[Technique] Kalita Wave 155: Experiences and Advice

I've used the smaller Kalita Wave for about 6 months now, with it being a brewing staple at home. I figured I'd catalogue a few things that I experienced that might be worth noting.

Level Brewing Surface: My most recent discovery, after some ridiculously slow draw-downs, is that the Kalita requires (likely due to the three holes) a level brewing surface. My dingy apartment doesn't have a level plane in any inch but stuffing my Hario V60 manual under my scale remedied this significantly. Extraction was much more even for me and draw-down times were more reasonable for the batch size.

Filter: I recently purchased some of the brown paper filters after predominately using the bleached filters. Overall, brews are similar but there are some differences, namely that I always always rinse the brown filter and I expect my brew times to change slightly between each filter (generally, brown filters draw-down slightly slower). As well, the bleached filters are slightly more flimsy, I have ruined a handful of them but haven't yet deformed a natural one.

Rinsing the Filter: Almost always done, especially to pre-heat my carafe. You can get away with not pre-rinsing the thin bleached filter but is a must for the brown filter. If you find your filter giving up the ghost during the wetting process, ensure you are aiming for the center of the brewer and you can hold the filter in place with your index finger and thumb.

Grind Size: This one definitely varies per bean but I tend to grind slightly coarser than I would for "drip." The agitation from pulsing and longer brew times generally means I get a well extracted cup.

Stirring: Alright, this one is controversial but giving a gentle once-over with a spoon during the bloom seems to help promote even extraction. I understand not wanting to ruin filter shape but I've yet to do so from giving it the ol' spoon.

Washing the Sides: I wash down the sides of the filter during my third and/or fourth pour of the brew. This ensures any grinds stuck in pockets gets back into the bed. A bit of coffee runs past the filter and nearly immediately into the cup/carafe but I don't worry about it.

Batch Size: I find 18g-20g works quite well for a three to four pulse pour on the 155. I usually hover around 1:15-1:16 brew ratio and each pour brings up the water level to the edge of the top of the filter. I have a hard time imagining that you could brew significantly more.

Pulse Pouring: Obviously, due to the small size of the 155, pulse pouring has nearly always been a must. I try to ensure that I maintain a regular interval between pours for consistencies sake, usually between 15s-20s depending on draw-down times.

Rao Spin: I do a version of the Rao Spin after my last pour. I give the brewer a couple swirls to pull the grinds down evenly. You can also do the gentle tap on top of the carafe to achieve the level coffee bed. Obviously, you can't really use a spoon to achieve the level bed due to filter shape but you can approximate it. Thanks poppa Rao.

I've created my baseline recipe (1:16 Ratio, three-times-coffee-weight-bloom with a stir, four pulse pours spaced between 15s-20s, final brew time between 3:00-3:30 min) from the following videos that I strongly recommend:

Onyx Coffee Labs: https://youtu.be/N7PmV0ufQT8 Nick Cho:https://youtu.be/mupueSMHBJQ