The Ultimate AeroPress Technique (Episode #3)

I've had good results from the James Hoffman recipe [0], although I brew inverted. You can push the plunger down with just the weight of resting your arm on the plunger. For something very different, you can brew something not-quite-espresso using the Fellow Prismo cap for the Aeropress. 0: ▶ this video

In the spirit of no over complications: don't bother inverting. Here is a weird coffee person succinctly explaining: ▶ this video

I don't like the stock aeropress recipe. I too found it wasn't very consistent and sometimes gave wildly different results. I've found James Hoffman's aeropress technique to be fantastic though and much more repeatable--give it a shot: ▶ this video The big difference with James' technique is that it spends more time immersion brewing, almost like a french press, vs the stock technique that's really rushing you to extract and then percolate with the push. I find the longer immersion brew is a lot more forgiving and repeatable as a technique.

Yes, a minimal amount of water will escape but I haven't found it to negatively impact my brew. One of the best things about the aeropress is the experimentation and variety, so I encourage you to try this and see if it makes a difference. James Hoffmann has a video on this technique (jump to 2:00 to see the start of the recipe): ▶ this video