DIY Homebrew: The VChemSexy

The diversity of coffee gear is vast and entices a certain discontentment among coffee aficionados. This pining for the latest brew device begins as a peaked interest in a friend’s home coffee setup and progresses to symptoms of unceasing blog surfing, café hopping, and in extreme cases, visiting a coffee trade show. You might find that coffee junkie persona coming from your folks here at the Coffee Compass, but we find ways to satisfy the hunger through novel and innovative brewing techniques.

Enter the VChemSexy.

V60 + Chemex + Sexy = VChemSexy. Just take a look at this photo above. My wife took this pic and it’s clearly one sexy brew.

What you need:

• One 8-cup standard glass Chemex
• One Hario glass V60 dripper (-01 or -02)
• Hario VCF-02-100W White Paper Filter for 02 Dripper
• Delicious micro-roasted coffee

Novel? Yes. Innovative? Hardly. You just need a standard Chemex and a glass V60, but this brewtique device can help you in three big ways.

The Pros

Vessel Availability

Into what reservoir do you brew your V60 extracted coffee? Glass carafe? Eva Solo Cafe Solo? Ball jar? 500mL round bottom boiling flask? We’re lucky if we have something that we can say matches the beauty, history, comfort, and volume requirements of a Chemex. The VChemSexy is a ready-to-go vessel utilizing the trusted Chemex decanter.

Filter Diversity

Filters are inexpensive, but it still doesn’t make it any less annoying when you wanna brew with the elegance of a Chemex with only V60 filters available. Chemex filters? Then brew with a Chemex. V60 Filters? Time to get sexy…

Increased Sex Appeal 

“What’s that you’re brewing with? The VChemSEXY?!?! O LA LA.” The VChemSexy invokes a classic sex appeal that in the words of the great poet JT is “going out so hot, just like an oven and I’ll burn myself, but just had to touch it… It’s so fly and it’s all mine.”

The Cons

Since there doesn’t seem to be a single body Chemex-esque V60 fusion coming onto the market anytime soon, this is as close as you will get, without buying the combination Hario V60 Drip Decanter, which only holds 700mL, vs. the comfortable 1000+mL a Chemex offers. We don’t like that it’s glass touching glass. This can make for easily damaging your Chemex in a shop setting, but for home use, it can be managed comfortably without much effort. We also have experienced tilting of the V60 as it sits on the top leading to some stability issues. This is really the biggest issue with have with it. No one likes a lop-sided brew.

Here’s a picture of my small, slightly effeminate hand removing the V60 glass apparatus immediately after brewing. It was hot, but I actually was able to take it off without burning my hand shortly after the brew had finished. I thought this would be a big problem (kind of like playing operation), but it’s definitely not an issue. The heat is mostly exchanged with the sides, while the lip of the V60-02 is exposed to the surrounding environ temperature and not directly in contact with the water used for brewing.

In short, if you haven’t brewed a VChemSexy, why not? It’s the sexiest brew in town.