Vacuum Coffee Maker - How does it work? Demo

[jdscally]

Thanks for the video it finally pushed me over the top and I just ordered one of the Bodum Santos/Pebo models and want to see what the difference is between this and a drip system using freshly ground peaberry coffee beans.

In the video I noticed that not all of the water is drawn into the upper reservoir - is there a guide to how much should be left in the lower reservoir when you turn the heat off, or is it personal preference.

[damianrawle]

@jdscally i don't think the user has any control over how much will be left at the bottom when you turn the heat off because with the same heat applied, this will be the same each time since the pressure in the bottom and the top need to be balanced out. Without a little water/vapour still in the bottom chamber, there is no pressure holding the water up the top.

You can make more of the water/steam travel to the top by turning the heat up higher, but doing this too much will burn the beans

[beez7005]

what is wrong with some of the replies from some of these peeps???? get a life please.

Thanks for posting the video as I am intrigued by the vacuum pot and am considering getting one.

[pipersnakis]

My Dad used these coffee makers in his little greasy spoon restaurant back in the 40's and the 50's. People used to flock to our little cafe/restaurant for the coffee...they loved the stuff. Easy to clean and fast. Also is fun to watch! Try one and you will be surprised at how good the coffee it makes is.

[latka101]

@pipersnakis Your dad musta been a negro along with the flock. I can vividly imagine a wide eyed flock of negro tentatively watching a pot of water boil like it was some sort amazing magic.

[pipersnakis]

@latka101 You sir are a joke and not a particularly funny one. It is people like you who cannot let go of their prejudices, that good people sometimes run into and regret the meeting!! Grow up! Or is that possible for one frozen in time?!

[pipersnakis]

@latka101 By the way, my family and father is Greek by ancestry...or do you have prejudices about them too.

[1bleaugirl]

Thank you for the great video. I think this is exactly what I was looking for! I was considering a Chemex, but this has the added element of fun. Its a great post

As for those overly concerned with convenience, and "messiness" you are in the wrong place. This is for people looking for a better cup of coffee at home. If you want convenience, look to Mr.Coffee. Want an excellent cup of coffee, figure out how to pass 195-205*F water through beans in under 6 minutes! This here is one way

[gkrausmann]

The equipment looks fragile, and the process looks messy.

[latka101]

@gkrausmann considering that most negros can make a meal out of chicken guts and pigs feet, a little mess in the coffee pot ain't nothing.

[charlie11877]

@TheTongueTerrorist. Making coffee this way if done properly is one of the absolute BEST ways to drink coffee... The bold earthy taste make a syphon one of my favorites along aside a French press... Try it... You'll see...

[BornRandy62]

found one of these in a antique shop long before ebay was a reality :) it has been on a shelf since because I had no clear idea how to use it. thanks for the tutorial.

[yolo22]

this looks like it's got all the benefits of the french press but without messy cleanup! my one question is, if i want to make just one cup/8 oz. of coffee, would that be a problem with this method?

[szymongruszczynski]

thank you for video.

i have a question: can you use already made coffee to create a next one (i.e. replace "clean" water with coffee)- super strong one (kind of Black Blood of the Earth)?

[infin1ty]

@szymongruszczynski Reheating the coffee back to a temperature that would allow it rise back up into the globe would degrade the quality of the coffee. You could do it, but I wouldn't recommend it.

[walterbuddha]

I just saw one for the first time while visiting Japan. Thanks for the video.

[TheTongueTerrorist]

I for one can't wait to buy something that will take 10 minutes to make a coffee. What will they think of next? Microwave ovens that take 40 minutes to warm my soup?

[MorningStar765]

O.O this is the most amazing coffee maker in the world! I want one! how much does one of these things run?

[Johanvideo525]

i welcome any means of making good coffee, this looks cool.

[TurboLoveTrain]

The heroin of coffee

[jknapps]

@TurboLoveTrain... no way. Are you serious? Is it that good?? it does look a pain to clean but I guess Bruno2260 is right. 3 parts is less than the 5 parts in a Pyrex stovetop percolator which has the glass stem that is a beotch to clean inside properly!

[TurboLoveTrain]

@jknapps I've been addicted to coffee since I was 15 (33 now) and I can honestly say of all of the methods for making coffee I've tried--French press, percolator, single cup screen (with filter/without filter), Turkish, single-serving tea bags, single serving charges, Americano, Un Cafe, ... this method is the best. But thats just like, my opinion man.

[mont1020]

it not vaccum its presure silex operation

[ETericET]

That's great ... now that it has made the coffee when does it start to vacume the place?

[LackOfLOL]

@ETericET No :l You can do better than that.

