coffee brewing‎ > ‎

pourover basics


  • The first aspect of any brewing method is determining the coffee/water ratio.

I recommend starting with 1 gram of coffee to 17 grams of water.

Until you get your technique fairly ingrained I would recommend sticking with a set coffee/water ratio and brew time
(ex.- 30g coffee to 531g brew water for a 3:00 minute brew)


  • The second aspect of brewing is determining your grind size/setting.


I recommend starting with a grind that gets you to a slow drip at 3:00 minutes


  • The next aspect is your pouring and stirring.

This is as important as the grind you use because your pour and stir technique will determine
the flavors and compounds extracted from your coffee as much as the grind size. If you pour and/or stir
differently
every time but use the same grind and weight you will not see consistent results and your cup
will taste different every brew. You need to create a method and stick to it.

I recommend 75 to 100 gram pours in the center of the coffee bed
(based on 30-40 grams of coffee)

3 stirs around the outer edge that are 2/3rds of the surface diameter
(equaling two full rotations, stir just enough to get the grinds submerged)




Once you begin to get a pouring/stirring method you can begin to really dial in your grind.
To do this you need to analyze the used coffee grinds AKA 'spent bed'. How the spent grounds lie in the filter is a tell tale sign of how well the coffee was extracted from the grounds.  I look for the grounds to be completely flat to dome shaped depending on the level of extraction I'm trying to achieve. Underextraction is fairly easy to determine by the used grounds. If the grounds are hanging on the walls of the filter your brew is underextracted and you should move to a more fine grind. Overextraction, on the other hand, is trickier to determine and takes some practice. If your grounds have stopped floating halfway through your pouring/stirring (or earlier) you may be overextracting your coffee.

Remember, the more consistent you are the more you'll brew the same cup flavor profile over and over again.

Happy Brewing!