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After COVID-19, I promised (mainly to myself)  not to sell “stuff” for the sake of it. It’s not great for the environment either. One of my tasks this Christmas was getting acquainted with the Fellow Aiden filter brewer. We only sell things that we love brewing on.

Here is a quick summary of where Aiden sits:

The Competition

The Technivorm Moccamaster

The timing of the release of the Fellow Aiden, couldn’t have been much better. You may know the Technivorm filter brewer that has been doing the same old thing since 1968 has recently had a new lease of life. You can buy them in most of the colours of the rainbow and they are solid, like a Landrover Defender. In terms of looks (subjective?), they do a few things very well, for a long time. You can pay £230-650 for a “Moccamaster”.

The Sage Precision Filter Brewer

I have had one of these for 3 or 4 years and think it is the best long-term filter brewer I have owned. You can adjust many things in your brew, from temperature to intensity, and pre-scheduled for those early morning starts. These are generally selling for £250-260. I would say that the biggest issue I have with them is that they are ugly. It sounds fickle for a machine that hasn’t ever let me down and made thousands of litres of coffee.

The Fellow Aiden Brewer

After some time with the Sage PFB, the sleek lines and compact nature of the (wait for it)  F. A. B.! (Fellow Aiden Brewer) just sell itself on my kitchen counter. It may well have good company of a grinder and pouring kettle of the same stable. Once the good looks are noted, how does it brew? It could look a little confusing with the options, but my advice is to scroll through all of the options to become familiar with things.

Loves:

You can use this brewer to make a mug of coffee for one! It comes with a separate funnel, that uses size 2 flat-bottomed filter papers.

You can slide off the water tank to fill the exact amount of water for your brew. Genius! The machine also works out the optimum amount of coffee for you to use, which is often less than a standard 60g per litre.

You can either use a pre-made recipe for light, medium or dark roast coffee or you can make your own. You can have multiple blooms and change the temperatures of them. I spent too much time enjoying the machine and the excellent results and now want to start ripping things apart some more with refractometers and being a bit more professional about it.  I think it is easy to get to a point where things work and we (I) get comfortable without making it as good as it can be. The Aiden is a better brewer than the other two. I doubt this model will still be refurbished in 56 years, like the Technivorm. The ability to decrease the temperatures during your brew cycle?

 Improvements:

The software. When I have been playing around and setting up new brews, the software has been a little sticky/ glitchy. Has it put me off? No way! This is the first version of the software of a new machine. It has only happened a few times and I am guilty of playing with coffee-making equipment more than others, as I am curious! There will be updates too.

If this floats your boat, the Fellow Aiden Brewer is now available here. We won’t be the most expensive, we never are, but we won’t be the cheapest because we have spent time and energy in seeing if it is something we would want to live with.