Training Log #2 by Niall Curran - My current competition brewing recipe

I have always been quite flexible with my recipes for brewing, yet for the most part, I prefer to keep it quite simple. There can be a tendency to get a little carried away and I often prefer to focus on the coffee itself.

Despite this, I have lately been making a lot of Kalita brews and even adjusting my techniques because of this. For the most part, I have always been a "V60 Man" I love the cleanliness of the brew but also the ease that one can brew with it. Switching to the Kalita wave, shouldn't be that big of a change but to me it is, everything is how it pours, settles, collects water etc is very very different, yet I have been enjoying the brews that I get from it. I will say, I really need to get out of the "2 minutes and 20 seconds" thing that I have been using for easily 3/4 years now. It is almost too much of a quick fix for dialing in and I should be more open to longer brew times and courser grind settings.


Therefore in the last few weeks, I have been playing with:

11grams of coffee to 160 grams of water in the 155size Kalita.
I start with a 4 to 1 bloom (yes) and let it sit for roughly 35-40 seconds, really letting it release all those gasses. Then I aggressively pour up to 100grams of water within just a few seconds really agitating the pour. This is not an elegant looking brew by any means, because I like to add a spin at this point. After I see a drop in the level of liquid, usually by 1 minute 30 I will top up the water to its total of 160grams.

Lately, this brew has been finishing anywhere between 2 minutes 20 and 2 minutes 50 depending on the coffee I have used, and I have found the longer brews to be far sweeter with a higher depth of character than the quicker brews.

I will work and practice this some more, but I am no longer sticking in that 1/16 ratio nor am I stuck on a time zone for brew times because someone else said so.
Happy brews everyone.