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Category: Pour Over Brewing (Page 5 of 6)

The Clever Coffee Dripper- A Review and Brew Guide

The Clever Coffee Dripper was my first manual brewer and for a long time it was my only manual brewer. When I first started getting into specialty coffee, it was my go-to for a hand made cup of coffee.

Over the last few years, I have added quite a few brewers and brewing methods to my arsenal and the Clever has gotten pushed to the side.

A month or so ago, I was wandering around a store with my wife and saw the newer model on clearance. A wave of coffee nostalgia rushed over me and I decided to bring this brewing method back into my manual brew bar rotation.

What is the Clever Coffee Dripper

The Clever Coffee Dripper is a BPA-free plastic immersion brewer that can also double as a manual drip brewer. It has an interesting and, pardon the obvious, very clever design that gives simple but exceptional control over coffee steep time.

The Clever is basically a filter cone with a stopper built into the bottom. There are little feet on brewer to keep the stopper from being engaged unless it is set on a mug. This means you can release the coffee out of the brewer and into a mug whenever you are ready. Lifting the brewer off of the mug will instantly stop the flow of coffee.

Included with the brewer is a lid and plastic coaster for setting the brewer on.

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What I Discovered From a Month of Manual Coffee Brewing

The 31 days of my Brewing Coffee Manually Challenge have come and gone without incident or significant excitement on the coffee front. There were a few introspective early morning brew sessions and times when I thoroughly enjoyed (and abused) my .5 square feet of extra counter space. Many cups of outstanding coffee were had and, overall, I’d say the exercise was a smashing success.

When the smoke had cleared a bit and my filters were restocked, I sat down and tried to dissect what I could take away from it all. Here are a few things I learned by giving up my automatic coffee maker for a month:

I don’t need an automatic coffee maker for day-to-day operations

I will go even further and say, “At this point, I don’t want an automatic coffee maker for my day-to-day operations.” I found that I look forward to brewing my coffee manually in the morning (even really early) and realized how much I dreaded prepping my coffee the night before.

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The Bee House Dripper

In light of my Brewing Coffee Manually challenge, I thought I would review my best-loved dripper and long-time manual brewing companion. The Bee House Dripper.

The Bee House is a ceramic dripper made in Japan. It comes in two sizes, large and small, as well as a variety of colors (ten to be precise). It retails for around twenty dollars. The elegant design and wide availability have made it one of the favorite drippers of the manual brewing world.

What I like about the Bee House dripper

It is made of ceramic

Ceramic brewers are an upgrade from the inexpensive plastic Melitta dripper that I often recommended for the manual brewer who is just starting.

Ceramic is better at retaining heat than plastic. If you are preheating your brewer and brewing vessel, the Bee House helps to keep your grounds and water at a fairly consistent temperature while brewing.

Additionally, some people have serious qualms about brewing with plastic. If you don’t relish the idea of pouring 205 degree water over a plastic dripper and then drinking the results, a ceramic brewing may be for you.

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