Is the V60 Drip Decanter a good point of entry?

digitalphilosophy

Aside from coffee, one of my hobbies is making cocktails and I have recently started to experiment with modifying spirits via techniques like fat-washing and similar.

Up until now I have been using parts from an old coffee maker balanced precariously on a suitable vessel for the liquid to drip into, but I managed to break the plastic filter holder last night and I would like to source a replacement.

This seemed like a perfect excuse to look at something fancier and my eyes were drawn to the V60 Drip Decanter as it looks like the perfect thing to explore brewed coffee and filter my cocktail experiments.

However, other than the occasional Aeropress I have no brewing experience and outside of watching the occasional YT video on the subject, little idea of what I would be getting into.

Can the V60 Drip Decanter make a single cup or is it better-suited to brewing larger quantities? I need something that will hold around 400-500ml of liquid for my cocktail experiments, which the V60 seems to be perfect for.

MWJB

digitalphilosophy The V60 Drip Decanter can make a single cup, but because of the higher drop to the coffee bed, from brewer rim, you might see more silt in the cup. Brews of 18g+ should be OK. However, there are a couple of issues:

Hario’s current white filter papers (smooth inner surface, creped outer surface) are awful, I don’t have a suitable replacement to suggest as yet, but hope to soon.

The Drip Assist is a handy tool to help brewing, especially single cups with an 02 sized cone, but I have seen reports that it doesn’t actually fit properly on the Drip Decanter.

Ozone have the Kalita 185 drip decanter, I frequently use a 185 Wave for single cups.

There is also the 3-6 cup Chemex which can be used for larger single cups (18g+). Needs a good bit of preheating.

digitalphilosophy

Well, thought I’d replied and it never updated - so, apologies for that.

Appreciate the detailed response, @MWJB, looking through the forum you seem to be something of an expert in these matters so thank you for opining on the V60.

I ended up getting one as found a silly price for one delivered that undercut even Amazon and it arrived yesterday, along with a bag of new 02 filters that may be the type you describe as being awful, based on the info towards the end of the thread below.

https://coffeetime.freeflarum.com/d/666-v60/561

The V60 Decanter I bought came with a sealed bag of papers in the box (far more than the 10 the Hario site specifies) that are bleached white with the round tab, but the new 02 filters are both larger and have a squared-off tab.

With regard to the Kalita, I would prefer a conical-shaped filter as it would benefit my cocktail experiments, but am eager to hear more about the filter paper issue on the V60. Is there any reliable source of the older ones?

MWJB

digitalphilosophy There are 3 types of the white Hario filter with the squared off tab - 2 Japanese & 1 Dutch.

I have some white 02 papers with a rounded tab and they are good, medium crepe both inside & out (rather than smooth on the inside & creped on the outer like the new green stripe).

digitalphilosophy

MWJB Have you posted your thoughts on the various papers currently available anywhere for people to peruse?

Everything seems to be the squared-off tab, either the green-tripe bag of 100s or the green-stripe box of 40s.

I have around 80 of the nicer ones, but they’ll soon go as I start to experiment with V60s more and more!

MWJB

digitalphilosophy In the ‘V60’ thread:

https://coffeetime.freeflarum.com/d/666-v60/423

I am currently trying to find a good alternative. Current Hario papers & Cafec are all out of the running.

My best results so far are with Rombouts #4 papers folded to fit in V60, but only a couple of brews with these so far. These also require grinding coarser at the same pour rate & brew size.

digitalphilosophy

Ah, marvellous - thanks for that.

Everywhere that seems to be advertising the old filters is shipping the new, with excuses about ‘updated photos coming soon’ or similar nonsense.

I see from that other thread, and this might be a gross oversimplification, that pretty much none of the filters are any good now?!

I’m seeing a few places with onesie-twosies of the old, boxed, seemingly tabless 02 V60 filters. Are they likely to be poor?

MWJB

digitalphilosophy The boxed tabless V60 filters are the same as the Cafec Abaca (heavy crepe in & out), these were the only white filters you could buy from Hario for about the first 10 years. Not my favourite, but these are the paper Hario built their reputation on.

FWIW Hario deny any involvement/relationship with Cafec and say they do not use Abaca papers. They take us all for idiots and couldn’t give a monkeys about what we think. The vendors peddling their products aren’t much better.

digitalphilosophy

Thought I would write a little update and thank a few people.

I ended up taking the plunge into V60 World with both feet, buying a new grinder (thanks to @Systemic and in turn, @dfk41) and a friend who has recently moved to Japan kindly sent me over some Cafec papers as a birthday present (with many fancy KitKats) and I had everything I needed to get cracking.

Alas, it has taken me a long while to get around to actually using the V60 for various reasons, but yesterday was finally the day where I got things lined-up and gave it a whirl.

Ended up using Hoffmann’s older V60 recipe/guide as someone had written it up nicely over on Reddit and it was easy to follow for my first brew (30g/500g) which resulted in a brew time of a smidge over 3-minutes and a coffee bed that looked like this…

No idea if that is good, bad or indifferent… but the coffee was incredible and tasted so good it prompted this update. I am usually a milk-based coffee drinker, but I guzzled the two cups of black coffee down in quick succession as they were so delicious.

Long way to go, many new burrs to try and lots of different coffee to explore, but if things will likely only get better from here on out, I am very pleased with my foray into V60.

Special thanks to @MWJB for the useful information in this thread and for the work put in on various others.