My grandmother's '40s-era Cory coffee brewer has sat on my shelf for decades. I wonder if anyone has experience brewing coffee with a vintage pot like this. I'm not great with posting photos, but there are Cory brewers on eBay that look just like Granny's; it is stainless steel and has a funny little filter? piece with a chain I'm unsure what to attach to. I'd like to hear from people who have used a '40s-era Cory because I am unsure whether I have all the pieces.

Thank you!

Sounds like you have a Nicro stainless steel vac pot. I've never had a chance to try one of these, but Nicro was later bought by Cory so that's probably what you have. Here's a good Vac Pot resource with pictures by manufacturers, instructions, and more: http://baharris.org/coffee/VacuumCoffeePots.htm.

Aha, looked at the site you linked & I see now what one of the pieces is for: it must be a base to set the upper globe on after brewing. That helps.

If I posted photos here, maybe someone could shed light on whether this is the whole shebang.

Sounds like a plan, if it's a stove top model you'll want to make sure you have a base, a funnel (the top piece) a gasket that seals the funnel in the base (a dried out, cracked gasket can prevent a good seal) and a filter. Other pieces are nice, but optional.

There's a picture of the basics here: https://www.coffeegeek.com/forums/coffe ... 584#625584.

You can do a dry run (wet run) without any coffee and just fill up the vacuum pot with water in the base and heat it up to see if the water ever rises into the top. I was given a vintage glass vac pot by a friend, but the gasket leaked so mine failed this test. I do use my Yama 8 vac pot, but I though it would be nice to use the vintage one. There is a company that makes replacement seals for vacuum pots, including the Nicro, but I don't have any experience with these seals: http://www.dayseal.com/.

As for using the pot, you'll want to leave it on the stove and have the water rise into the funnel, add your coffee and push it down with the back of a spoon or a paddle to sink the grounds and leave the coffee in contact with the water for a minute or two depending on volume before taking the pot off the heat to suck the water into the base. I use a contact time of two minutes because I make large pots, most users of the smaller vac pots stick with a contact time of about a minute. The contact time is much shorter than pour-over or drip because the increased agitation of the water vapor continuing to come up through the funnel speeds the extraction.

Thank you for the link. I've now signed up for Coffee Geek, and I replied to the post -- his photo was exactly what my machine is. I have those same pieces. Gasket is fine. I'll try a "dry" run, good tip. Thanks

Is the little piece with the chain a filter?

While the water is in contact with the coffee in the top globe, the top globe has no lid? It doesn't need covered?

Because you have the brewer on the stove top and the heating element on, the upper globe maintains a very steady temperature as the water vapor bubbles up through the top globe. You shouldn't need a lid for the top, especially if you wait to add the coffee grounds until the water has almost filled the top globe. I never use my lid. Many people prefer to leave the top unmounted to the bottom, just loosely set on top and tilted until you start to see water vapor bubbles appear in the bottom globe prior to boiling because the water will actually rise into the top globe before it's at the ideal temperature. This takes a bit of experimentation, and others have written better explanations about this, but you can use a thermometer to judge when to mount the top globe and start the water to rise.

Two of the things that characterize a vac pot brewer are very stable brew temps due to the water vapor maintaining the heat in the top globe and agitation due to the exiting water vapor. I guess a third would be rapid draw-down due to the vacuum action once you remove the heat from the bottom globe and the water returns to the base.

It's actually nice to have a lid for the base to keep the coffee warm after brewing. My Yama has a very narrow neck, so I use an upturned demitasse as a lid. The pictures of the Nicro show a flip-top lid for the base that you can flip down to hold your coffee at temp after brewing.

You may find the coffee quite hot after brewing, the temperature is not going to drop as much since the base has been on the burner and you may want to wait for the coffee to cool a bit for best flavor and to avoid burns. The vac pot is actually a good brew method for people who prefer their coffee to be hotter than other brew methods, but I usually pour out my cup and let it cool for a bit before enjoying the cup.

Oh, and the little piece with the chain is the filter. Vac Pots can use all metal filters, paper filters (usually with metal holders) ceramic filters, and glass filter rods. Some have a chain with a spring to keep them in place to prevent them from bobbling around when the water vapor exits and some just have a chain. The chain provides nucleation sites for the water vapor to start bubbling, in some cases without a chain and a very clean pot the water can be superheated and erupt all at once into a full boil without the normal start of bubbles. This is one reason not to be insanely clean with a glass vac pot because the little imperfections can be nucleation sites. This sort of phenomena also can occur in a very clean pot and when heating water in a microwave, and when you reach for the pot or measuring cup in the microwave you jar the water out of it's superheated state and it can burn your hand. The chain is a good alternative. I've seen them in tea pots too, I think.