Fellow Aiden Precision Brewer Overview

Fellow Aiden Precision Brewer Overview

The Fellow Aiden doesn’t seek to reinvent the wheel; instead, it has a more noble purpose: to make the wheel more attractive, functional, customizable, and fun. Sure, you can get drinkable drip coffee from any old and dusty coffee maker, but why set your bar close to the floor? Fellow sets the new standard for the home brewer and raises the bar for quality batch brew, pour-over, and cold brew—yes, it can even brew batches of cold brew. Magnifique! Here are the top five features that we think will improve your brew game, but let’s get a few basics out of the way. 

"It’s the Heating Element Stupid"

Temperature is the core and fundamental piece of a coffee maker, and it will make or break its ability to deliver properly extracted coffee. The quality of the heating element and the overall build of the coffee maker’s internals are what separates Mr. Coffee and its clones from more top-notch machines like the Aiden, Moccamaster, and the Ratio. 

As we stress in The Science of Brewing Coffee, “The higher the brew water temperature used, the higher the extraction rate. This is because the compounds within coffee typically dissolve more easily when exposed to more energy in the form of heat. Most coffee resources recommend an average slurry temperature between 195ºF and 205ºF for ideal brewing.” Mr. Coffee makers and the like use cheaper and less reliable parts, which means your brew water won’t be consistent even during the same brew cycle. The Moccamaster and Ratio coffee makers use elements that produce water at a set temperature for the most consistent extraction experience possible, even approved by exacting Speciality Coffee Association standards. 

The Aiden takes this principle of consistency several steps further. Instead of a boiler or a straight heating element, the Aiden employs a more powerful and precise thermocoil. In contrast to a thermoblock, a thermocoil will heat water through a metal tube or rods instead of water being pumped through a series of chambers, thus maintaining a more uniform and consistent temperature. Since thermocoils are one-piece units, they are also less prone to leaks. Fellow coupled the thermocoil with a near-silent pump which allows the Aiden to control the flow rate and the temperature direclty to the brew basket. You're able to alter these two features when creating your own coffee profiles. 

Brew Profile System 

This is where everything gets incredibly fun. The Aiden comes loaded with several pre-programmed profiles suited to different roast levels (light, medium, dark, cold brew, and Fellow Drops. We love how Fellow gets us started on the right path, but if you’re a tinkerer like us, you like to get in the weeds and create your own brew profiles. In profile creation you get to alter the following:

  • Brew temperature
  • Brew ratio
  • Bloom ratio
  • Bloom duration
  • Bloom temperature
  • Number of pulses
  • Time between pulses
  • Pulse temperature

This incredible amount of control sets the Aiden apart from all home brewers. Best of all, it's intutive and easy to execute these changes right on the machine. It's almost as though you can copy/paste your own manual pour-over routine, and the Aiden executes it better than you could. You can apply this level of customization to batch brew, pour-over, and cold brew. Are you a one-button-and-done kind of user but still want the best coffee? You’ll love the instant brew feature.

Guided & Instant Brew Modes

 

In guided brew mode, you can put your custom profile or a pre-set profile in action. After selecting a profile, the Aiden tells you how much water and coffee you need for that specific profile, making the understanding of brew ratios incredibly simple. You can easily change how many cups of coffee you want, and the Aiden will tell you how much coffee you need to grind to achieve it. After you begin brewing, the Aiden will automatically scale the water based on the batch size and if you programmed bloom pulses. 

 

You can just as easily bypass guided brew mode, associated with variable fiddling, and brew coffee like an old-school coffee maker with instant brew mode. All you have to do is press one button. 

Swappable Brew Baskets

The Aiden comes with two different basket sizes (flat bottom & cone), corresponding to different brew batch sizes. When brewing 1-3 cups, you’ll use the cone filter basket, which maximizes extraction efficiency for smaller doses of coffee. You'll switch to the flat bottom filter basket when brewing larger batches of filter coffee or cold brew to maximize extraction with a larger volume of coffee. Clean-up is mess-free, and you can easily switch between making a pour-over with one brew cycle and a ten-cup batch brew the next; just don’t forget to flip the switch on the showerhead. 

Cleanliness

For all you neat freaks out there, making a mess at any stage of the brewing process was challenging. This may seem like a minor feature, but it's clear that Fellow honed in on the best possible user experience with the Aiden. Each brew basket has a stop valve, so you won't get errant flows when removing it from the Aiden. The carafe not only feels good in the hand, but the coffee pours clean with no residual coffee dribble on the counter—the lid stays on and is designed simply. Take the lid off, and you'll see that the carafe is incredibly easy to clean—no nooks or crannies for grime and grounds to hide. In the long run, living with the Aiden doesn't feel like a chore, but a pleasure to use each time we need a cup of coffee. 

Reservoir Pump

Filling the reservoir is exceedingly easy. It’s side-filling, so you can simply open the lid, pour water in, or take it out by its ergonomic handle and walk it over to the tap. This is ideal if you have low-hanging cabinets. Since the Aiden uses a pump to extract water from its reservoir, it only uses the amount of water that it needs, making brewing coffee each morning a breeze and just, well, incredibly satisfying. Again, this may seem like a simple feature, but it’s something that we wish all of our former coffee makers (RIP) had. 

The Fellow Aiden sets a new standard for home brewing. While other coffee makers can simulate pour-over, the Aiden lets you control every significant variable that goes into crafting the perfect pour-over, batch brew, and cold brew. You can select Aiden's brew profiles, and everything will be dialed in for you, or you can have complete control and create custom profiles and take control over eight brewing parameters. The Aiden helps make great coffee easy, fast, and, most importantly, fun.