Meet Gort!

[BozemanEric]

 The Brazan has been getting quite work out over the past week. I moved up to my parents house to watch their dogs while they were out of town and it was the only brew method that I bought with me. At least two pots of days have been brewed and I have learned some new things.

First, the timer does not work for us. Twice I have ground coffee the night before for the fiancé and set the timer. Twice she has turned her alarm off and slept in.  I then get out of bed, dump out the eight-hour-old grounds, grind fresh stuff, and brew a pot. I am sure the timer functions, we just can't seem to figure out how to make it work for us.

I have great luck with 6 cup and 8 cup pots. I cannot get the same complexity out of something that is brewed at the calibration line. We have tried anywhere from 32 to 40 g of coffee and I just cannot get the same distinction in the cup. I am not saying it makes a bad cup of coffee at the calibration line. It is still very good, it is just not the same.

Still the only complaint I have is the way it pours. My carafe is near impossible to poor without getting some drips down the side. At some point I would like to see extra carafes, that poor better, become available for sale. If I had an extra carafe, I think the Brazan could serve the needs of my largest dinner parties.

[BozemanEric]

I haven't tested out the timer feature to know if it works or not.

I can confirm that the timer works. I can not speak to the coffee as I tossed what was left in the pot and made a fresh one when I got up.

[pgde]

Hi:

Just got my Brazen for Xmas from Santa. I have calibrated as per the manual. Our house is at 2982 feet. Considering that the boiling temp changes with altitude, shouldn't the temperatures that y'all are posting for extraction from different beans would also vary with altitude? In other words, here at our elevation, water boils at 206 degrees. For brewing, people are using anywhere between 201 and 204 degrees. But, wouldn't coffee extraction be different if those temperatures are for water boiling at 212 degrees? And, if that is true isn't boiling temp or altitude an important fact to know?

The reason I am asking is that I continue to get bitter (which I take to mean over-extracted) coffee at 201 degrees with all kinds of test grinds and holding the coffee amount constant (at 2.0 ozs per 1.2 liters). I tried 199 (a generic Panamanian coffee) and the bitterness was reduced significantly. I was going to try going lower, but was curious why my temperatures were so low in comparison to what has been posted here previously.

Thanks for your input and Happy New Year!

P.

[BozemanEric]

I think the brew temp for beans should not vary with elevation. 201 is 201 regardless of where you are. I am at about 5000' and I brew 80% of my beans at my max of 201. They turn out great. My only complaints are the dribble kettle and the fact that I am loosing all my manual brewing skills. The Yama has not come out of the cupboard in months.

[pgde]

Hi All:

Thanks for the responses. Here is my thinking concerning temperature (in response to BozemanEric). If your boiling point is 212 and you are using a 201 temp (for instance), there is a 11 degree difference. If your boiling point is 206 and you are using a 201 temp, you only have a 5 degree difference. Therefore, it seems to me, there should be a difference in extraction rates.

Yakster -- thanks for the differentiation between the two! I had been wondering about what the difference is. In our case, there is no pucker. You may be correct in regards to coffee quality. I had been cheaper commercial quality coffee so as not to waste my more expensive (and limited stock) coffees obtained from here and SM. I am going to try some "real" home roasted coffee (El Salvador Honey Bourbon roasted to a City/City+) later today. It has been resting for 4 days now. Will let you know how it goes. In regards to amounts, I am using the amount suggested on page 5 of the manual under "Brewing Instructions" where it says "Use 8-10 tablespoons (2 oz) for a full pot." My other brewer is a Krups MokaPot Pressure brewer and I have noticed that to get the same strength in the cup, I have to use twice as much coffee (as well as adjusting the grind to a coarser grind).

Also, FYI, I am using the gold filter without any paper filter and my pre-soak time is 15 seconds.

Thanks again for the responses!

P.

[BozemanEric]

In regards to amounts, I am using the amount suggested on page 5 of the manual under "Brewing Instructions" where it says "Use 8-10 tablespoons (2 oz) for a full pot."

I use, as a benchmark:

36g for calibration line (Rarely brewed)
50g for .9L line (Mostly brewed)
66g for 1.2L line (Occasionally brewed)

[staylor]

I'm really running tight for time today, I'm trying to pack for a 24hr Solo mountain bike race in Arizona this weekend and I have to drive to Spokane airport this evening to fly in the morning. Things were already a bit out of control and then I received the Brazen an hour ago...

Oh no!

Now I find myself setting it up and checking in here to see what the recommended parameters are so I can brew a mug of Kenyan. Why couldn't it have arrived tomorrow. ;-)

[milowebailey]

Good to see that your priorities are in the right place!  You probably even have time for a sour or two.

[staylor]

Good to see that your priorities are in the right place!  You probably even have time for a sour or two.

Got home and in bed by 0330hrs this morning, I'm almost back in the land of the living. Had a chance to do a Kone 2/Chemex pourover this morning vs. the Brazen, using the same Kenyan on both brews. Already starting to form an opinion, though it's still early days. Will play around with it some more and post back on my thoughts.

[BozemanEric]

Being that almost a year has passed since most of us got our Brazan I thought it would be a good time to revive this thread.  I would like to know what you owners think after a year of use. One thing I always liked on reviews were when they asked if you would suggest this product to a friend or if you would buy it again. So here is mine:

Would you suggest this to a friend? No.
Would you buy this product again? No.

