When it comes to manual coffee brewers, once you get past conical versus flat bottom, innovation is made in inches. The occasional ridge or angle change, maybe a different hole pattern to modify the flow. They’re all shades of grey, nothing overwhelming different, each brewer focusing on one particular aspect of brewing that could be improved upon. And a new pour-over system is taking a closer look at heat retention. It’s called the June and it’s live on Kickstarter now.
What’s the deal with pour-overs being named after months? The April, the December dripper, now the June. We’ll have a full year’s worth in no time.
Created by Shelbru, the June is a conical manual brewer similar to the traditional V60, but features a vacuum-insulated, double-walled stainless steel construction. This, according to the campaign, allows for greater temperature stability and heat retention, which in turn allows for more consistency from cup to cup.
When analyzing temperature data for different brewer materials, the vacuum-insulated June had only a 1–2°C change from the start of the brew (post-bloom) to the four-minute mark, while the glass dripper had roughly a 9°C difference and the metal an 11°C drop.
Other design updates include concave ribs inside the brewer. Most rib patterns in brewers are convex, meaning they stick out from the device. The June has 12 concave indentions that allow for consistent airflow in and out of the brewer, which keeps the extraction flow more stable and less prone to stalling. It also features what they refer to as the “Aroma Flow” output. It is essentially an attachment to the bottom of the brewer than centers the flow of brewed coffee out of the device. Intended to be used with Icosa’s Avenci Cyclone, this focuses the coffee stream onto the carafe’s punt to aerate and enhance the aroma.
And if you desire further modification, the base of the June is removable and designed to be compatible with the Hario Switch for immersion-based experimentation.
With a month left on the campaign, the June has netted over $18,000, more than six times its $3,000 goal. Still, there are rewards a plenty, including a launch week special of $61 for the brewer, a 39% discount on the MSRP. Other packages include a brewer and a full Icosa Avenci system (and a cold brew system that is also part of the campaign but doesn’t entirely make sense) for $135, or 43% off retail price. Rewards are expected to start shipping out in September.
So if you need another slightly different coffee brewer in your life—and really, who doesn’t?—then perhaps Shelbru’s June is just what you are looking for. And finally, making pour-over will be easy, which is what I tell myself every time I buy a new dripper. But this time I mean it. I meant it last time too and the time for before that, but now I really mean it.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
