How Make Pour Over Coffee Like a Pro
Here we're sharing our favourite recipe for making the best pour over/ drip filter coffee when you're at home.
This recipe basically applies to any brewing method where you pour hot water over a conical/V shaped brewer and use a paper filter to keep the coffee grinds out of your cup. The most common perhaps is V60 (named for the 60 degree angle of the cone) but the Chemex and Kalita are also pretty common too.
Paper is great at catching all the fine ground coffee particles so people generally refer to coffees made this way as having 'clean' cup qualities. Paper also catches some of the oils so you'll find a nice refined and delicate cup of coffee.
This is a really great way to drink single origins and lighter filter roasts where the expressiveness and sometimes delicate notes of the coffee can come across more clearly in the cup.
* pro tip - rinse the paper filter thoroughly Paper has a subtle taste but a taste nonetheless. Rinse it with plenty of hot water and don't let it taint your lovely cup of coffee!
Pour Over Drip Brewing Recipe:
- 23g (or close as possible) of medium ground coffee. Not as fine as sand but halfway towards your coarsest setting. A machine or hand grinder is ideal but pre-ground works too.
- 1 x v60 filter (replace with other conical brewers as desired)
- 1 x v60 filter paper
- Boiling water (filtered Ideal)
- 1 x digital scales
- Thoroughly rinse the filter paper by placing it in the v60 and pouring boiling water through.
- Discard the spent water and set up your v60 on top of your mug and on top of your scales.
- Load your freshly ground coffee into the v60 and distribute evenly so that the bed for coffee is flat Tare the scales
- Set a stopwatch running and pour 70ml of water then wait 40 seconds
- Pour the remaining 290ml at a steady but slow pace - the scales should now read 360ml
- Leave to drain completely. They whole thing should take about 3:30mins. If it takes longer consider a coarser grind and vice versa if it's gushing through.
- Sip and enjoy.
We have limited stock of V60 brewers and filter papers over in the accessories section of the shop if you need to get your home kit sorted out for about £10!
FAQs
How coarse should coffee be for pour over?
Coffee for pour over should be ground coarser than espresso but finer then for cafetiere. A good reference is granulated sugar. If you can replicate this you're getting close. Otherwise about half way between espresso and filter if you have the options on your grinder.
Requesting filter coffee grind sizes usually work otherwise you can judge by the length of time it takes to brew and make adjustments if you're grinding at home. As with the recipe above, total brew time should be approximately 3 minutes and 30 seconds. If you're finding it's taking less time then consider tightening your grinder or inversely loosing it up if it's too slow.
How many grams of coffee for pour over?
We recommend 60-70 grams of coffee per litre. For example a small v60 brew of 250ml might require 15 to 17g depending on the level of concentration you want in your final cup. You can then apply this ratio for any brew size
How to bloom coffee for pour over?
Add a little hot water to the ground coffee making sure all parts of the 'bed' of coffee are covered This is covered in step 4 above where we have used an initial pour of 70ml of coffee and let it 'bloom' for 40 seconds.
Hot water makes contact with the coffee, and when fresh, the coffee will respond by bubbling up briefly before settling down when you can commence with the rest of the brew.
Why is pour over coffee better?
Pour over coffee is preferred by some coffee drinkers for the level of clarity and cleanliness it can create in the final cup. As such it is a brewing method of choice for lots of professionals and home baristas alike when brewing lightly roasted filter coffee. the brew method is delicate enough to preserve any subtle or nuanced flavours while the paper filer makes sure no ground coffee or sediment end up in your cup.
