The pre-infusion time is programmable (it's called pre-soak), but the volume of water used in pre-infusion is not... as I understand it, it's set to deliver a pre-infusion volume of water for a full batch. If you're setting the BraZen on a timer and brewing a large batch, the position of the carafe shouldn't matter... the pre-infusion water is going to wet the grounds and not much should flow through. The amount of grounds in the basket and water in the kettle will take care of normalizing the brew time for you.

In this case, if you're looking to brew a bare minimum batch of coffee in the BraZen, we're talking about utilizing the pre-infusion time and volume as part of the brewing process since the lower volume of water in the kettle and grounds in the basket should result in a shorter brew time for the same pre-infusion time. If you extend the pre-infusion time and leave the carafe out, however, then you can extend the contact time of the water with the coffee for a small batch, presumably resulting in a good extraction and a better cup.

I've brewed good 500 and 600 ml batches in the BraZen without having to worry about these things, but it's something to keep in mind if your playing the "how low can you go" game with the brewer.

so in essence, small batches in the brazen are more like automated clever coffee dripper brews, as opposed to, say, v60's? At a certain point I imagine this pre-infusion process crosses a line into plain old "steeping." I'm into the idea of the brazen because of its resemblance to pourover, although CCD-style is not a dealbreaker. As long as i can still "set it and forget it" and be treated to a magical morning cup.

my main issue is that, despite my caffeine needs, I don't want two "big" cups in the morning (or any time really), I prefer smaller, denser cups. Seems like the Brazen is just not designed for individual users like me; it would be a roll of the dice. But, Tom, if you find yourself thinking about letting your Brazen go for a modest "used" price, i might be ready to roll'em...

yakster wrote:Good tip, I hadn't thought of that. Do you leave the carafe out of the brewer during the pre-infusion as well to keep the water in the basket?

Yep. Down dosing for single cup servings benefit from a slightly finer grind as well. It's pretty easy to eyeball the countdown timer of pre-infusion while you're cleaning up or putting the coffee away or doing whatever else you want to be doing in your kitchen for that exact 60 seconds. Towards the end, slide your carafe back in place and you're good to go.

SpromoSapiens wrote:so in essence, small batches in the brazen are more like automated clever coffee dripper brews, as opposed to, say, v60's? At a certain point I imagine this pre-infusion process crosses a line into plain old "steeping." I'm into the idea of the brazen because of its resemblance to pourover, although CCD-style is not a dealbreaker. As long as i can still "set it and forget it" and be treated to a magical morning cup.

Much, much more automated than the Clever (which I love as well) but the Brazen is far more capable of a brewer, holding the temps consistent throughout the brew. Your slurry stays in a tighter range that your particular coffee might prefer in order to showcase it's best attributes. And it does it all while you're doing whatever else you want to do.

SpromoSapiens wrote: my main issue is that, despite my caffeine needs, I don't want two "big" cups in the morning (or any time really), I prefer smaller, denser cups. Seems like the Brazen is just not designed for individual users like me; it would be a roll of the dice. But, Tom, if you find yourself thinking about letting your Brazen go for a modest "used" price, i might be ready to roll'em...

The carafe is well insulated, you can drink however much, whenever you choose. I was describing my two big cup technique, because, like Marshall mentioned, travel mugs are only one step away from just popping a No-Doze pill. The lids trap the aroma and really destroy the whole point. What I'd invariably have to end up doing was pour a big cupful into the travel mug, lid it up immediately, leave it capped throughout my 15 minute commute, then take the lid off and carefully drink it on my way into work. I would be pretty much gone by the time I set my gear down in my workplace.

I've never used a Brazen, but here are a few alternative ideas:

1. Why not pick up an impress brewer? It seems to me that it provides a perfect solution for you, as it is a nice, self-contained way to make 300mL batches of coffee. It holds in heat very well and doesn't seem to overbrew if used as a thermal carafe.

2. You really want to do it push button style, maybe a Bunn Trifecta would be better suited to your intended use? I can't speak for one personally as I've never owned one, but there is more than one devoted user on this forum.

