The Brew Journal Recipe [April Brewer / Kalita] : La Guaca

Hey everybody! Håkan from The Brew Journal here, today I’m going to share my recipe for La Guaca using one of my favourite brewers: The April Brewer.

You might be familiar with this coffee originating from Chirripó, Costa Rica.

This coffee is a Red Catuaí that has undergone an anaerobic fermentation inside a sealed tank, so we can expect a tiny bit of funkiness in the coffee. I find that brewing fermented coffees with a slightly lower temperature of 88-92 °C helps create a juicier mouthfeel to the coffee. Here’s my recipe:

12 g of coffee ( 22 clicks on Comandante)

Water: 200 g on 92 °C 

0:00-0:05: Add 40 g of water in a circular motion. Do not swirl. Let sit for 25 seconds

0:30-0:35:

Add 60 g of water(total weight 100 g). Let sit for 25 seconds

01:00-01:05

Add 50 g of water(total weight 150 g). Let sit for 25 seconds

01:30 - 01:35:

Add your last 50 g of water(total weight 200 g). Let the water draw down completely

Total brew time: 2:45 - 3:00 min

 

This recipe gives me a juicy cup with flavours of ripe plum, cola, milk chocolate and a hint of dried mango! 

TDS: 1,29 ≈ 20% extraction.

For the water hardness, we’ve only had the tools that measure the total hardness which is at 103 ppm. It’s Stockholm water that has gone through a BWT filter jug!

P.S - If you don't have an April Brewer this recipe works wonders on the Kalita aswell ;) Just make sure to grind a bit finer(20 clicks on the Comandante) and expect a faster drawdown of 2:20- 2:30. This gives us the same extraction of 1,29 TDS, with a slightly more thick and coating mouthfeel compared to the April Brewer.

Hope you guys get a chance to try this recipe!

/Håkan

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