There are some good machines from Technivorm in the Netherlands. We had one (with a thermos jug) at work and connected it to a digital clock timer. Using my fresh home roasted beans freshly ground the evening before it made quite acceptable morning coffee -some would say exceptional
-. It will be interesting for us to learn about your experience, whichever way your friend goes.
After writing that I looked more closely at the Behmor Brazen and I must say that it looks like an excellent machine, and what's more it has a built in timer. You're probably best off with that (and Steve's a good bloke
).