GoodShave's Coffee Journal

I have the Vario FLO dripper with seven different filter screens, two of which I had not tried. So today I thought I would try one of those two.
I had heard that one of the screens could be used without a filter so I assumed it had to be the 'Slow 2' screen which is a solid plate with only 8 holes in it.
My original intent was to try this screen with no filter to let the oils through and see what it would taste like. I had not seen any recipes using the Slow 2 screen, so I was going to have to make up the recipe as I went.

Seeing the size of the holes, I was concerned that even with a coarse grind that some coffee would wind up in my cup. So I thought I would use my Flair Pro Dispersion screen as a pre-filter to help reduce the grinds getting into my cup. The idea would be to have the fine hole side of the screen facing up. The screen would rest on the bottom of the dripper (on top of  the Slow 2 screen).

Looking more closely at the screen, it made wonder how a Kalita Wave recipe would work with the Slow 2 screen with a filter (without Flair Pro Dispersion screen). The holes were smaller than my glass Kalita 155 but there were were more holes than the Kalita 155 (which has only 3 holes). So I thought I would try a Kalita 155 recipe with this setup and see what would happen. I decided to go with the Project Barista 155 recipe and use the same water temperature and grind size as I would for that recipe (using the Jim's Organic Coffee (West Wareham, MA) - Papua New Guinea (Korofrigu) beans). I had a less than two minute draw down and the coffee had the best taste/mouth feel I have encountered with these beans for any brew method I have tried so far.

I think I need to revisit some of the other screen I have tried and use a two-pour recipe (like the Project Barista 155 recipe) and taste the results. I think my previous brews with some of the screens generated bitter brews, but they were using more pours.

I went up to the VariaBrewing site and they now have more details about their screens including an interactive taste graph.
https://www.variabrewing.com/products/fl...a-x-kurasu

Fast 2 (Kurasu logo) - Bright, Clean, Sparkling Clarity (note this screen is currently mislabeled on the site as Fast_1, but the picture is correct for the screen)
(Included with FLO)
Medium_1 - Crisp, Refreshing, Balanced
(Included with FLO)
Slow_1 - Full-Bodied, Versatile, Rich
(Included with FLO)
Slow_2 - Smooth, Mellow, Balanced Sweetness
(upgrade disk)
Slow_3 - Bold, Sharp, Resonant
(upgrade disk)
Medium_2 - Juicy, Vibrant, Well-Rounded
(upgrade disk)
Fast_1 - Balanced, Complex, Sparkling Finish
(upgrade disk)

I did not see this information until after I had brewed my coffee this morning, but I doubt it would have changed my brewing settings.

I may still try the Slow 2 screen with the Flair Pro Dispersion screen and without a filter in the future, but for now, I will try the last screen I have not tried (Slow 3) and then circle back to the other screens using the same recipe.

That is some very interesting information. It has me intrigued in those filters and that whole system. I will be curious to read your reports!

I have the Vario FLO dripper with seven different filter screens, two of which I had not tried. So today I thought I would try one of those two.
I had heard that one of the screens could be used without a filter so I assumed it had to be the 'Slow 2' screen which is a solid plate with only 8 holes in it.
My original intent was to try this screen with no filter to let the oils through and see what it would taste like. I had not seen any recipes using the Slow 2 screen, so I was going to have to make up the recipe as I went.

Seeing the size of the holes, I was concerned that even with a coarse grind that some coffee would wind up in my cup. So I thought I would use my Flair Pro Dispersion screen as a pre-filter to help reduce the grinds getting into my cup. The idea would be to have the fine hole side of the screen facing up. The screen would rest on the bottom of the dripper (on top of  the Slow 2 screen).

Looking more closely at the screen, it made wonder how a Kalita Wave recipe would work with the Slow 2 screen with a filter (without Flair Pro Dispersion screen). The holes were smaller than my glass Kalita 155 but there were were more holes than the Kalita 155 (which has only 3 holes). So I thought I would try a Kalita 155 recipe with this setup and see what would happen. I decided to go with the Project Barista 155 recipe and use the same water temperature and grind size as I would for that recipe (using the Jim's Organic Coffee (West Wareham, MA) - Papua New Guinea (Korofrigu) beans). I had a less than two minute draw down and the coffee had the best taste/mouth feel I have encountered with these beans for any brew method I have tried so far.

I think I need to revisit some of the other screen I have tried and use a two-pour recipe (like the Project Barista 155 recipe) and taste the results. I think my previous brews with some of the screens generated bitter brews, but they were using more pours.

I went up to the VariaBrewing site and they now have more details about their screens including an interactive taste graph.
https://www.variabrewing.com/products/fl...a-x-kurasu

Fast 2 (Kurasu logo) - Bright, Clean, Sparkling Clarity (note this screen is currently mislabeled on the site as Fast_1, but the picture is correct for the screen)
(Included with FLO)
Medium_1 - Crisp, Refreshing, Balanced
(Included with FLO)
Slow_1 - Full-Bodied, Versatile, Rich
(Included with FLO)
Slow_2 - Smooth, Mellow, Balanced Sweetness
(upgrade disk)
Slow_3 - Bold, Sharp, Resonant
(upgrade disk)
Medium_2 - Juicy, Vibrant, Well-Rounded
(upgrade disk)
Fast_1 - Balanced, Complex, Sparkling Finish
(upgrade disk)

I did not see this information until after I had brewed my coffee this morning, but I doubt it would have changed my brewing settings.

