A few years ago, Able Brewing Company was bought by some of the people behind Clive Coffee, and the goal was to move the famous Chemex permanent filter maker (amongst other products) forward with new products and continued innovation in the current products.
The big change was a complete redesign in the hole pattern on the precise photo chemical-etched surface of the iconic Kone, going from square to round holes, and a hole layout pattern which they call a graduated density design. This resulted in the Kone performing better and not having stalls that sometimes happened with the older design.
The next steps were designing the Kone for different filter sizes and indeed, different pour over systems. Able Brewing and the Ratio Coffee Brewer are owned by the same people, so a natural progression was designing a Kone to work with the Ratio 8. And then there’s the subject of this post: the brand new Kone Mini, designed for the Hario V60 brewing system.
The New Kone Mini for Hario V60
We’ll be posting a review on the new Kone Mini very soon here on the CoffeeGeek Blog, but before that, we reached out to Mark Hellweg, one of the principals at Able Brewing, about the new filter and what brought it about.
Q: The Able Brewing Kone for V60, the “Kone Mini”. How long has this been in the works?
A: Internal discussions stared in 2019 around doing Kone Mini. We started the engineering on this product in early 2020 and moved into testing pre-production sample testing last summer.
Q: The V60 with its channel vanes is a different mating surface than the flat walls of a Chemex; any challenges you faced designing the Kone to work with the V60?
A: We use the word “filter” for the Kone / Kone Mini because, well, it is easier to understand but in reality, these products are much more than just a filter. The Kone & Kone Mini are both really their own brewing devices that fit inside of specific shapes. Since the walls of our photochemically etched stainless steel “filters” don’t touch the walls of the brewing vessel we can achieve similar extraction and flavor that our customers have become accustomed to our products.
We love the V60 for smaller volume brewing and really wanted to bring more sustainability and the ability to create a more full bodied brew by allowing more oils and micro particles to make it into your cup.
Q: What grind parameters, like grind size, dose weights, do you recommend for the Kone Mini with the V60?
A: Great question, we have been using a few different grinders lately as there are some great choices in the market. (For instance, if using the) Fellow Ode we set it to #5, dose out 21g, and do a 340ml total brew using less than 90ml of that for the bloom. We have the same parameters with the Baratza Encore, but start with grind setting 20.
Q: The Kone Mini works with the V60 02 size filter holders, any plans for the 01?
A: Oh, that could be a fun one. We haven’t really discussed the 01 yet but stay tuned for more.
Q: Any plans for other popular pour over makers, including Melitta, Kalita, or even flat bottom brewers?
A: Haha, Mark you may be reading our minds here. We firmly believe that there are some great opportunities in upgrading traditional coffee maker filters. Nothing is set in stone yet but initial talks are under way with our engineers and manufacturing partners to see what can be done.
The Able Brewing Kone Mini is now available at most retailers that sell the Kone Filters, including Amazon.
Mark has certified as a Canadian, USA, and World Barista Championship Judge in both sensory and technical fields, as well as working as an instructor in coffee and espresso training. He started CoffeeGeek in 2001.