[geosutube]

@PatrioticOhioan When you take the maker off the heat, the vacuum in the bottom pot draws the coffee back down. The pressure is atmospheric pressure. The flavor is better because the filters are more open and don't have paper flavor. You need a coarse grind for best results. Some water heat is lost in expansion into the upper, cooler chamber. Great flavor! Smooth and rich.

[dynomike1964]

This is like moving the house to tighten thre clothes line.

[Ghstwn]

In a nutshell folks, it's been stated that the process sucks. ( I wonder how many heads that went over. ) ;D

[Godskid2009]

I bought one of these coffee pots today from a thrift store and paid $6 for it. Now I know how to use it, thank you.

[MuraKun]

@PatrioticOhioan This actually doesn't heat up to 100°C, the bubbles you see are actually because the vacuum is pulling more air. It is said that coffee is best made at around ~90°C and the water starts to go up around that temp or a bit less.

[trombone7]

I know if I saw this video a while back I'd think it was some kind of science experiment. Actually this is an established way of making coffee. Yama and Bodum both make a model. They seem to go for around 40 - $50. Good video, time lapse instead of cutting is good. Still unclear on the actual concept. Need a dry-erase board diagram for me. How does the coffee pass through the filter so fast ? What is the vapor / liquid bypass ? Thanks.

[TilmanBaumann]

Always a nice party trick

[sublime88sublime]

i love the piano

[scw1217]

Very cool. I saw one of these in a movie dated 1947 and had to find out what it was. Great video.

[Heerenigingdeclub]

Great contraption!

The other day I actually saw a chef making a fishbroth this way. A nice selection of fish, shrimp, ginger, lemongrass and chives where placed in the upper bowl. After ten minutes, his guests had a tremendous fishsoup! Nice video!

[geosutube]

@Heerenigingdeclub Thanks for the suggestion. Your chef is an experimenter, for sure. Some of the best chefs are.

[jib1000]

I feel like that last 8oz or so of water that never went into the grounds must make your coffee weaker than it should be.

[deilax]

@jib1000 If he was only putting in enough coffee in the top pot for the water that will reach the top, than yes. However, you put in enough coffee for how much water is being used. If you were to drink just the coffee from the top it would be much stronger than the mixture in the bottom.

[geosutube]

@jib1000 It would seem that way, but in reality it does not. Good, rich, smooth flavor.

[markpianoman]

Will the Cory glass filter work with this pot?

[akatsu12]

ahhhh so that how it works............

[MiNdFrEaK33I]

#LOL how does it work??

[benjorgensen1]

accualy if you look close you can see the first part of the water coming into the grounds about 1:50. so it is about a 7 min brew. plus they did no stiring and mintioned nothing of it, there are many ways to use a siphon brewer. more ways to make bad coffee then there are to make good, but good vac pot coffee is far better then any other brew method. save espresso (if properly done, which is even more rare)

[sunnycitizen]

so...........what does this do that a properly used plunger won't? Sorry if that sounds ignorant but the whole thing seems kind of superfluous and overcomplicated to me.

[WakeUpVibes]

@sunnycitizen It is one way to make coffee. If you compare it to properly used plunger (or any other properly used coffee machine), it does pretty much the same thing - makes coffee. Pretty simple, isn't it?

[sunnycitizen]

@WakeUpVibes Yeah, I wasn't hating, just curious. I'm pretty intrigued - will have to find somewhere near home that does it. I'm so used to the espresso extraction method that I guess I feel like this would be a watery brew unless you used a shitload of grinds. cheers for posting tho, nice to see how this actually works.

[davideshafer]

@sunnycitizen Yes it does seem very Rube Goldberg to me as well. Neet though!

[vcslkvprs]

@sunnycitizen Coffee's not all about just drinking coffee... Some people (me in particular) are obsessed and fascinated with the art of making coffee. Coffee can be treated much like wine. Different origins of beans, and blends make different coffees, all worth proper exploration. Different brewing techniques all make different styles of cups of coffee. It's all about discovering different ways to utilize the beans.

And it's fun. And delicious.

[Jitenshadesu]

If the coffee is steeping for more than 5 minutes, YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG :D

seriously though, this would kill good coffee. A solid brew goes 4:30 - 5 min for a complete cycle on my yama 5(US)-cup w/ cory rod.

[WakeUpVibes]

@Jitenshadesu Well, if you pay attention to the video, you can see that the water starts going up around 4.30 and the coffee is ready (meaning back down in the bottom globe) around 9.30, which according to my calculations means that the water spends in the ground about 5 minutes altogether. The first four and half minutes goes for heating the water.

[jebohebl]

@WakeUpVibes cleaning is easy,,,,i just hold the top, once it's cooled, over my compost pot, and pour in a couple cups of water to flush it out.

i do have a problem when brewing an 8 cup pot...seems to vapor lock and the coffee takes 10mis or so to come down.......??? anyone else have this problem.???

