The Simple Smart Coffee Brewer
Its Easy - So What?
The SSC Brewer uses the EPO Method making pour-over coffee easy! Why would someone who has mastered the traditional pour-over methods be interested?
Control Variables
Because EPO minimizes the impact of technique variables and other factors, it gives brewers a baseline extraction profile.
For example, they can compare how a coffee tastes in EPO vs. V60/Kalita to understand what pouring technique actually adds or changes.
A new kind of pour-over — one that listens to the coffee, not to technique.
New Way To Explore Coffee
EPO produces a different balance of body, clarity, and sweetness.
It’s not just convenience, it’s a new brew profile to explore.
Spread the Enjoyment
Experts often care about evangelizing coffee.
EPO lowers the entry barrier for beginners (no gooseneck, no fancy technique).
By introducing more people to good pour-over with less effort, experts can help grow appreciation for specialty coffee.
Complementary Tool
EPO is not a replacement for V60 or Kalita — it’s a complementary tool. It offers a control method, a new flavor perspective, and a way to make great coffee more accessible.
Coffee Experts - 5 Issues to Consider
1 - Elimination of Channeling Risk
The EPO process uses the swelling of coffee grinds in an encapsulated coffee bed to close out any possible channel formation. This allows coffee enthusiasts to isolate pouring technique and off-gassing as factors when exploring coffees.
2 - Pure Percolation & Zero Agitation
With no coffee slurry sitting above the coffee bed, extraction only occurs as virtually clear water percolates through the thin coffee bed.
3 - Elimination of ‘Fines’ Issues
The expanding coffee holds virtually all ‘fines’ within the coffee bed. If used, the paper filter sits below and at a distance from the percolation, so any fines that do wash out of the bed cannot impact the extraction.
4 - Percolation Separate from Filtration
A feature of the SSC Brewer (rather tha the EPO Method) is that customizable filtration options are deployed downstream of the percolation/extraction.
Extraction is getting what you want out of the coffee. Filtration is leaving out what you don’t want in the cup.
5 - Distinct Accelerating Flow Profile
The EPO method results in a flow profile that is very different from other brewers (e.g. V60). The flow through a V60 decreases as the hydrostatic head is reduced. With the SSC Brewer it increases, resulting with shorter water-to-coffee contact time at the end of the brew, when more bitter compounds tend to get extracted.
The Encapsulated Pour-Over (EPO) Method
The EPO Method is a modification to the traditional pour-over approach.
Since Melitta Bentz first poured water over coffee resting on blotting paper in 1908, every pour-over method has followed the same basic principle: water is poured onto a loose coffee bed.
The Encapsulated Pour-Over (EPO) Method changes this core approach by enclosing the coffee in a confined space—encapsulating it—rather than leaving it exposed and loose.
Harnesses Nature Property of Coffee
This modified approach uses the fact that the volume of coffee grinds swells by about 50% to improve the process. The expanding coffee grinds ensure that the confined space remains filled by coffee. The consequences of this approach are:
Elimination of Channeling - the swelling coffee self-corrects the bed by closing out any channel formation and creating an evenly dense and uniformly deep coffee bed. There is no need for any particular pore technique to manage channeling, uniform wetting, or off-gassing of carbon dioxide.
Elimination of ‘Fines’ Issues - The self-correcting coffee bed holds over 90% of fines within the coffee bed. This means no blocked paper filters negatively affecting the brew (also see ‘Percolation separate from Filtration’ below).
Pure Percolation & Zero Agitation - All traditional pour-over brewers have an element of immersion brewing, as there is a coffee slurry on top of the coffee bed. The EPO Method results in Pure Percolation, where virtually clear water* sits above the filter plate, resulting in extraction only when the high extraction gradient water percolates through the coffee bed. There is zero-agitation of the coffee bed; it remains undisturbed aside from the gentle, natural internal dynamics of the expanding coffee.
Accelerating Flow Profile - The EPO method results in a flow profile that is very different from other brewers (e.g. V60). The flow through a V60 decreases as the hydrostatic head is reduced. With the SSC Brewer it increases, resulting with shorter water-to-coffee contact time at the end of the brew, when more bitter compounds tend to get extracted. But, this needs to be balanced with the fact that more water flows through at the later stages. This profile has a significant impact on taste, and opens up the possibility of doing short pours (salami slicing) with the brew topped up with pure water.
Coffee’s contact with water controls what is available to extract. Water’s contact with coffee controls how much actually ends up in the cup. But to what degree!
*Degree of clarity depends on coffee used.
Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz
The Simple Smart Coffee (SSC) Brewer
The SSC Brewer was developed to make it easy to consistently get a good cup of pour-over coffee. During this development, the EPO Method was distilled.
The SSC Brewer has become the easiest way to make pour-over coffee and helps those new to this world get great early results, without needing to invest in other equipment.
The impacts of the EPO Method have been sketched above. There is a feature of the SSC Brewer that is also of interest to expert brewers.
Separation of Extraction from Filtration
A design goal of the SSC Brewer was to allow use without any extra filters (paper or metal). The coffee bed itself is the best filter. But, to accommodate different needs and tastes, we added a secondary filtration that sits below the coffee bed - about 15mm from the percolation.
Users can adjust the filtration to suit their preferences, without impacting the extraction.
If desired, the adaptors used to hold the filters can be stacked to get tertiary filtration.
Expert brewers can experiment with different filtration options to modify the texture or mouthfeel of the coffee.
Stacked Adaptors and Filters with SSC Brewer
Limited Time Launch Offers
All prices include free shipping to the lower 48 US States.
We are currently only shipping to these USA locations. New locations coming soon.
SSC Brewer and Combo are also available in USA, Mexico and Canada on Amazon Prime.
SEPT 2025 - THE SSC Brewer and Combo are currently out of stock in Canada. You can contact us and we will email when this is resolved.