. Make sure the clamps are on, but it's pretty tight. I filled it with water earlier and poured it out and stuff so I think we should be good to go.

Dean: Okay. Well let's give it a pour here.

Danny: Okay.

Dean: There's the handle.

Danny: There's the handle on it right here. Like a chemistry set.

Dean: There's no spout on this.

Danny: Nope. I'm going to hold on to my hand in case I do spill some and burn myself.

Dean: Oh man, that smells so good. The tobacooy notes from this dark roast.

Danny: Oh yeah? I'm going to get my nose in this bad boy. That smells really good. It's hot.

Dean: It's too hot. I'd be no point in drinking this at this temperature because you wouldn't taste anything.

Danny: Yeah.

Dean: For the sake of the video.

Danny: Yeah, let's burn ourselves. That's good.

Dean: It is good. It's a good ratio, water to grinds.

Danny: You know I think really is about this type of the siphon coffee maker, and earlier with the Belgian siphon coffee maker and this type of thing. It's different than like a drip obviously because the water doesn't just go through the coffee. What's really good about it, I think one of the big benefits is that it actually sits in the grinds. It sits there and the water is, it's almost like a French press in the way that it sits in the grinds and you stir it. The difference is in a French press, yeah you push the plunger down, but the grinds still has some contact with the water. It can get a little more bitter. In this, it's fully emersed, right. You can stir it up. Then it fully extracts it and gets separated from the grounds.

Dean: The grounds will be up top.

Danny: Right. In here we have it's just pure coffee. It's not in contact with any grinds whatsoever, any coffee whatsoever, and so it really is just kind of get it out of there and so it doesn't sit and get bitter.

Dean: No, it's extremely smooth. The dark roast, the Nitrane blend is already extremely smooth, but this just took it up to like another level of smoothness. It's already not a very bitter-

Danny: Dark roast.

Dean: Dark roast at all, but then going through here it's like super pure.

Danny: A lot of times the dark roast you get that bitterness. It's funny. It has that dark roast flavor, but it doesn't have that weird bitter.

Dean: It doesn't coat your mouth really either, negatively.

Danny: I think part of that is a brewing method thing. If you brew things like this is brewed smooth coffee. You know? Let's rate it. What are the categories we rate on?

Dean: I think we just make them up every time.

Danny: Yeah, perfect.

Dean: Efficiency.

Danny: Efficiency.

Dean: Out of 10 I would say a 3.

Danny: A time efficiency.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: Now, coffee efficiency pretty good.

Dean: We actually got a lot out of it.

Danny: 10 grams of coffee you get eight cups. That's actually, or five actually, five to eight is all the way up. Now, that's one thing I will say, it's labeled at three five, but it says it's the eight coffee brewer but if you were to fill it up all the way, it bubbles over and extinguishes the flame.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: Really it's a five. Don't fill up past the five.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: I'd say that's right around here.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: You don't want it to boil over. That's good. Unless you happen to have another denatured alcohol lamp sitting around to be able to pop it up again like we did.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: Efficiency of coffee usage, I'd say it's pretty high.

Dean: Yeah, as far as appeal.

Danny: Appeal this is nine.

Dean: Nine, 10.

Danny: Nine, 10.

Dean: Only think like maybe if they had a cooler looking stand.

Danny: Yeah.

Dean: Stand's kind of janky for the rest of the thing, how cool the rest of the thing is.

Danny: That's true. It's like this plastic.

Dean: A better looking stand might have been getting it. Even if it was chrome like this, it would have been better.

Danny: Another thing is, as far as the cool factor, I think the Belgian is full on 10. The only way I'd say this is maybe a nine under that, eight or nine under that, is because one thing about the Belgian coffee maker is it adds, it's got the scale aspect. When the water is empty, it automatically extinguishes the flame. Whereas here, you have to once the water is empty, you remove the flame yourself and that type of thing. There is a little more going on with that. I mean, hey.

Dean: Coffee taste, I mean, I would give this a-

Danny: Nine?

Dean: At least a nine. I mean, I can't right off the top of my head say this is not as good or not compared to anything else. At least a nine out of 10.

Danny: Yeah.

Dean: The coffee tastes great. It's not watered down. It's not too thick. It's not a concentrate. It's a very drinkable.

Danny: It's not an espresso.

Dean: No.

Danny: It's like a drip coffee type thing but it's very good.

Dean: Yeah.

Danny: There we go. If you want something that's kind of fun. Cost wise it's a little expensive.

Dean: Cost is probably a three or a four.

Danny: Yeah, I think it was like 80 bucks.

Dean: Yeah. Which is cheaper than the-

Danny: Cheaper than the Belgian.

Dean: The Belgian.

Danny: Yeah, definitely cheaper than this guy here.

Dean: That was a whole other deal.

Danny: Actually as far as that goes, everything on this shelf is not that far out of wack.

Dean: Cleaning I would probably give this like a seven or an eight. Probably not that much cleaning involved. Really not.

Danny: Rinse this guy out and then the thing is though, you don't just throw the filter away.

Dean: Oh it's a reusable filter.

Danny: I actually-

Dean: Brought it down to like a six.

Danny: Probably like a five, maybe even like a five. You're going to have to take that out. You're going to have to rinse that, dump the grounds. You got to take that.

Dean: Wash the filter.

Danny: There's that. There you go. If you want something that's kind of fun. Makes really good coffee, but also is fun, good conversation piece, that type of stuff.

Dean: You could leave this out.

Danny: You're vertical siphon brewer.

Dean: You could leave this out it the kitchen, on display.

Danny: Oh definitely.

Dean: Displayable.

Danny: Also, the stand does pop on top, like a little lid, so it's not like you have to have the stand separate. You could just put the stand right on top like a lid for this, so it's not totally out of the way.

Dean: The scooper was nice.

Danny: It was nice. Nice scooper, and it also helps for the stirring.

Dean: Deep scooper too. It's good for the bag. Sometimes you'll get one of these mechanisms and he scooper is always really short. Then you got to dig your hand through the bag and it never usually works out. This, they give you a nice long scooper.

Danny: Yeah. There it is. Alright. There we go. There's your vertical siphon coffee brewer. Hopefully you guys enjoyed some education on how to use it, some not so educational on how to use it. You know what's good about these? It's a real life look. You buy one of these things, it's not going to be perfect the first time you do it. What does it look like for your normal person.

Dean: It looks like this.

Danny: To get this thing popping.

Dean: It looks like this.

Danny: Except we got better stage lighting.

Dean: We're not a pretentious asshole pretending like this is our first time doing it but we've done it 30 times before. You know what I mean. This is how it would probably go down for you too.

Danny: It's how it goes. Alright guys. Thanks for tuning in. Thank you to Caffeine and Kilos, Nitrane blend.

Dean: This fucking Nitrane is good.

Danny: It's so good. Choo, choo. All aboard.

Dean: Flavor town.

Danny: Alright flavortown. Flavortown USA, next stop. Alright this is how we brew.

Dean: See you.