Kalita Kantan again

Tried again today with a bag of Monsoon Malabar that was roasted a week ago and is still seriously gassy. Stupidly I decided to go with the Kalita Kantan dripper... stupidly because with such a small filter basket there isn't really much room for error, and then when the bloom steals all of your remaining space it becomes quite difficult to pour water in!

Attempt One.
I used 15g of grinds and 225g of water for a 15:1 brewing ratio.

Results:

(a) I should have used a smaller dose, perhaps 10g, and increased the brewing ratio to something like 18:1, for approx 180ml in the cup. That would have given me more basket space for expansion.

(b) I should have ground coarser. I used 19 on the MDF grinder, same as I use for the Hario V60.  I seem to recall now that I had the same problem the first time I used a kantan, but I'd forgotten.  Contact time ended up being about 4mins 30secs.  Next time I'll try setting 24.

(c) Stats:
TDS 1.61%
Extraction Yield 24.2%
It sure tasted strong, but not overpowering.  I tried a few mouthfuls and then, horror of horrors, decided to finish it with a spoonful of sugar. After all, I didn't brew it correctly so I can't expect it to be sweet enough.

Attempt two.
I've worked out that with 10g and 180g water, I have a fairly small window to hit if I want to brew within the ideal standards.  With such a low dosage the extraction % ramps up easily, and to achieve an extraction % of, say, 20.7% I'll need to keep the TDS at the very bottom of the ideal range, 1.15%.  This is going to be a challenge. Maybe I'll set the grinder to something like 28 instead! 

OK - done. 10g with 200g if water. 20:1 ratio.  Results...
TDS 0.61% !
Extraction 12.8% !
Extraction time about 1min 20secs.
Taste - like water, as you'd expect with those stats.
OK, the grinder setting was clearly way to coarse.
BUT the pour was much easier to control with 10g in the basket. Just the right amount of room.


Attempt three
10g with 180g water.
Grinder setting 23
TDS 0.84%
Extraction 15.1%
Extraction time 1min 30secs
Closer but nowhere near a cigar yet. Still like water. 
I've boobed in making the grind so much coarser.  I forgot that by reducing the dosage from 15g to 10g there will already be a quicker extraction and lower TDS.

Attempt four (sigh!)
10g with 180g water.
Grind setting back to 19, same as Hario V60
TDS 1.02%

Extraction 18.4%
Extraction time 2mins 10secs. 
Performed quite a bit of stirring with a chopstick, since it was drawing down too quickly and I wanted to get the TDS up.
Taste: Now we're getting there. 67C in the cup, which is a temperature I'm happy with, and I then like to let it cool a little, to about 63C, before drinking because I find that's when I can start to taste the coffee better rather than wincing at the heat. It's less bitter at 63C too.
Actually, this is a good cup of coffee.  I didn't think I'd be saying that about this bag of Monsoon Malabar, because it's certainly very different from the other coffees I've been drinking. I know the stats are outside the ideal zone, and next time I'll grind on setting 17, but I'd be happy to drink this cup and maybe MM doesn't need such a high TDS because of it's intensely rich, deep flavours.  Just a thought.

Ta-ta!