I may still try the Slow 2 screen with the Flair Pro Dispersion screen and without a filter in the future, but for now, I will try the last screen I have not tried (Slow 3) and then circle back to the other screens using the same recipe.

That is some very interesting information. It has me intrigued in those filters and that whole system. I will be curious to read your reports!

Thanks!

When I bought the FLO dripper, I went ahead to bought all the extra screens since they were available even though there was no information on when you would use each one or how the brew would taste differently with each one. Buying all of them at once triggered a discount on the web page for buying more than x number of items (the more the items, the higher the discount). There are still not a lot of recipes on the Internet for this dripper. I have three recipes from Kurasu and one recipe from Alternative Brewing (though that author did not know how to rinse the dripper properly, so he said you had to take apart the dripper after each brew which is not true).

It is definitely one where you have to figure it out for yourself (at least for now). It comes with no instructions. Just a diagram of the dripper parts is provided. You have to find videos from the co-inventor to learn more of the details. The rest you have to learn from trial and error. It definitely has a lot of potential.

I also did not realize until this morning that the Kalita 155 filters have a wider bottom than the Kalita 185 filters. I repeated yesterday's brew with Bean & Bean Coffee Roasters (Little Neck, NY) - Kenya Peaberry but I overshot my water total and shifted the brew ratio from 1:15 to 1:16.3. It still turned out OK but I was hoping to do some comparison brews with these beans before I run out of them. If that doesn't happen, I have more coffee coming in this week.

I also learned today that you need to make sure the top part of the Varia FLO dripper is TIGHTLY seated in the bottom ring or coffee can silently leak out the back side of the brewer onto your scale.

I was not happy to find the back of my Acaia Pearl scale covered in coffee when I moved my brewing server out of the way today. Next time I brew with the FLO dripper I am going fill the dripper with water over the sink to make sure it doesn't leak between the top part and the bottom part. Today was the first time I have had this issue with all the brews I have made, so I count this as user error on my part.

At times, I find it a bit fiddly to lock the pieces together. I don't change the screens that often. Next time I will be more careful.

Today was the end of the bag for the Bean & Bean Coffee Roasters (Little Neck, NY) - Kenya Peaberry beans. I needed a few more beans to make up the 13g dose for my glass Kalita Wave 155 using the Project Barista 155 recipe. I wanted a smaller dose recipe so that the majority of the flavor would come from the Kenya Peaberry beans. I added a few beans that were left just for this occasion from my bag of Happy Mug Coffee (Erie, PA) - Rwanda anaerobic process and then added a few more beans from Jim's Organic Coffee (West Wareham, MA) - Papua New Guinea (Korofrigu) to make up the difference. It was OK and fit the bill for the morning.

I am a little behind in my posting about my coffee brewing journey, so I will try to summarize a few things.

I decided that I should try the two optional screens ('Slow 2' and 'Slow 3') that I bought for my Varia FLO dripper but had not used before.

I had read a mention that one of the screens could be used without a filter and I assumed it was the 'Slow 2' since it had the smallest holes of any of the screens. I was prepared to brew without a filter but at the last moment thought to try a 2-pour Kalita Wave recipe with a filter instead (Project Barista Kalita 155 recipe).I am so glad that I did! It yielded one of the best cups for the Jim's Organic Coffee (West Wareham, MA) - Papua New Guinea (Korofrigu) beans to date! The VariaBrewing site described 'Slow 2' as 'Smooth, Mellow, Balanced Sweetness'. I totally agree.

I then decided to keep going down this path and try the 'Slow 3' screen with the same recipe. The VariaBrewing site described 'Slow 3' as 'Slow_3 - Bold, Sharp, Resonant'. I would definitely agree with that as well. I think I preferred the 'Slow 2' cup better but 'Slow 3' was not bad.

Next, I decided to revisit 'Slow 1' (one of the three that comes with the Varia Flo dripper). The VariaBrewing site described 'Slow 1' as 'Full-Bodied, Versatile, Rich' (which I also agree is a good description for the resulting brews).

The first brew, I went with the same recipe settings as above with same grind size (KU 7.4) but the brew was a little bitter. The draw down time was very long (3:50 for dry brew bed).

Second brew, I decided to go towards a French press setting (KU 9.0) to see if I could bring that draw down time shorter. The draw down was 3:25 for dry bed but the body was pretty thin.

Third brew, I decided to split the difference between the previous grind sizes (KU 8.2). The draw down was 2:20 for dry bed!
I was shocked at the faster draw down since this was a finer grind than my previous brew at KU 9.0 which had a draw down of 3:25. Looking at the filter, (since this screen leaves grinds in the waves of the filter similar to the Stagg XF) it looks like I kept the slurry level lower than my previous brew. I may have focused more on a slower pour so I did not reach the slurry height from the previous brew and maybe a higher slurry height with this screen actually slows down the brew. I wonder if I had maintained a lower slurry level what my other two brews would have turned out to be. I prefer KU 8.2 cup over 7.4 (bitter) and 9.0 (a little thin).

