Behmor - Brazen Plus 3.0

Behmor Brazen, SCA Golden Cup certified and very well built/thought out. Beans and grinder will make a much larger difference than the brewer though.

I've got an Aiden, which makes delicious coffee. I only use the medium roast built-in profile. I find the day-to-day usage somewhat glitchy. It sometimes thinks it needs water, when it already has plenty - I do not know if you would be able to detect the 'add water' alert without being able to see the screen notification. It uses a dial to do all of the selection and scrolling, and like an Instapot I had - it was annoyingly sensitive to rotation - trying to select a setting which it would almost always over or under shoot - like trying to nail jello to a wall!!!! I just recently had an issue where I ask Aiden to brew 750 ml and it only uses 500-ish ml of water. All that said, I've also got a Moccamaster KBGV, and the Aiden makes a tastier cup. I am planning to send in the Aiden for warranty repair, but in the interim I bought a Bonavita Enthusiast, and am liking the flavor it provides - very sweet with a nice creamy mouth-feel. (My Moccamaster is on indefinite loan to my neighbor, it's flavor prilfe is more to the bright, high-acid side of things, which is not my preference anyway) The Bonavita has a power button, a brew button, a bloom button (which is bloom then brew; the brew button is no-bloom brew). There's also a descale button. No app. Flavor-wise, I'd take the Bonavita, for longevity and repairability, the Moccamaster. I also have a current version Behmor Brazen on order, which has more control, and physical buttons. I can report back when it arrives if you want - you can message me as well....

Just had my second brew with the Brazen. Likewise, I've only done a few brews with the new Bonavita as well. That said, in the spirit of quick impressions, the Behmor produces more distinct flavors, and subtlety in the cup. It is pretty easy to use - once you've set the temperature and bloom times, and calibrated for your elevation relative to sea level. The settings do not click or beep, but display on a screen, and there is no app, that I can find. Once set up, you add ground coffee and water, and push one button. It beeps when it is done, and you can hear stuff happening as it does its thing. I think the Bonavita brews at a hotter temperature, but I have not measured, and only tweeked the brew temp on the Behmor once so far (went from 196 to 204, to see if that would make them taste more 'the same'. I certainly need more time and brews to test this more, but I like them both, and the 'in the cup' experience seems quite different -- both good, that creamy, sweet mouth-feel from the Bonavita was yummy -- but so is the flavor from the Behmor, but I miss a bit of the creaminess..... All that said, and keeping in mind how preliminary it is, I'd say that the Behmor would be easier to use day-to-day, than the Aiden, once it is programmed. Likewise, I think the Bonavita would offer the same 1-switch ease of use as the Moccamaster, and I like the taste (from memory) from the Bonavita better than the Moccamaster (subjective preference, the Moccamaster makes a great cup). I cannot presume to know what it is like to be blind, but the shower head-water delivery 'pipe' is metal, gets quite hot, and is exposed as the cone holder lid fits around it. The Bonavita does have a small metal 'grate' above the brew basket, but it seems more avoidable, as the basket slide in from the side, The Brazen seems like it 'hides' the hot metal parts better. Hope this helps. Now, back to yummy Behmor coffee - lord help me, I am thinking of keeping both machines.

back again! I ended up returning the Bonavita. It is a nice machine, but the whole sur la table buying experience was, for me, not good. If i were to reorder one, it would be from another vendor..... I have been loving the Brazen. I found the settings for the Fellow Aiden's preset that I had been using. 30 second bloom, 205F brew temp, and am using those settings on the Brazen now. I get the flavor notes and the nice mouthfeel - so a total winner. Loving the machine now. I think if someone helps you get the settings done, then it would be pretty easy to use. Add water, add grounds and filter, hit button on lower right twice. wait.... coffee!

I like my Behmor Brazen Plus.

😂 You get the sarcasm award for today! Lovely? Timeless? IDK if those are the adjectives I’d use to describe it, but it sure makes good coffee! I’ll say this - I also have a MoccaMaster and I use the Brazen 8 out of 10 times.

Behmor brewer. 10 years now. Automated pourover with bloom stage, up to 8 cups.

Behmor Brazen does a really good two cup.

The Aiden might be overkill -- sounds like the thing you want is a good drip coffee maker with a clock.  The "clock" part isn't the expensive thing (you can get a Mr Coffee thing with a clock for $30), it's the "good". Tbh I'd buy a decent one second hand. I've used the Behmor Brazen and Oxo 9 cup, and recently switched to the Breville Precision (all second hand), and can vouch for all of them, tho I really do like the Precision the best. And all are cheaper than the Aiden.

