With the 2010 World Barista Championships fast approaching, it's a good a time to look at the new brewing methods sweeping the Australian coffee scene and ask: is that a bong on the counter or are you just brewing my coffee?

You may have noticed a subtle shift in the coffee landscape; a gentle expansion of options where once there was only "black or white?" and "how many sugars?". Cappuccinos everywhere are quaking in their boots - espresso is being challenged.

With the worldwide rise of specialty coffee, it's no wonder that brewing methods have evolved accordingly.

For those who aren’t familiar with the complexities of brewing coffee, untangling the impressive (and sometimes intimidating) new brewing methods can be quite a challenge. And when you’re perfectly happy with your regular order of a latte-to-go, why would you start pushing the boundaries anyway?

“It’s a slow education and it can be gentle, it doesn’t have to be in your face,” says Nolan Hirte, the man behind the machines at Melbourne’s Proud Mary, the home of some serious brewing hardware. “Put a good product on the table and people will recognise it,” he says. For Hirte, and other like-minded coffee guys, brewing methods aren’t about having the fanciest tools or the most impressive lab.

Rather, the bubbling glassware and steaming spouts are about allowing the customer to tailor the coffee to their tastes, bringing out the best in the bean and providing a great coffee experience. That’s it.

“We’ve come a long way with wine and refining our palette, and it’s getting like that with coffee now, too,” says Hirte. “But there’s still a long way to go.”

Both Hirte and Aaron Wood (2009 Victorian Cupping Champion and barista at Melbourne’s St. ALi) attribute the rise of specialty brewing to internet discussion and the good natured push of barista competitions around the world.

“The internet is very much alive and active with [discussion about] specialty coffee,” says Wood. “Because there are so few places in each city around the world that do really good speciality coffee, [people online] communicate and share ideas. There are a lot of blogs out there talking about brewing techniques that are popular in other countries,” he says.

So what should you look for when confronted with the brave new world of specialty brewing?

“Filter type brews, which is what all these alternative brew methods are about, have been around for a lot longer than espresso. They’ve almost all gone out of fashion and come back in,” says Wood, pointing out that in Australia this was partly due to the use of poor quality coffee when filters were originally introduced. The benefit of filter brewing is that it’s a gentler way of extracting coffee, allowing temperature and time control that can be adjusted to bring out the best in more delicate coffees; highlighting subtleties that might otherwise be lost.

Syphon

The syphon is probably the most obscure-looking of the new wave of brewing methods, resembling a bong. Bubbling away over an open flame it’s easily the most theatrical of the brewing methods. The syphon works on the principle of the expansion and contraction of gas to move water through its two glass chambers.

As water in the bottom chamber heats to boiling, the change in temperature forces the water up through a central tube into the top chamber where it mixes with fresh coffee grounds. Once the coffee has brewed the syphon is removed from the heat and the cooling of the gases in the bottom chamber allows the water to be sucked back down the central tube, where a filter catches the coffee grounds - separating them from the freshly brewed coffee.

The stability of the water temperature as the coffee brews allows for an extremely quick brewing time (around 40 seconds depending on the bean), resulting in a light, thin mouthfeel not dissimilar to tea and aiding in the detection of floral, citrus or other delicate notes.

French Press

Compared to the syphon, the French press or plunger is relatively simple. Coffee grounds are placed in the plunger with hot water and the coffee is left to extract. The time varies depending on the bean and the amount of coffee, but 3-4 minutes is not uncommon. This allows the gases and oils to disperse, ready for the tightly fitting plunge filter to be pushed through it, from the top down, forcing the coffee grounds to the bottom of the pot where the filter holds them in place.

“With French press - or plunger coffee - you have to wait until the gases are released before you can push the filter down,” says Hirte. “If you try to push a plunger down early the pressure stops you, and it’ll taste terrible because you’re forcing it.” The longer brewing time and (usually) coarser filter provides a more robust coffee, typically with more body and less clarity than a syphon, though still not as viscous as an espresso.

Pour Over

The pour over or drip filter relies on gravity (rather than the human intervention of the French press) to separate grounds from brew. Fine coffee grounds are placed into a cone shaped filter - usually made of paper or cloth, and water is added. “The coffee will soak the water up and start to de-gas,” says Wood, explaining that maintaining water temperature as it’s added can be tricky. “We slowly pour in a little bit of water - say 20-30mls at a time - and the water will just pull out the oils, then it comes out the bottom into the cup.”

Clover

According to Hirte a clover is a bit like a modern syphon, only with more precise control. If you’re lucky you might have seen one of these around, but just as they were gaining momentum in the specialty coffee world Starbucks bought the company, making them Starbucks only kit.

Essentially they are a machine designed to brew coffee cup-by-cup with the exact temperature, water content and time for each coffee recipe. The control panel at the front lets you select the specific measurements for each individual cup. Allowing for fine-tuning after each brew to instantly specify the details of the next.

“The best thing about the clover is that you can adjust everything. Time, water quantity and temperature - that’s important because some Ethiopian coffees, for instance, love a much higher temperature than others. It just releases a different profile from the coffee,” says Hirte.

Coffee grounds are placed into the chamber, where they are lowered down to brew inside the body of the machine. Once the coffee has brewed, the grounds are lifted up out of the machine in a sort of reverse plunger effect that uses a vacuum to separate the water and coffee grounds. “It’s a one way valve that leaves all the liquid behind but pushes up all the coffee grounds,” says Hirte.

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At the end of the day there’s no right or wrong way to drink coffee according to both Wood and Hirte.

“I do want filter coffee to become a bigger part of the vernacular,” says Wood, “but I don’t want espresso to drop off, I just want to give customers the opportunity to enjoy each cup at its best.”

And for that, nothing beats talking to your barista for tips on which brewing methods might best fit your flavour preferences.