Cory filter rods

I picked up a lot of 3 Cory filter rods to use with my Yama 8 cup vac pot; two have the 1927 pat. date and say CORY FILTER ROD and one has the 1935 pat. date and says NEW CORY ROD. Pics. are here. I was wondering if anyone else's experience with them was the same as mine.

I had heard of the rods having some problems with stalling. I used the grind that worked well with the cloth filter and it stalled a bit after about 6 1/2 cups kicked down. I went to a courser grind and the stall got worse...pretty bad.

I then went to a finer grind, about like powder, and it worked better. Didn't stall but it took 3 minutes for the downdraw. Guess I'll have to kick the brew time back to one minute instead of two.

Does this mirror anyone else's experience with the rods?

Ahh Hahh! Found several extensive discussions about the rods on coffeegeek.com. Everything from too many fines in the grind to don't stir at the end of brewing.

I think I'll go back to the original grind I was using with the cloth filter, clean the burrs on the grinder, and not stir at the end of brewing and see if that works any better.

Keep us posted!

i like chasing the best cup, but i have the same yama i think and i am pretty happy with the cloth... no stalls, not too fast... i have read the CG forums aplenty. what's your take on it being an improvement? BTW i clean the cloth with some oxiclean on occassion.

I like the cup better from the cory rod myself, it has been posted many times before, but adding the coffee after all the air has evacuated from the lower vessel was the tipping point for me in getting this sorted out.

global_dev said:

i like chasing the best cup, but i have the same yama i think and i am pretty happy with the cloth... no stalls, not too fast... i have read the CG forums aplenty. what's your take on it being an improvement? BTW i clean the cloth with some oxiclean on occassion.

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Haven't gotten the rod quite sorted out yet so can't fairly compare to the cloth, but the cloth worked well with the grind I was using. No fines in the bottom pot, drawdown took about 1:30, good cup of coffee. I cleaned my Zassenhous grinder with minute rice so it should be good and clean now.

Jim said:

I like the cup better from the cory rod myself, it has been posted many times before, but adding the coffee after all the air has evacuated from the lower vessel was the tipping point for me in getting this sorted out.

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I always let the water simmer in the top pot for a minute before adding coffee, then tamp/lightly stir to get the grounds wet, then stir right before I set the pot off the heat. The stirring after brewing may have been part of the problem with the rod. I'll go back to the grind that worked well with the cloth tomorrow and not stir at the end of the brew. I also saw to not "stir" in a circular motion when you add the coffee; do a back and forth thing with the paddle end of the spoon to get the grounds wet.

I hope this works...I'd hate to have to order a replacement bottom pot because this one imploded.

Well, doesn't look like the change in technique did any good. Got the water in the bottom pot to 196, set it off heat and put top on, water immediately started rising, turned heat down and put pot back on for a slow but steady rise, turned heat down as low as it would go and keep the water north. Let it simmer for a minute, water at 195 when added coffee, gently tamped/swished grounds to get 'em wet, and brewed for 2 minutes. Didn't stir and set pot off. Draw down started at about 20 seconds then stalled at about 3 cups or so. After about a minute wiggled the rod a bit...coffee was just barely dribbling down. After 6 minutes I pulled the rod up a bit and broke the vacuum seal which let a bunch of grounds down.

Cleaned every thing up, turned the adjustment on the grinder about 1/4 turn coarser, and put in the cloth filter. Brewed exactly the same way, didn't stir at the end of brewing. Draw down started at about 20 seconds and it completely kicked down in only about 30 seconds (as opposed to the usual 1:30). I guess the not stirring after the brew does make some difference.

I guess the only variable with the rod to is try going coarser and courser on the grind?

I've got the problem isolated, now it's just how to fix it. I had heard that the Zassenhous grinders are kind of inconsistent and throw fines, so I did a pot using regular Folgers with the rod. Started draw down in about 30 seconds and finished after about 1.15. Very little sediment in the bottom pot and coffee was good.

I really don't want to pay a few hundred dollars for an upscale grinder, but don't know if I can get the grind adjusted on the Zassenhous where it will work with the rod.

Perfecto Mundo!

I put the grind adjustment for the Zassenhous to this French Press setting (2 and 1/4 turns from topped out...I thought that I had tried that already).

Got water hot...put top on with the Cory rod in it into the carafe...let water rise and simmer for a minute or so...put the grounds in and tamped down a bit...let brew for 2 minutes...didn't stir, then set off of heat, and it started down draw in about 30 seconds...down draw took 1:30.

Even SWMBO liked it.

I think that I may have a handle on the grinder and the pot and the filter combination.

Until something else comes up.

At least it makes a better cup of the store bought Folgers than the Mr. Coffee one does.

Repeatability...that's what I got today.

Left the grinder on the French Press setting, used the Cory rod, and the only difference from yesterday was that it took 3 seconds longer for drawdown to start.

By jove, I think I have it dialed in now.

Congrats! May you have many good cups from your vac and cory combo.

