Alpha Dominche Steampunk

The Steampunk is a café brewer from Alpha Dominche that looks like a piece of laboratory glassware and works like a programmable siphon. A steam boiler and a computer control everything that happens in its glass brewing chambers: the steam that pushes the hot water up into the chamber, the steep time, how much the coffee is agitated by steam, and the vacuum, also made with steam, that pulls the finished coffee back down through a metal filter. It can brew coffee or tea, up to four cups at once, each to its own recipe. Here’s how it works.

The short version

• A programmable café brewer for coffee and tea.
• Steam does the work: lifting the water, heating, agitating and making the vacuum.
• Glass chambers and metal filters.
• Up to four drinks at once, each to its own recipe.
• First shown at the 2012 SCAA Expo.

How does the Steampunk work?

1. The recipe. The barista chooses or programs a recipe in the software: temperature, brew volume, steep time, agitation and more.
2. The fill. The boiler heats the water and builds steam pressure. The set volume of water, mixed to just below the brew temperature, goes into a steam chamber below the glass brewing chamber. When the computer opens a steam valve, steam pressure pushes the water up through a straw and the metal filter into the glass chamber above.
3. The steep. Coffee or tea goes into the hot water. Steam keeps flowing up through the filter, which heats and stirs the brew; the patent says regulating the steam pressure controls the agitation.
4. Steam vacuum. When the brew time is up, the computer closes the steam valve. The steam left in the lower chamber condenses, and the drop in pressure forms a vacuum that pulls the brewed coffee down through the filter, leaving the grounds above, much like a siphon’s drawdown. The patent adds that some machines can let in cold water to cool the steam and speed this up.
5. Serve. The coffee is dispensed from the base into the cup.

Because every setting is controlled by the computer, Alpha Dominche says the Steampunk can replicate many brewing styles, from French press to siphon to pour-over, and repeat them consistently.

What can it brew?

Coffee and tea. It was designed for both, and with up to four chambers, it can brew four different drinks at once. According to New Atlas, Alpha Dominche claimed up to 80 cups an hour, and the machine uses three grades of metal filter to suit different styles. Recipes are set through software, and later models are controlled by an app on a phone or tablet. New Atlas captioned it at US$15,000 in 2013.

A short history of the Steampunk

• 2011: the earliest filing for Alpha Dominche’s patent, naming founder Khristian Bombeck and Casey Dodge as inventors.
• 2012: the Steampunk is shown at the SCAA Exposition, where it wins a Best New Product award.
• 2013: New Atlas reports the Steampunk 4.0 going national, with a modular MOD version to follow, its boiler under the counter.
• 2016: Sprudge describes Alpha Dominche as based in Salt Lake City and Brooklyn, as it debuts Sight, a full-immersion batch brewer.

Steampunk vs other café brewers

	Steampunk	Clover	Siphon
How it brews	Steam lifts the water, steam agitation, steam vacuum	Immersion, then a piston-made vacuum	Vapour pressure, then vacuum
Control	Programmed, per drink	Programmed, per drink	By hand
Drinks	Coffee and tea	Coffee	Coffee
At once	Up to four	One	One

General guidance only. The Steampunk is a commercial machine with a steam boiler, operated by trained staff following the maker’s instructions.

Steampunk vs other methods

• Siphon: the vacuum pot the Steampunk resembles.
• Clover: another programmable café brewer.
• French press: one of the styles it can imitate.
• Spinn: a high-tech home brewer that spins the coffee.

Explore every machine method in the machine chapter.