Brew guide
Pour over coffee
1-2 cup brewers e.g. Hario V60, Kalita Wave, origami.
Before you start, you may want to check out our Intro to coffee brew guide for a few tips on getting the most out of your coffee. The top tips are:
Intro to pour over coffee
So, what exactly is pour over coffee and why should you try it?
What is pour over coffee?
The term "pour over coffee" can apply to a few different brew methods, but it’s basically just referring to hand-pouring hot water through ground coffee in a filter.
This means that it is:
- A "manual" brewing process – You are hand-pouring the water through the coffee rather than the machine doing it for you.
- An "infusion" method – The water is passing through the coffee, rather than "immersion" or percolation where the coffee sits in the water.
In this guide, we are focusing on 1-2 cup pour over brewers, such as Hario V60, Kalita Wave, and Origami.
What's good about pour over coffee?
- The pour over process brings out the more subtle and interesting flavours of coffee, and creates a cup of coffee that’s clean, clear and mellow.
- It’s a ritual, which can be a nice way to start the day. Choosing a unique coffee, grinding, dosing, pouring.
- If you normally drink a lot of espresso, pour over is a nice alternative. Firstly, it’s a more mellow, delicate coffee – very different from espresso. Secondly, if you have an espresso set up at home with scales and a grinder, pour over is an easy addition – you can get away with just the brewer and filter papers.
What's not so good about pour over coffee?
- This is a manual way of brewing with a number of variables, so there’s room for human error.
- It can be time-consuming, particularly if you’re using a hand grinder.
- You do need to use a filter paper and so there is some waste. However, reusable cloth filters are available.
What kind of coffee should I use with pour over?
- The pour over brew method is good at making the most of subtle and interesting flavours of a freshly roasted coffee.
- For this reason, lighter roasts, single origins, and coffees with interesting flavours are a great option for pour over.
- While pour over coffee is particularly good with certain types of coffees, the one you choose is all about your personal preferences.
What you'll need
The basics to get started and the extras to fine-tune.
Must-haves
- Fresh coffee. If you’re not using beans, you want a medium-fine grind – finer than French Press and coarser than espresso, kind of like white sand.
- Pour over brewer (e.g. v60) and filters (paper or cloth).
- Scales.
Nice-to-haves
- Grinder. Freshly ground coffee is always best.
- Pouring kettle: Standard or temperature controlled.
How to make pour over coffee: Step-by-step for beginners
A basic pour over method to get you started.
Get your recipe
Here’s a good starting point for one cup:
- Fresh coffee: 15g.
- Water: 250ml.
- Brew time: 2:30-3:00 minutes.
If you have a temperature-controlled kettle, here's a guide for different coffees:
- Dark: 85-90 degrees Celsius.
- Medium: 90-95 degrees Celsius.
- Light: 100 degrees Celsius (boiling).
Prepare your coffee
- Weigh out the coffee and grind it (if you’re using a grinder).
- Start with a medium grind (kind of like white sand) and tweak as required.
Prepare your water
• If you’ve got a fancy kettle, boil the water to the correct temperature.
• With a standard home kettle, boiled water is just fine.
Prepare your brewer
- Place the brewer on top of the vessel that you want your brewed coffee to end up in.
- Place a filter paper into the brewer.
- Pour some hot water onto the filter paper to rinse it of residue and heat up the vessel.
- Once this is done thoroughly, tip out the hot water and put the brewer back on top of the vessel.
Brew
- Put your weighed and ground coffee into the filter paper and create a crater in the centre.
- Put the lot on top of the scales and tare the scales.
- Pour about 50g of water on top of the coffee to completely saturate it.
- Give it a swirl to mix it all together and make sure all the coffee is wet.
- Leave for 45 seconds so the coffee can bloom/expand.
- Add another 50g and wait for around 10 seconds.
- Repeat this another 3 times, which will take you to 250g of water.
- Once the coffee stops dripping, you’re done. This should take around 2:30-3 minutes.
Your pour
Pour over is a 'manual' brew method, which means YOU do all the work.
How do I pour?
- The aim of the game is for the coffee to be evenly covered and agitated.
- You want to pour low (close to the brewer), slow and in circles.
Making improvements
Like with all coffee brewers, there are a lot of little tweaks you can make to improve.
Get a grinder
- If you don’t yet have a grinder, this is absolutely the number one thing you can do to improve your coffee.
- Not only does it mean fresher coffee, it also means you can adjust your grind (see below).
Adjust your grind
- We have recommended that you start with a medium grind size, but you can tweak this.
- If the coffee is coming through too quickly (e.g. less than the desired brew time), is watery and/or sour, try a finer grind. If it comes through too slowly (e.g. more than the desired brew time) and tastes bitter, try a coarser grind.
- If you’ve got a lighter coffee, try a finer grind. And with a darker coffee, try a coarser grind.
Adjust your water-to-coffee ratio
The amount of coffee and water you use when making your brew will affect the taste. We have given you a starting point of about 1:16 (coffee to water) in this recipe but you can tweak this to suit your own preferences and the coffee you are using.
