Brewing a Pour-Over

Here is a tutorial for brewing coffee with a pour-over, which certainly requires more maintenance than a coffee maker, but the cup produced from a pour-over is well worth the wait and oversight involved.

There are several pour-over brewers out there, but we like to alternate between the Hario v60, Kalita Wave and Chemex brewers. While everyone may have their preferences, this tutorial can generally be applied to each of these brewers, with a few tweaks.

Three important components for a good pour-over are water temperature, grind size, and time. We like to use the Fellow Stagg kettle, which provides precise water temperature control, and has the gooseneck spout for easy pour control. Without the gooseneck spout, pouring in the water can disrupt the grounds abruptly and cause uneven extraction of the coffee flavor that we want. For light roasts, we typically start with a water temperature of 205 degrees. For a dark roast, we normally drop that to 198 degrees, with medium roasts in between. Since our roast today is a medium roast, we will go with 203 degrees.

Step 1: Measuring the Beans

We start by grabbing our favorite coffee (some Ratio Coffee of course) and measure out how much we need. We are making a single cup of coffee, 320ml (about 11oz), so we need to measure our beans accordingly. When brewing, it's all about ratios. Hmm, that's a good word. For medium roasts, a ratio of 1:16 is a good starting point. Light roasts are typically a 1:15 ratio, and dark roasts need a 1:17 ratio. This ratio is just the amount of grounds we need compared to the amount of water. So for a 1:16 ratio, for every gram of grounds we have, we want 16 grams of water. For our cup of 320ml (1ml=1g of water), 320 / 16 = 20g of coffee grounds.

Step 2: Grinding our Beans

Once we have our beans, we need to grind them. Before we throw them in the grinder, we need to know that grind size is actually a key component in how much flavor will be extracted from the coffee. If the grounds are too fine, it may over extract the flavor and taste chalky and bitter. If the grounds are too coarse, the coffee may take watery and sour. So it's good to try a few different grind sizes to see which one is best.

Grind size also depends on what brewer you're using. For a Chemex brewer, you want a grind size that is slightly coarser than the Hario or Kalita, because the filters used are thicker. If you make the grind too fine, the pour-over may take too long and over-extract the grounds. In total, we shoot for a brew time that is 2'45"-3'15". Anything less may not extract enough flavor, while anything over may extract too much. The Hario and Kalita require a slightly finer grind size because the water travels through those filters quicker than the Chemex. We start with a relatively medium grind and adjust from there.

Step 3: Wetting the Filter

Before putting the coffee grounds in the filter, we need to wet the filter first with our hot water. This helps reduce any taste that can come from the paper itself. Remember to discard the water after doing this. We want to maximize our coffee flavors and reduce any other taste. It's important to note that even the water used can have an impact on coffee flavor. If using water with a lot of minerals, like well water, that can actually suppress the coffee flavors themselves. Using distilled or purified water can help maximize the coffee flavors.

Step 4: Bloom Phase (30")

After wetting the filter, we can put in our grounds, shake the grounds back and forth a bit to level them out and do the bloom. The bloom is pouring a small amount of water evenly to saturate all the grounds. You can experiment with different amounts of water for the bloom phase as well. Typically, it's a 1:1 or 1:2 bloom ratio. There's that word again. So if we're doing a 1:2 ratio, we would pour in 40g of water over our 20g of grounds. The bloom is done to "wake up" the coffee. Coffee contains CO2 that needs to be released to extract the coffee flavor and the bloom helps ignite that process. We wait 30-40 seconds for the bloom. During the bloom, you should see your grounds expand and grow in size. (The fresher the grounds, the more they will expand) This is the CO2 being released right before your eyes!

Step 5: Phase 1 Pour (1')

After the bloom, we do our first pour. We start in the middle of the grounds and pour in a circular motion slowly out towards the edge and then back in. This first pour will be about 130g of water, and will get us to 170g total (after our initial bloom phase). Including the time to make the pour, we will wait 1 minute until the next pour.

Step 6: Phase 2 and 3 Pours (45" and 45")

At about 1'30", we do the next pour, which will be about 80g of water, getting us to 250g. We wait 45 seconds, getting us to 2'15". Then we do our last and final pour of 70g, getting us to 320g and a 3-minute brew time.

Now it's time to enjoy!

This method is easily adaptable using the Hario v60 or the Chemex. If using the Kalita Wave 155, because of how small it is, you will have to do smaller, more frequent pours throughout the brew.

Give us a comment and let us know what you think or if you have any questions!