3. One last thing that worries me is that, with your plan to set a timer and wake up to brewed coffee, you seem to be contemplating grinding the night before and leaving it until morning to brew. The Brazen, the Trifecta or even frankly the Impress would be a waste of money if you are only brewing stale coffee in them. A better option, if you really want to drink coffee the moment you wake up, might be something like the Breville YouBrew, which has an integrated burr grinder and which is fully programmable.

My top two brew methods are BraZen and Impress, then lever espresso machines. I brew BraZen to satisfy 3-4 coffee drinkers weekday mornings, and the Impress is for single large cups for me at work, on the jobsite, or before leaving for a late night dispatch. I really think I prefer the cup the Impress makes over the BraZen, mainly because of the body, flavor, and mouthfeel of metal filtered immersion brew and regret missing the buy-one-get-one deal over the holidays.

That's not to say that the Impress is perfect, see the Impress thread for my thoughts on the matter, but it's a good brew cup.

The Trifecta is good too, but more costly and not as portable. I'm kicking myself that I don't have my coffee case with me today with coffee, grinder, mini-scale and my Impress as I'm unexpectedly delayed with no telling when I'll get out of here.

I've heard that caffeine withdrawal is now recognized in the DSM so maybe patients in a hospital could benefit from something like this.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/755557

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/05/31/caf ... -disorder/

Thanks, Mark, for the bunch of sound ideas. My thoughts on those are:

[creative nickname] wrote:1. Why not pick up an impress brewer?

From Yakster's overall endorsement I believe it makes a solid cup, but I'm not a big french press fan, and I've already got an aeropress for travel & for ice coffee in the summer. The a-press is my go-to method for imprecise quick-n-dirty delicious cups (for me that is. Not saying that impress or a-press has to be imprecise, that's just how I personally enjoy doing it) but even then, it's still a hands-on method. I'm fantasizing here about a robot that makes great coffee for me.

[creative nickname] wrote:2. maybe a Bunn Trifecta?

Seems awesome but quite the bank-breaker. I know some of the gear in my profile summary might indicate otherwise, but I've acquired it all through a careful, incremental process of buying & selling, waiting for lightning-strike deals, plus one lucky fix-n-flip scenario. Next on the block will be my KitchenAid Proline grinder and perhaps my espro press, which I hope will fund or defray the cost of whatever I next buy. Anyway the B TF is out of range, particularly because I'll always be primarily an espresso guy; I just want some help waking up in the morning.

[creative nickname] wrote:3. ... brewing stale coffee...

If you do some searching here you'll find a handful of threads on this topic. There's an influential faction that maintains that immediate pre-brew grinding is not necessarily essential to a quality cup. I don't pre-grind currently, and I haven't completely abandoned the idea that to do so is blasphemy. But in the name of an automated morning dose, I'm willing to roll those dice and see how it works out. Roasting with the Behmor, I've found some coffees/roasts take up to 10 days rest to hit their stride as espresso; 8-hr advance grinds might actually be beneficial on that front, even if for a more forgiving brew method.

[creative nickname] wrote:Breville YouBrew, which has an integrated burr grinder and which is fully programmable.

That's a solid suggestion, but I just don't trust the grinder. I guess when it comes to grinder gospel, I consider particle uniformity (or in the case of espresso -- an optimal ratio of grinds to fines) to be a commandment of a higher order than promptness.

If it came down to me getting out of bed, grinding and hitting a button and then finding a world-class cup a few minutes later, I could accept that. If I'm investing in automation, though, I don't want to be any more involved than that. The Brazen offers an ideal level of control and then an ideal level of automation, but it's just not the ideal size. Frankly I'm really surprised that, with the state of high-end coffee appreciation today, there's not a Brazen Mini (or equivalent) currently on the market. Even the YouBrew seems geared towards larger batches. Maybe Clive Coffee's "Ratio" machine will have a minimum option of single-serving batch size, but it doesn't say so at the moment. [[edit: Clive's Ratio description online does actually say: "Whether a 40 ounce carafe for the party, or a 16 ounce cup for the road, both should be equally easy and delicious. That's why we designed Ratio to automatically determine the amount of water you've added to the tank and adjust the brewing time accordingly." That's pretty awesome! But it's $480. Not so awesome.]]

Woe is me, I might just have to keep pulling my own shots in the morning.