What if the coffee brewed itself?
A pour-over method where the coffee’s own natural expansion controls the flow.
Encapsulated Pour-Over - Instead of pouring onto the bed, the Simple Smart Brewer lets coffee expand within a confined space — creating a self-regulating extraction that removes the need for any skilled pouring technique.
How it Works
Encapsulated coffee bed — Let the coffee do the work
In traditional pour-over, you pour water onto the coffee bed — disturbing it, risking uneven flow, and relying on perfect pouring technique and an agitation protocol to manipulate the coffee.
With Encapsulated Pour-over, the coffee bed sits in a small, enclosed chamber. When hot water is added, the grounds expand to fill the space, forming a stable, uniform resistance layer.
That expansion naturally closes out any possible channel formation, slows and balances the flow — no spiral pours, no blooming choreography, no tapping or stirring required - and it keeps most ‘fines’ in place.
Separated filtering — Clean extraction, without perfect grind
If you use a paper filter — which is optional, alongside the metal one — it never touches the encapsulated coffee bed. It sits about 10 mm below it, completely outside the percolation zone.
When fines build up on a filter, they can slow flow and cause over-extraction, leading to bitterness, sourness, or astringency depending on the roast. That air gap prevents the few fines that reach the paper from impacting the extraction, so percolation flow through the coffee bed stays stable and extraction remains consistent.
Many coffee enthusiasts invest in costly grinders to minimize fines, but the SSC Brewer isn’t affected by them. In the encapsulated space, expanding coffee naturally holds most fines in place, and any that do pass through the separated filter have no influence on the brew.
The result is clear, balanced coffee — without the need for ultra-precise grinding.
One simple pour - Consistent coffee every time.
Just add water once and walk away.
The expanding coffee bed creates a self-regulating brew cycle that ends naturally — no timing, no pulsed pours, no extraction problems.
Pure percolation - Less bitterness in medium & dark roasts
Because the coffee bed is encapsulated - preventing a coffee slurry forming above it - and any paper filter is separated, the brew process avoids the conditions that trigger extraction of harsh bitter compounds. For dark roasts, that means the water never becomes “loaded” with polar solutes that would otherwise pull out phenylindanes (strong bitter molecules) late in the brew. For light roasts, it means no stalled flow (and no extended contact time) that would form excess quinic and caffeic acids.
The result: cleaner, smoother cups — even with roasts that often risk over-bitterness in traditional pour-over.
Why it Matters
This Means …
You can brew consistently great coffee with a simple process that takes about 30 seconds of hands-on time. A basic burr grinder (freshly ground coffee always tastes best) and a way to weigh your dose are all you need. There’s no requirement for a gooseneck kettle, water-flow scales, precision grinders, or any of the other gadgets often tied to pour-over brewing.
Experience Encapsulated Pour-over
Discover how coffee’s natural behavior can make brewing simpler and more consistent.
