Pour Over Brew Guide

Step 1: Plan the coffee

Beautiful things always start with a good plan. You cannot brew a delicious coffee without knowing what you are doing.

In this brew, we are aiming:

Coffee Dose: 20 grams

Coffee to Water Ratio: 1:15

Water Temperature: 90 celsius

Water Amount: 300 grams

Total Brewing Time: 2 minutes ± 10 seconds

Step 2: Grind the coffee

Rinse the whole coffee beans does not work, you need to grind it finer to extract coffee flavours

How to set my grind size:

Check out the recommended grind size for pour over on your grinder, start from the middle grind size and adjust it later

Here’s the recommended grind size of some grinders:

Timemore Chestnut C2: 15-24 clicks

Commandante C40 MK4: 20-30 clicks

1ZPresso Kpro/Kplus: 80-90 clicks

Kinu M47 Classic: 38-46 clicks

Step 3: Put coffee grounds into the dripper

You don’t need to rinse the bleached filter paper, because the extraction starts when coffee contacts water

How to choose my dripper:

In general, high-speed dripper gives you a vibrant acidity coffee and low-speed dripper gives you a round and thick body.

Here are some classic drippers you may have:

Hario V60 Ceramic: High speed

Timemore Crystal Eye Glass: Medium speed

Kinto OCT Brewer: Medium speed

Kalita Hasami 101/102: Low speed

Step 4: Tare the scale and ready to brew

A scale is an optional tool for controlling your brew, you can still sense your coffee and brew well without a scale

What to do after I tare my scale:

After you tare your scale and are ready to start the timer, you always want to have a quick plan about how to do your pours. Technically, the faster you finish the brew, the extraction of coffee ends sooner and your coffee tastes more acidic. On the other hand, a slower brew ends up with a more bitter coffee.

Here are some of the classic pour-over recipe:

Non-stop pour: Bloom 40g, Pour 260g

Three pours: Bloom 40g, Pour 140g, 60g, 60g

4:6 Method: Bloom 50g, 70g, Pour 60g, 60g, 60g

Step 5: Brew your coffee

Should I pour in circles or do I need to stir or swirl? There is no correct answer as long as you’re happy with your coffee

Pouring Techniques:

Whether you are pouring in circles, stirring your coffee with a stick, or swirling the dripper by your hand, you are making agitations to the coffee, which increases its extraction speed and level.

Ideas to adjust your brew:

Bloom 25-30 seconds depends on the coffee, degas CO₂

Less you agitate, less flavours you extract. -> Under extract

More you agitate, more flavours you extract. -> Over extract

Remember what you do this time and you can adjust it later. 

Step 6: Enjoy your coffee

Remove the dripper when the time is up or use your nose to sense your coffee’s extraction

Ending Techniques:

Keep an eye on the timer when the planning time is up. Alternatively, use your nose to sense the coffee grounds, if you feel the bitterness coming out, quickly remove the dripper, otherwise, the over extracted coffee is dripping to your coffee below.

After you remove the dripper, give the carafe/mug some swirls to mix the coffee, because pour over coffee is a filtering method which extracts different flavours in each stage, you want your coffee to taste balanced but not too acidic or too bitter.

Before you taste your coffee, smell and feel the fragrance first. Drink your coffee and take a breath after you swallow, you’ll feel many flavours coming out from your nose and mouth.