Two Cheers for the Clever Dripper - Page 3

#21: Post by **farmroast** » February 3rd, 2012, 8:19 pm

I bought a case when they arrived. Kept hold of 3, 2 have regular use. I always have pushed down the center to seat a good seal. Lots of hairline crazing/cracks but no leaks. I kinda like a fairly fine grind and faster steep with the obvious slower drain and using the filtropa white filters

#22: Post by **Peppersass** » February 4th, 2012, 2:14 pm

I ordered a Clever Dripper from Amazon after reading this thread. It arrived with one of the plastic feet broken off. I was going to return it, but found the foot in the bubble pack and glued it back on with "Plastic Surgery". The bond seems pretty strong and hopefully will last a while. Guess I'd better lay in another one for backup...

Nice design, but poor materials, packaging and quality control.

#23: Post by **JohnB.** » February 10th, 2012, 11:09 am

Just got mine in from SM today. Well packed so no damage & after reading this thread I'm a little surprised at how good it looks. Nice clear plastic which seems pretty thick although I'm sure if I were to drop it on the floor something might break but what wouldn't?? Off to brew some coffee but for $15 it doesn't look too bad.

#24: Post by **jbviau** » February 10th, 2012, 12:12 pm

I wish the Clever were bigger for making 2 good-sized cups. It's hard to even get 14 oz. of water in there!

#25: Post by **yakster** » February 10th, 2012, 12:16 pm

Come on, Joshua, if it were bigger, you'd have no excuse to buy a Chemex with a Coava Coffee Kone filter. You don't want to cut back on the coffee toy collection, do you?

It is an interesting thought, though, and I do have a very large tea maker of a similar design (from ABID) but using the nylon mesh filter that I use to make pitchers of iced tea.

#26: Post by **DanH** » February 10th, 2012, 12:52 pm

How do you brew with the Clever? I followed Tom's advice on Sweet Maria's and went for a fairly fine filter grind, but the coffee stalled badly when I went to drain it. My sense is a coarser French press style grind is more appropriate with more like a 3-minute steep time. Is that where you all have ended up? Maybe if I had a Ditting or similar grinder stalling wouldn't be an issue but with my Virtuoso it is.

#27: Post by **yakster** » February 10th, 2012, 12:55 pm

I have had some problems with stalling with the Vario and I like to go for a medium grind (about what I would use for Chemex, coarser than siphon but finer than press). Some coffees also seem to stall more than others in the Clever, it may be related to degree of roast.

I normally us a contact time of around 3:30 - 4:00 minutes which calls for a coarser grind.

February 10th, 2012, 3:45 pm

I can't remember the last time I used my CCD, that's how long it's been. The V60 (which used to be relegated to the weekend only) has been my go to/daily brew method. But now, after reading this post, I'll just have to rake that baby out tomorrow! CCC in my CCD ... yeah baby

#29: Post by **yakster** » February 10th, 2012, 4:10 pm

You can always play with double filtering with a Swiss Gold filter + Paper or a Coava Coffee Kone filter. I learned this trick from Nick Cho, supposed to pull the coffee out of the extraction faster so that you can pretty much stop your extraction when you start the drain.

As this is a Kone Gen 1 and a hand grinder (work setup), some fines made it through to the paper, but it was a fun experiment.

February 10th, 2012, 10:22 pm

DanH wrote:How do you brew with the Clever?

Clarified French press -- coarse grind, four minute steep, less than a minute to draw through the filter. I'm sure there are great cups to be had with finer grinds , shorter steeps and slower draw downs; but I dislike the whole stirring and agitating required by filter brewing. There are a lot less variables to screw up when just steeping coffee -- less time, finer grind to more time, coarser grind.