Syphon Brewing
[vimeo id="29313181"]
This recipe is included in the recent publication for Hario and Brewed By Hand's waterproof brew chart. It also features amazing recipes from James Hoffman on the V60, Ross Brown of Brown's of Brockley on the French Press and James Bailey at Workshop Coffee on the beautiful Hario Woodneck.Safety: When heating it is important to have the filter fitted properly to the base of the upper chamber and clamped to the bottom of the stem with the steel chain resting on the floor of the bottom chamber. This chain provides a nucleation point for bubbles to form as the water reaches 100degrees Celsius. This prevents the water from getting superheated which can cause the glass chamber to crack.
1. Temp: 94degreesC
Syphon is our most temperature stable brew method. Water boils in the bottom chamber and is delivered into the top chamber ready for coffee to be added. Warm air bubbles fizz up through the stem that prevent the temperature profile from dipping. The temperature would climb very gradually but we can ease turn down the heat source by half and hold the water temp wonderfully stable at 94degreesC.
2. Dose
Coffee 15g (fresh)-Brew water 230g (pH Neutral, ppm 80-120).With Syphon you can add a small amount of coffee to a large amount of hot water which flattens out the temperature profile even more.(Drip coffee has a very contoured temp profile as we are gradually adding water to coffee rather than coffee to the water.)
3. Time
Bring your Syphon to the boil with the top chamber loosely sitting in the bottom chamber without being sealed. Once water in the lower cavity has hit a rolling boil, you can gently seal the top cavity to the bottom cavity. The bottom cavity will pressurise and expanding air will displace the water up the stem into the top chamber. Reduce heat by half and brewing can commence.0 sec: Add the coffee and with minimal agitation, ensure all the grinds are wet.30 sec: The stable temp needs a stable method. Stir with a cross shape (North, South, North, South, East, West, East, West) only to break the crust. Not too vigorous. Nothing you can't replicate.1min: Remove from the heat source (the small amount of water in the lower cavity can be a bit hot so it's best to remove the syphon from the burner). Give the slurry one gentle 360degree circular stir to induce the draw-down and to make an even dome shape out of the coffee bed. This helps ensure equidistant paths through the grinds en route to the bottom chamber to promote more even erosion of grinds.1:30sec: Draw-down complete. Immediately remove the top chamber that contains the spent grinds.
4.Grind
We grind around the same size we do for a 2min pour-over but remember contact time and grind are optimised for flavours, taste and texture through trial and error. Experiment with longer and shorter contact times with correspondingly coarser and and finer grinds. Syphons prepared with longer steep times tend to have a rounder, smoother mouth-feel but perhaps less aroma. Most baristas tend to favour shorter contact times.