Disclosure: Brazen owner here. Moccamaster is famous and reliable, with a highly distinctive design aesthetic. If you have a good grinder, it will by all accounts make excellent coffee for decades. Brazen is ugly AF and impossible to repair, but has two features that make it worthwhile for me: temperature control and a clock. The only thing better than brewing coffee exactly the way I like it is waking up to a fresh pot of the stuff in the morning.

Behmor Brazen -- the only automatic drip I know of that uses stainless steel in the water resivoir. Temperature and pre-brew time are adjustable too. I use Bunn paper filters instead of the included mesh filter. https://behmor.com/brazen-plus/

Behmor Brazen replaced my moccamaster and Breville precision brewers. Not the most aesthetic but I liked the ideal of the boiler above the carafe with a flow valve vs pump. You can set temps, elevation, and bloom time.

I think Moccamaster has a clearly divided fan base - the product has a great history and the design is simple, but I wasn’t happy with the shower head and just all the little parts that need to be cared for. The Breville was a better coffee brewer to me but I used the hario v60 on it daily. The brazen has the brightest cups from the three, lots of clarity. The interface has 8 physical buttons and an lcd screen. The top left button is the mode button - you press it to set the auto on time, the pre-soak time, the brew temp, the time, and the altitude for calibration in that order. There is a dedicated button to the right of the mode button that only turns the auto function on or off. Below those buttons are a on/off - rarely used and a manual release to dispense hot water for pourover or tea or to manually control the flow. The right of the lcd screen has the up/down buttons, a set button, and a dedicated start button on the bottom right to start the brew. The boiler is situated on top and is the water reservoir as well. It has a locking lid. Below the panel is the pull out filter basket - this requires two hands - one to hold the unit steady and the second to remove the filter basket. It ships with a mesh reusable but I use Bunn 8-10 cup filters Below the filter basket is where the stainless double wall carafe sits. It has a simple locking lid and a recessed spot where the carafe sits. The bottom of the carafe has a plastic center foot to minimize wear or marring. The design is top heavy and it needs a bit more room above it to allow you to fill with water and when you remove the filter basket, there is always some water that will fall to the base. Cleanup and descaling are minimal. Hope that helps

Not particularly, SCAA temp is between 90c to 96c which you can pick a 93c or 94c to sit in the center. I roast most of my coffees to light to light-medium so I set it at 95 and bloom at 45 seconds. I would only adjust if I was working with a darker roast which isn’t my typical daily drink.

It has an onboard battery and memory for the settings. The only thing that resets is the clock when power is lost. You could set it and forget it.

You can use it to make pour-over if the vessel and cone fit below - so it can do a single serve but it’s really designed to hold .9 to 1.2 liters as a one touch. You can fill up to 900ml and manually dispense what you need but then you’d have to empty the rest. Online I’ve read that 600ml - which is the calibration line is okay and Joe Behm (inventor of the brazen and the roaster) has said that 500 should work. He’s pretty active on the behmor Facebook group which might have more info.

I’d have to play with the bloom settings - maybe trying a longer bloom or finer grind to get more extraction. I associate dark roasts with bitter smoky earthy tones. For chocolate tones, I go straight to Mexican Chiapas and roast closer to medium and it makes a great cup on the brazen.

And also very good batch brews. I used it for batch for a dozen years. Reliable, bloom time and brew temp options, a very good brewer. And can be used for manual brewing. I've kept mine as a backup to the Aiden.

I don't doubt the Technivorm machines can make a good cup. But there's simply no way a fixed temp machine with no ability to control the flow, and with well known grounds saturation issues, can get the best out of a variety of beans in single serve, large batch, and cold brew, or even in any one of those. It's true that reliability of the Aiden is unknown at this point. But there's a 3 year warranty and good customer service. If decent coffee and established reliability are the criteria then Technivorm is a good choice. If the best coffee you can make with a machine is the priority then the Aiden is easily at the top of the list. And I'd put the Behmor Brazen ahead of the Moccamaster.

The most flexible and capable of producing peak coffee in any amount 1-10 cups hot or cold has to be the Aiden. I'd put the Behmor Brazen ahead of the Moccamaster as it has adjustable pre-soak and brew temp, and several other nice features. Also, very reliable. Had one for a dozen years, makes a very good brew.