Don't get me wrong, the Brazen makes a great cup of coffee. I just feel as if it was rushed to market and did not spend enough time in R&D. Here are the things that drive me crazy about this unit:

The dribbling carafe. I have a $200 coffee maker and I cannot even take to the table at a dinner party and pour directly out of it without making a mess of the table settings. At first I did not think this would bother me but after a year of dealing with this issue I believe it is a huge flaw.

My first unit was returned to Behmor. This was an arduous process involving multiple emails back and forth before they decided to replace the unit. It was retaining water and the upper reservoir and I was told they had never seen this problem before. The issue was posted on many other coffee sites prior to my contacting Behmor.

I cannot make a full pot of coffee with fresh beans regardless of how long my presoak time is. If I have beans three day off roast they always overflow the filter basket even when I have my presoak set at 3 to 4 minutes.

I have a crack in the bottom of one of my vertical supports.

Rebekah does not like the fact that when you pull the filter basket out an excess amount of water drips down onto the base of the unit. This does not bother me but it seems to still be an issue.

What we like about the Behmor Brazen:
It does make a good cup of coffee.
Rebekah especially likes the timer feature.
I especially like that elevation calibration.
I especially like the presoak function.
Rebecca is very hard on things and has not broken it yet. It seems to be durable, except for the crack. She uses it a lot more often than I do.

[BozemanEric]

The crack

[hankua]

+1

My first brewer died immediately after arrival and a second one came soon after. It's been a year now and the internal valve is not releasing all the water in the reservoir.
I use glacier vending water which is R/O with carbon filters on my coffee machines, so that's not the problem. The internal release valves have a failure rate and are not
user replaceable, so if yours goes out the machine is toast. What's the failure rate on these? It could be in an acceptable range, but what is that number?

Cosmetically my Brazen looks great and the drippy carafe is not a problem. My first carafe had the seal mounted incorrectly and  Behmor shipped a replacement which
was nice. I was able to take the first carafe apart and reseal the top section. But two carafes with a broken brewer is really not much help.

On the plus side the Behmor Brazen is the best brewer I've ever had.

Would you suggest this to a friend? No.
Would you buy this product again? No.

Good thing I have a Chemex in the closet; it works 100% of the time. 

[BozemanEric]

It seems as soon as Behmor fixes one problem another arises.  I have to thank them for the new carafe spout although in my mind the original, dribble spout, should have never made it past the assembly line. Now my Brazan is holding water again. This is my second Brazen.  The first was replaced after an arduous week of emailing back-and-forth with Behmor. They tried to blame it on my water, on obstructions, and anything else on my and they could.  First, they told me they had never heard of this problem even though it was all over coffee blogs. 

I know people rave about Behmor service but I have found it to be unsatisfactory.  When my first Brazen started acting up, it should've been replaced immediately. If a product does not work out of the box, the only acceptable course of action, is an apology and a swift replacement. I do not expect to tinker with it for a week before Behmor takes any fault.  Now my replacement, that is a little under a year old, is having the same water retention problems in the reservoir. This morning I poured over two thirds of a cup of water out of the reservoir after it was done brewing. Honestly, if I cannot fix this problem quickly myself the brazen will be thrown in the garbage and a TV will be under the Christmas tree this year. 

Between the crack in the supports, water retention problems, dribble spout, excess water on the shower head, and fresh coffee blooming up into the showerheads I can say I am not very happy with this product.  The one positive is, when it is working, it does make a tasty cup of coffee.

[pgde]

Check to see if a vacuum is forming in the chamber. Does the lid come off easily? After a year of perfect functioning, I noticed about .75" of water remaining. I cleaned the screen and noticed that the lid did not easily come off. It was being held by a  vacuum. You can check this by leaving the lid ajar on the chamber. If the water goes completely through, then it is a vacuum problem (caused by the heating and cooling of the plastic lid). They will send you a new lid which solved my problem.

I also disagree that upon a customer's dissatisfaction that a unit should be immediately replaced. Perhaps it is the way the post was worded, but I would think it is SOP to do some troubleshooting before making a replacement decision. And, how does a support crack without some kind of kinetic energy applied to it?

[BozemanEric]

I don't think you misunderstood the post. I do not believe my current Brazen should be replaced. I do however believe that if a product straight-out-of-the-box does not function properly it should be replaced, immediately.  This did not happen with my first to Brazen. I had emailed back and forth numerous times and tinker with it endlessly before they seem to take me seriously.  Troubleshooting is one thing, but the lengths they made me go through to convince them that my unit was defective was a little taxing. With all the time I wasted trying to convince Behmor that it did not work, I would've been money ahead to just throw the first one away and order a new one. I did not buy a factory second. I did not buy it at a discount outlet. I payed full price for a fully functioning unit. If the company cannot provide this, it should be replaced. In my eyes this is the difference between exceptional customer service and everything else.

As far as the unit goes, the lid comes off easily, the screen has been completely cleaned. I think I will do a full clean on everything again and see if that will solve the problem.  I guess I should ask: What is the longevity of an electric coffee brewer? This is the first one I have ever owned.