About

Welcome to UFO! On this page, you'll find our base recipe, filter template, the care and feeding guide, and food safety notice. 

Recipe:

Grind size: Finer end of medium, finer than your typical V60 grind size.

Ratio: 15:250g, or 1:16.67, up-dose to 16g to either reduce extraction or increase body.

Water temp: 92ºC

 

Pulses:

1st pour: 50g, sub 7g/sec

2nd pour: 50g, sub 7g/sec

3rd pour: 50g, sub 7g/sec

4th pour: 100g, 16+g/sec, divided into two structures

  • First 50g: circle pour, to lift up fines from the edges of the dripper wall
  • Second 50g: center pour, to keep the fines suspended on top of the bed in order to decrease the fines contact time with water, thus preventing over extraction of those fines and clogging.

 

Timeline:

00:00 - 01:00

  • 1st pour: 50g, sub 7g/sec: LOW SPOUT HEIGHT/LOW FLOW
    • Pour as close to the coffee bed as possible. The goal is to be able to control the coffee bed structure. With a higher spout height and higher flow rate, we are effectively churning the coffee bed and thus moving the fines around in the bed. We want to be able to keep the fines under control, and this low spout height + low flow combination allows us to grind fine and not have any stalls.
    • WHY full minute bloom?
      • This recipe calls for a very slow flow rate, and thus the time it takes for us to pour the initial 50g also takes significantly longer. We want to let the coffee grounds become fully saturated post pour and post swirl, and so it needs the full minute to go through that stage.
  • Once finished pouring, swirl
    • We swirl to make sure all grounds are fully saturated. A byproduct of the swirl is fines migration towards the bottom which is considered to be “bad” according to some brewing professionals, but personally from my experiments, this fines migration and distribution in the coffee bed allows us to have a higher TDS alongside enhanced complexity in the cup.
    • Later in the brew structure is when we will control the fines.

01:00 - 01:30

  • 2nd pour: 50g, sub 7g/sec: LOW SPOUT HEIGHT/LOW FLOW
    • Same exact pour as the 1st pour.
    • At the 01:30 mark, most, if not all the 50g you poured in should have drained through.

01:30 - 02:00

  • 3rd pour: 50g, sub 7g/sec: LOW SPOUT HEIGHT/LOW FLOW
    • Same exact pour as the 1st pour.
    • At the 02:00 mark, most, if not all the 50g you poured in should have drained through.
    • At this 3rd pour, it is likely that the flow rate in the bed will have decreased a bit and there will be slightly more water left in the bed than the 2nd pour. This is due to fines migration to the bottom. Don’t worry, it’s fine.

02:00 - 03:00~03:30

  • 4th pour: 100g, 16+g/sec, divided into two structures: HIGH SPOUT HEIGHT/HIGH FLOW
    • THIS is where we control the fines and create balance in the cup. With this recipe, the first three pulses pull out most flavors we want out of the coffee, and this last pulse creates balance. We will be pouring very fast to effectively create “bypass” and also to control the fines.
    • First 50g: circle pour, to lift up fines from the edges of the dripper wall
    • Second 50g: center pour, to keep the fines suspended on top of the bed in order to decrease the fines contact time with water, thus preventing over extraction of those fines and clogging.

 

                                                                            

 

Filter Papers

UFO was designed for use with Sibarist Fast flat and B3 papers, although this template can be used to fold any flat filter. Simply fold once in half, then fold to match the angle below (feel free to take a screenshot and print this diagram). 

To properly set filters, open the center of your folded filter and place in the brewer. Wet the filter, then use the Disputer tool to press the filter to the brewer wall.

 

                                                                             

 

Care and Feeding Guide

FDM prints have the unique challenge of layer lines, in which bacterial buildup is a possibility in certain use cases. Because of this, we recommend the following:

  • We hope this goes without saying, but ensure that only water and coffee come in contact with the brewer, and not any other food products (i.e. milk, cream, sugar). 
  • To remove any coffee residue, we recommend regular cleaning with hot water and Cafiza or functionally equivalent detergent, followed by gentle scrubbing with dish soap and a thorough rinse with hot water. 
  • Avoid completely submerging the brewer or base.

As with any product that comes into contact with food, it is important to evaluate safety. This is especially true with 3D-printed products, like your Gen 1 UFO Brewer. This article seeks to inform you how we keep food safety in mind during manufacturing, and how you can as well in your day-to-day usage. 

 

                                                                             

 

Food Safety Notice

Materials: Your UFO is made from a filament called colorFabb_HT, based on Eastman Chemical’s Tritan. This is the same plastic used in the Aeropress Clear and Cafec Flower brewers. The material has FDA food-contact compliance, and is rated for use in one of the highest temperature ranges possible in FDM printing. Based on our testing (which included boiling the brewer), there is absolutely no risk of warping in regular use. 

Printing process: UFO is printed with a stainless steel nozzle, the only food-safe FDM nozzle material. In addition to this, the nozzle and extruder have never been used with toxic filaments, such as ABS. The printers we use strictly print PLA, PETG, or colorFabb_HT. We also do not use any bed adhesives (which includes hairspray, gluesticks, or masking tape), and rely solely on heated beds for adhesion. It is also worth noting that the extrusion temperature is nearly 300ºC, and bed temperature 100ºC, and just in case we periodically clean the print bed with dish soap and hot water. 

Design: After extensive thermal testing, we found the dual-wall featured in our prototypes to be more trouble than it's worth. Namely, there were concerns of water infiltration into the relatively hollow brewer. To remedy this, our newest design features a solid brewing funnel, which actually performed marginally better than the dual-wall prototype, while having no risk of leaks. This design also allows us to get the brewer in more hands, by facilitating a lower retail price. It is worth noting that Tritan itself can absorb a small fraction of its weight worth of water as well, but with our design it is not possible for water to pool inside.