Using a Vacuum Brewer

The vacuum brewer or a siphon consists of a lower bowl used as a water reservoir, a filter, a brewing upper bowl with a long vertical stem and a burner.  Assisted by the heat from the burner, the hot water shoots up through the coffee grounds, agitating grounds during contact time and creating vacuum in the lower bowl.  Once the burner heat is turned off, the vacuum created in the lower bowl draws the brew from the brewing bowl through the filter back into the lower bowl.  Once all coffee is filtered, the top half of the brewer is removed and the coffee is served.  Use 6 g of coffee per every 100 ml of water - you may upsize your water amount slightly to allow for some retention of water in the grounds at the end of brewing.  Target brewing times of 3.5 to 5 minutes.

1. Pre-boil the required amount of water and pour it into the lower bowl of the brewer.
2. Place the lower bowl above the burner and wait for the water to resume boiling.
3. Place the filter inside of the upper bowl and put the upper bowl into its place with the vertical stem fit snugly inside the opening of the lower bowl.
4. Once the water starts rising from the lower bowl through the stem to the upper bowl, put ground coffee into the water, stir it gently with a spoon to facilitate agitation and let the system brew with the burner on for 1 minute.
5. Turn off the flame on the burner.
6. Once the sudden temperature drop in the lower bowl starts the vacuum process, during which the freshly brewed coffee is drawn down through the filter and into the lower bowl, stir the brew in the upper bowl gently one more time and let the vacuum do the rest of the job.
7. Once the coffee has returned to the lower bowl, you will hear the gentle bubbling of air from the lower bowl and hissing sound from the filter, your coffee is ready.
8. Gently remove the upper bowl, stir the brew in the lower bowl and serve.
9. Enjoy!

Tip: Not all vacuum brewers are born equal.  Some of the oldest designs, like Cona, use glass filtering system - you will need a finer grind for them.  More recent designs (Hario and the like) use cloth or paper filter - this works well with a coarser grind suitable for manual drip method.  If you are using a Cona brewer and your filtering time is too long, grind your coffee finer.