[scarekrow9]

@jebohebl I had that problem before, i just started using a more coarse grind to the coffee, as on my first attempt it was too fine and got stuck in the glass filter, haven't a problem since, and been brewing coffee like this for years.

[latka101]

@scarekrow9 my great grandma was a negro, it had no teeth.

[geosutube]

@Jitenshadesu The time is controlled by the temperature in the bottom pot. Once it comes off the heat, it cools down quickly enough. In my opinion only, it's up to the maker person, more than the maker, pot. In my experience over decades of drinking vacuum made coffee, there has never been any problem. The first time I experienced vacuum made coffee, I was amazed at the smooth, rich flavor, and I grew up in a coffee-drinking city, New Orleans, where even as children we drank coffee.

[bruno2260]

I'm very interested in the system, but it looks like a real pain to clean. Is it flavor/taste worth the toils of cleaning it? -please explain or post a video of the cleaning process.

[WakeUpVibes]

@bruno2260 Sorry about the late reply. The cleaning is pretty easy actually, since there are only three parts - two separate glass globes and removable filter.

[baguazhang2]

@bruno2260

You can make your own for a hell of a lot cheaper, and actually improve significantly over the original design with no consumables and easy cleanup.

[johnny85er]

who did the music??? that's wonderful!

[WakeUpVibes]

The music is made by Kevin MacLeod. You'll find his website url in the end of the video.

[darthvaderyoda]

so does the coffe come out watery? because there was a fair amount of water in there when the coffee went in

[WakeUpVibes]

That really depends on how you dose the coffee grounds. It's bit different than in drip coffee, but not too much. The water spends some time in upper globe, so it gets to steep longer than in drip coffee. It's also good idea to make little experimenting in the beginning to find the right amount of coffee grounds that work for you with this kind of coffee maker.

[klarinetta]

Respond to this video...

If there is less than 2 cm of water left in the down part then you have to take it of the heat because the glass can crack. That's also why some cheap models(don't know if this one goes in that category) have to thin glass that taking a cold towel to speed up the process of the coffee going down could lead to a crack. I know at least it won't do for the Hario or Cona tabletop vacuum brewers.

[ranier202]

I dont get it, I have the same bodum vacuum pot but when the water went up and wants to go down again when cooling off, the coffee grounds jam the filter and notthing happens anymore... do you do something special?

[WakeUpVibes]

You are probably using too fine grounds, that's likely the reason, they jam the filter. Try coarser grounds. Let us know, if it helped.

[klarinetta]

@ranier202 Bodum instructions says that you should use coarse ground coffee but I got mine today and I used grind like for filter drip with good result just a tiny bit grounds in the last few drops but no mud like with French press. I used water that I already boiled and not until the water was all up(except 2 cm) I put the coffee in,stirred and put the lid on to let it steep for one minute. The whole process for half a pot(0.5 liter)took like 5 minute(less than in a French press).

[klarinetta]

@ranier202 And the reason for not putting coffee in until all the water has pushed up is because some water will escape before it reach the ultimate temperature that should be around 195-200°F. I still have to see if a longer steeping time and/or a tad coarser coffee will be better.

[klarinetta]

@ranier202 The coffee I used was some Kenya AA coffee and I think that this method as well as the filter method might be most suited to coffee from Africa or maybe the Mocha Java blend and some other coffees with more body and less acidity would be better for French press. Well I don't have a favorite method just like each to go with different coffees.

[WakeUpVibes]

As far as we know it is not used for making a tea.

[IamSteelManS]

Nice video...Can we taste(get) coffee CREMA from using those siphon heaters as espresso machine does...?

[WakeUpVibes]

Not really, it makes regular coffee not espresso.

[IamSteelManS]

O! I see - no crema...

Thanks for letting me know...

[torsinl]

in a percolator the coffee can be brewed (pulled through the grounds) more than once from what I understand.

[WakeUpVibes]

Yes, indeed. In vacuum machines, however, water is pulled through the grounds only once.

[couchebag]

I've tried percolators and it's not good. The problem with percolators is that they boil the coffee as it gets passed through the grounds many times. Boiling coffee creates a burnt over brewed acidic flavor. This vacuum method is about as close to a French Press as you can get, with an entertaining show to boot.

[8bitPikachu]

i want one of thoughs and i dont drink coffee

[lemsta123]

this is a really good video m8 you have made a simple thing as making a coffee and turned it into a science experiment :> NICE WORK !!

[shawneechief]

Looks great. Is this the same process as the old percolator?

[WakeUpVibes]

There are some similarities, but it's not the same. The water is forced up in a somewhat similar way, in percolator however it's not sucked down by vacuum, but it drips down.

[pjsmetana]

This is the older type... the percolator came after the vacuum coffee maker. No this is not the same process.