Homemade drip tower, part I

Combination of the Aeropress, Bodum french press and Hario Syphon brewer

I have been seeking some different cold brewing solutions (drip tower) and they all had in common that they were quite pricy, therefore I have found a post regarding making your own drip tower using a Hario Syphon/Siphon and a Aeropress. I have previous tried to cold brew using my Bodum french press with great success, so I am curious how different taste a drip tower could produce especially when considering the price tag.

Als set-up

The originally post regarding home made drip tower;

I want to play with a cold drip but I´m not ready to pay $300 yet :) Si I had a look around at the assorted coffee bits I´ve got and came up with the picture attached. 

For my dripper I´ve got an Aeropress brew chamber with a metal filter covered in glad wrap with a few holes poked in it, which is giving around a drip a second (but not very dependably). 

For the brew chamber I´ve top part of a Hario TCA2, with Hario filter, held by the Hario stand. 

Then I drip in to a cup / jug whatever. 

First attempt I´m trying 30gms to 250mls, looks like it will be finished in around 3 hrs, quicker than I wanted. 

Any recommendations for coffee /water / times? Writen by Al, Australia

First off, lets start by responding on Als question regarding the amounts of components in cold brewing, hereby referring to coffee versus water and extraction time. There is a lot of guidelines when cold brewing, but a good rule is 10 gr. of ground coffee per 120 ml water, depending on your grind setting. I personally use a very coarse setting, when cold brewing in the french press, which leaves a medium flavor, not as concentrated/strong, because I can drink it straight.

Hario suggest that the ratio is 12 gr. per cup (110 ml. water), but then again it fairly depends on how strong you would prefer your coffee elixir and if you are mixing it with cold water, milk or ice. The extraction time should be around 10-12 hours, which is about a night in the fridge. I usually place the french press in the fridge around 8 o´clock pm. and stopping the extraction process at 8 0´clock am.

Extraction process

I use quite the same set-up as Al in his description, but nevertheless I will shortly describe it; I use the Aeropress chamber for drip bowl using the normal plastic filter (included in package) wrapped in glad wrap which I poked with a single hole, in the middle. The brew chamber is made of the ordinary Hario TCA-2 brew chamber, but I added a Aeropress paper filter on top of the ground coffee to ensure a fair distribution of the water. The Bodum french press will be used as a jug to collect the coffee elixir.

Saturday the Homemade drip tower, part II will be published, but our Facebook-site Facebook.com/CoffeeChannel will contain some previews.

// Hendrup