I made all three brews back to back the same morning.

I happened to watch the video below from April Coffee and found a few nuggets that I thought were helpful:

Use lower water temperature for more developed roast in general.
Heavily processed coffee will have a faster flow rate.
With non-infused/not heavily processed coffees, if the brew time is less than 2 minutes, it will be hard to extract the flavors. You need more contact time in this case.

Shujue - Copenhagen | Home Coffee Brewing with April #44
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhJkC5qxI90

celestino, I ordered a bag of Panama - Boquete from Rogue Wave Coffee Roasters.
https://roguewavecoffee.ca/products/pana...ete-washed

I am not sure of the roast level but it sounded interesting.

Congratulations! I really enjoy that one and I hope you do as well. 

Hey celestino ,

My bag of Panama - Boquete from Rogue Wave Coffee Roasters arrived and I am starting to brew with them.
What water temperature/grind settings/recipe did you like with these beans?

Today I tried it with my Stagg XF using a Kalita 185 filter (unsmooshed) and a two pour recipe. I brewed it twice (the first time the grind was too coarse and there was very little flavor in the cup). Second brew was better but I think I need more extraction to push the nice flavors that appeared at the final cooling state to earlier in the tasting time frame.

The next recipe I plan is the Hario Switch with the Coffee Chronicler recipe (hybrid recipe).

Other recipes I have lined up include:
Hario Switch: The Real Sprometheus (hybrid recipe)
April Brewer: James Perry Coffee - Standard 3 Pour
April Brewer: Regular April Coffee Recipe
Varia FLO: Alternative Brewing 4:6 recipe - Target: balanced acidity and sweetness, medium body, 2nd bloom, 'Medium 1' screen

I figured one of these is going to get me in the ball park and  then I will dial in the beans from there. If not, I have other brewers and recipes at my disposal.

Today I tried my new glass April brewer with the Rogue Wave Coffee Roasters (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) - Panama Boquete beans using a large size April filter. I used a longer contact recipe from April Coffee Roasters. I brewed in my Hario V60 range server and drank it from my new Origami Aroma mug. It was a pleasant cup.

I have been using my plastic 2.0 April brewer for quite a while, but this was the first time with the glass version and first time using the new 'large' size filters. The Origami mug was nice as well.

Today's morning brew was with the Varia FLO driper with a Kalita 185 filter, the 'Medium 1' screen and Rogue Wave Coffee Roasters (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) - Panama Boquete beans. I was using the Alternative Brewing 4:6 recipe.

After my last two brews where I wound up with coffee leaking onto my coffee scale with the Varia FLO, I did a water test (twice) to verify no water was going to leak from my brewer. Everything looked like it was going well with the brew. Then I started to hear a weird glug glug sound at parts of the brewing process. Never heard that before. When the brew was done, there was a pool of coffee under the server! Not as much coffee as with my previous brew. I really don't understand why this is happening. I guess I have not been changing my screens in my brews for quite a while, so maybe I am forgetting a finer point about securing the two parts of this brewer together. The previous two brews, I did not have the two parts together tightly/correctly and the bottom part fell off while cleaning. Today's brew, that was not the case at all. The connection of the two parts was solid.

I received the brewer in June so I would be surprised if the silicone ring wore out this quickly (assuming a worn ring could cause leaking). Tech support previously told me that each silicone ring should last 8-12 months with regular use. It has not been even four months yet. It felt like I had an ever so slight raise in one section as I ran my finger around the connection point of the two parts. Maybe even thought the top and bottom were on tight (preventing the previous leaks I had between the two parts), the brewer was not connected in a level way. Maybe it leaked out the back side of the brewer again. I inspected the threads and it looks like you can push straight down and a slight twist to lock instead of screwing and screwing to get the threads to catch. Will try this for next time. I contacted Varia Brewing to see what troubleshooting I should do. Maybe it is the ring.

Second brew of the day (evening brew): I used my new glass April Brewer with a Kalita 155 filter and the Rogue Wave Coffee Roasters (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) - Panama Boquete beans using the April 3-Pour More Contact Time recipe. It was a very good cup. Many of the tasting notes showed up.

Varia Brewing wanted me to send them a video of the issue I was having, so tonight I did another brew with the same recipe/brewer/screen.
I went with a different coffee and water temperature. I was videoing the brew in case it leaked.

I took apart the brewer and looked carefully at the installed silicone ring. I also looked carefully at the three tabs on the cone and the three slots on the base.
I am not sure I ever paid that much attention to it before since I did not have any issues.

I made sure this time to insert the 3 metal tabs of the cone deep into the three open slots of the base and turn until you could not turn more. The brewer cone and base were tight. There was no glug glug sounds in this brew. There were no pools of coffee on the scale. So maybe the I did not have all the tabs completely locked the previous brew? A slight gap could allow coffee to leak and maybe that glug noise. I will make sure I lock things in this way going forward.

I was just happy not to have a pool of coffee on my scale.