In our sales office we drink a lot of coffee, and lately we've been brewing with the Behmor's Brazen Plus. Having spent quite a bit of time with this capable coffeemaker, I wanted to take some time to talk about some of the features that make it one of my favorite drip machines we carry.
Features
- For starters, the shower head of the Brazen Plus is massive. In fact it’s the largest of any of the SCAA certified brewers. That means very even wetting of the grounds.
- The filter basket is in a slide out drawer and a re-useable gold tone style filter is included. If you prefer, you can use a paper filter instead, just don’t use both at the same time.
- Water is pulsed released onto the grounds, five ounces at a time in 15 second intervals. This helps create turbulence and improve extraction from the coffee grounds.
- Coffee brews into an all metal, 40 ounce, double insulted thermal carafe. It keeps coffee hot for hours without cooking it over a heating plate. We like the brew-thru lid which stays on the carafe while brewing.
- The outlet of the filter basket seals when the carafe is moved so there’s no dripping.
Special Functions
I really like the carafe. It pours well without dripping whether you're pouring coffee or with the lid off for quickly filling the reservoir. The brew-thru lid is genius, it keeps the heat in, is well marked, and it’s less than a quarter turn to take off or put on. A great feature is you can program the Brazen Plus to automatically turn on and brew. Now those into specialty brewing would scoff at the idea of having ground coffee sitting in the filter basket overnight, but others may like that. The manual brewing function lets you use it as the hot water source for other brewing methods. So if you’ve got a Chemex or French press, anything less than 9 inches tall will fit under the shower head. In manual mode it does the same 15 second pulse brewing, or you can push the manual release button to pause and restart to vary the brew timing however you like.
Overall, the Brazen Plus is easily the most customizable of the brewers currently certified by the Specialty Coffee Association of America. The adjustable pre-soak, pulse brewing, and adjustable temperatures allow you to get the most out of your coffee. You can take the adjustability, add in the ease of use, brew through lid, wide open reservoir, and massive shower head to get a brewer that’s easy to use and will really appeal to those serious about their coffee.