# Syphon Brew Guides



## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

I've been brewing Syphon hit and miss for some time now. It seems there's a whole lot of contradictory information around like:

"use a grind slight coarser than espresso"; "use a grind slightly coarser than drip".

"Total draw down time should be about 30 seconds" ; "Cut heat at 1 minute aiming for a total brew time of 2 minutes after draw down".

Don't even get started on brew ratios and timing differences for different sized pots. Do you need to brew for longer/shorter with a bigger/smaller pot? I can't see why you would.

Ordinarily I'd use a 17:1 brew ratio with a grind slightly coarser than espresso (9 notches from 0 on Lido E), brewing for 45 seconds followed by the draw down. I've found it a bit hard to hit the sweet spot (i.e. it would be thin and dull or over extracted). Today I decided to turn it coarser and went 1 turn and 3 notches out. I brewed for a longer time of 1 minutes 30 seconds and had a draw down of 35 seconds. I also upped the brew ratio to 13:1. Coffee is well balanced but lacking nuance. It's bold and powerful and in your face with a nice sweetness but no flavours really pop out at me.

When we get our Rafinos we can share brew recipes more precisely but I've been finding it difficult to find references to Lido grind setting on the web for syphon brewing, which surprised me as it's a popular brew grinder.


----------



## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Syphon is notorious for its ability to over-extract. I use 33.5grms ground to the same grind consistency I use for Chemex. For this amount of beans, I use 480grms of water. I let the water come into the upper chamber. I don't stir the grinds - use a small whisk to ensure all the grinds are saturated via dabbing. Heat is cut at 30secs and drawdown complete in 2mins. As the drawdown begins, I slowing stir the crema to to get a nice curved puck at the end. Aim to hit 20% extraction yield and bang in the middle of the SCAE box.

Despite my obsessive approach, can find hitting my preferred 20% extraction yield target can vary by 1-2%. Coffee is still good but, for me, 20% is bang on.


----------



## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

That's quite a coarse grind isn't it? I was thinking I could get better flavours by lowering the brew ratio to about 15:1 but I'm unsure how this will influence extraction time.


----------



## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

It is coarse, in a relative sense but that's the consistency I need to achieve the following results. Previous ratio I was using was 30grms to 500grms water. Hitting 20% extraction yields put the brew in the weak side of the graph. Going to 33.5grms to 480grms water results in, when I hit the target 20% EY the TDS - total dissolved solids have gone up from 1.12% (30grms > 500grms water) to 1.30% resulting in, for me, a better balance flavour/body/mouthfeel-wise.


----------



## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

Thanks. Looks like I had the right idea then, just jumped from 17 to 13, skipping 15 entirely. Will try 14.5 since you're getting results there and I have no TDS meter or refractometer. Is a TDS meter on its own worth it?


----------



## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

VST II refractometer.


----------