Mike,

Your post intrigued me. I have a Cory, Pat # 114097. The US Patent office says this was issued April 25, 1871! The box it came in has some text on it with a copyright date of 1945-46.

Here is some interesting text from the box:

How to Make Coffee​

Place CORY glass ROD Filter in upper bowl, Measure desired amount of coffee into uppper bowl. If using an open flame, keep flame low so water rises slowly. When water has risen into upper bowl, allow to "gurgle" ONE FULL MINUTE before removing from heat when using finely ground coffee . . . TWO FULL MINUTES or more when using coarsely ground coffee. [My underline emphases]

The average is: A tablespoon of coffee per cup.​

How to Make Tea​

Have water boiling vigorously in lower bowl before you put upper glass in position. Place measured tea or tea ball in upper glass. Then proceed as if brewing coffee, except that after water transfers into upper glass, allow to "gurgle" for two minutes before removing from heat. Follow these directions and you will always brew delicious tea . . . every cup the same.

The average is: A teaspoon of tea per cup.​

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Note the longer wait time for coarsely ground coffee. Presumably this is because a coarse grind will siphon down more quickly so it needs the extra "gurgle" time and a finer grind will get extra brewing during its extended siphon time.

Bertilak said:

... I have a Cory, Pat # 114097. The US Patent office says this was issued April 25, 1871!

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Well, something is bogus. When I first looked up that number, all the Pat. Office gave me was a date. They said text not available and I would need to download a TIFF image viewer to see an image of the actual patent. Now that I have done that, I see that patent 114097 is for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN GRAIN-SEPARATORS."

Bertilak said:

Mike,

Your post intrigued me. I have a Cory, Pat # 114097. The US Patent office says this was issued April 25, 1871! The box it came in has some text on it with a copyright date of 1945-46.

Here is some interesting text from the box:


Note the longer wait time for coarsely ground coffee. Presumably this is because a coarse grind will siphon down more quickly so it needs the extra "gurgle" time and a finer grind will get extra brewing during its extended siphon time.

Click to expand...

That's exactly what the instructions on the box on mine says, and it also has the same instructions for coffee on the instruction sheet inside the box, but no tea instructions on the sheet.

I believe that the longer wait time for coarser coffee is due to the less contact surface of the grind compared to a finer grind...you have to let it brew longer with a coarser grind to extract the same amount of oils and stuff. And the drawdown time may be a factor also.

The pat. numbers on the two of mine that say CORY FILTER ROD are U.S. PAT. 1927287 and PAT. DES. 114097 on the rod itself, and the one that says NEW CORY ROD has U.S. PAT. 1935578, U.S. PAT. 1931076, and U.S. PAT. 1927287. My box must be close to yours...it says Copyright 1945 by Cory Glass Coffee Brewer Co.

Ground up a 50/50 mix of Kona and Guatemalan this morning and used the NEW CORY ROD...it tried to stall for a few seconds just before the final gurgle of drawdown, but worked fine.

Found 114097!

This is a design patent and needs to be searched as D0114097 (note the "D" and the extra leading zero). Two pages attached as images. The search page is http://patft.uspto.gov/netahtml/PTO/patimg.htm. This will get you a much better resolution as a TIFF image. You may need a special plugin to view it. See http://www.uspto.gov/patft/help/images.htm#req for details.

I have the exact same rod that I had paired with my Bodum Santos. (non-electric) I like it, but it's kind of a pain when it comes to mixing the slurry. It is a breeze to clean compared to other filters, though, which is very nice. It also doesn't retail any oils, though mine does seem to have a permanent very faint brown tint to it.

Found a Cory at a local garage sale. Looked to be in great condition with two rods (both in boxes!) but SWMBO said stuff like "old junk" and "don't we have enough coffee pots," so I sadly walked away. They had a very nice rectangle shaped ceramic/porcelain coffee pot set as well, which got the same opinions from her. *sigh*

Sometimes zombie resurrections are good

Problem with the cory makers is the rubber gasket between the two bowls. These dry out and the seal goes bad making them hard to use.

Not sure if anyone makes new replacement gaskets or not for them (I have 2 cory brewers in the basement with dry gaskets).

I use a cory rod in my Bodum. Works great in that vacuum brewer

turtle said:

Problem with the cory makers is the rubber gasket between the two bowls. These dry out and the seal goes bad making them hard to use.

Not sure if anyone makes new replacement gaskets or not for them (I have 2 cory brewers in the basement with dry gaskets).

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There are products available that are supposed to rejuvenate rubber seals. I think they are silicone based. Try Google.

I haven't tried any of the gaskets from www.dayseal.com, but learned of it a while ago. I like the Silex and Pyrex lox in glass rods that have the metal spring and clip to lock the rod into the funnel and they also have a chain that serves as a nucleation point to prevent superheating of the water in the base which occasionally (usually in scrupulously clean glass) causes the water to boil all at once and volcano out of the top.

I had trouble with draw-down times before I upgraded my grinder years ago... I also like to add the coffee to the water after it's risen up to the top of the funnel and come up to temp.