How Siphon Coffee Maker Works.

Starting the day with a good cup of coffee is desirable to everyone out here. Brewing coffee with the best siphon coffee brewer yields a good quality coffee.

Why the name siphon?

A vacuum coffee brewer or as popularly known as the siphon coffee brewer acts like a siphon. The

word siphon derives its origin from Greek word meaning a tube and generally refers to flowing of various liquids through the tubes. It mainly consists of an inverted ‘U’ tube which makes the liquid to flow up the tube without the help of any external pump and then makes the liquid to flow down freely with the help of gravitational pull.

The flow of the liquid is mainly governed by the expansion and contraction of the vapour pressure created inside the pot and hence the other name of the brewer is vacuum coffee brewer.

The siphon brewer mainly consists of four parts namely the bottom container which carries the water, the top vessel which allows the coffee grounds to reside, the stem or the tube connecting the two containers where the actual brewing takes place and the filter which separates the final coffee liquid from the coffee grounds. The filter can be made up of cloth, glass, metal and non-metal mesh, etc.

Apart from the coffee pot, the basic thing that make the siphon brewer to operate is the heating method. The various types of heating sources available are -alcohol burner (being the slowest), gas or electric stove burner (faster) and butane burner, which is the fastest among all.

Operating Principle of siphon coffee pot

The basic principle that makes the siphon coffee brewer to operate is the suction method that is contraction and expansion of water vapour allows the movement of the liquid inside the vessel.

After the coffee pot is assembled together and is ready for use, heat is applied at the bottom of the container containing water. As water starts heating slowly the water reaches its boiling point and exceeds the atmospheric pressure and eventually gets converted to steam or vapour. Once the water starts changing its state from liquid to vapour, the pressure also increases inside the container.

Water in its vapour form requires a lot more space to accommodate itself than it requires in its solid or liquid state and the vapour being light in weight always has a typical tendency to rise upwards. Inside the siphon container since there already exists a pressure change the vapour tries to move to the top container and the only available path it gets to move up is through the siphon tube and in turn it pushes the water to flow up the siphon tube to the upper vessel. The coffee is mainly brewed inside the siphon tube under a constant pressure and a constant heating is also maintained.

When the coffee is brewed completely quite for some time, the siphon pot is removed from heat and placed on a cool surface which allows the vapour pressure inside the vessel to tickle down and the force of gravity along with atmospheric pressure allows the liquid to fall down getting filtered through the filter and get separated from the coffee grounds. The final coffee is then collected from the bottom vessel. 

Concept of brewing using siphon coffee pot

If you already have brewed coffee before then brewing coffee using siphon coffee pot is really very easy. Although brewing coffee in siphon pot looks easy but at the same time it is difficult to handle as well. Since all the variables responsible for making a good coffee needs to be taken care manually so for a person with little or no experience for brewing coffee it may result in a blunder.

The first step to brew coffee in siphon pot involves heating the water in the siphon pot to allow it to convert to steam which then being light in weight rises up and in turn pushes the water through the stem.The coffee and steam are mixed up properly with sudden force and once the mixture is blended nicely and the coffee is ready to be drained off from the pot, the heat is removed and the pot is placed on a cool surface. The pressure change allows the coffee to flow down to the bottom vessel through the tube.