Step 6 · Brew
Brewing technique: dose, ratio, bloom and pouring
Pour-over gives you control over every variable, which is both the appeal and the challenge. Here's what each one does, a few popular techniques, and how to taste your way to a better cup.
The variables you control
| Variable | Mostly affects |
|---|---|
| Dose (grams of coffee) | How much you brew, and how deep the bed is |
| Ratio (water ÷ coffee) | Strength: how concentrated the cup is |
| Grind size | Extraction and brew time. The most powerful dial. |
| Water temperature | Extraction speed |
| Pouring (agitation) | Extraction evenness and speed |
| Brew time | Mostly a result of the above, and a useful diagnostic |
Change one thing at a time, or you'll never know which change helped.
How much coffee to use
A typical mug of about 250–300 ml takes 15–20 g of coffee, roughly two to three heaped tablespoons of whole beans. Some reference points:
| Brewing for | Coffee | Water (at about 1:16.7) |
|---|---|---|
| A small cup | 12 g | 200 g |
| A mug | 18 g | 300 g |
| Two cups | 30 g | 500 g |
Very small doses (under about 12 g) make a shallow bed that drains too fast, so grind finer. Large doses make a deep bed that drains slowly, so grind coarser. The pour-over calculator works out the water and pours for any amount.
Ratio: strength vs extraction
The ratio is grams of water per gram of coffee. Most pour-over sits between 1:15 and 1:17. It helps to separate two ideas that get mixed up:
- Strength is how concentrated the cup is: weak and watery, or heavy and intense. The ratio controls this.
- Extraction is how much flavor you pulled from the grounds. Too little tastes sour and thin, too much tastes bitter and drying. Grind, temperature and pouring control this.
A cup can be strong but under-extracted (sour and heavy), or weak but well extracted (pleasant but watery). If the flavor is good but the intensity is off, change the ratio. If the flavor itself is off, sour or bitter, change the grind.
For the curious: coffee professionals measure strength as total dissolved solids, and the Specialty Coffee Association's traditional target is around 1.15–1.35%. They measure extraction as the share of the coffee's weight that dissolved, ideally around 18–22%. You don't need a refractometer to brew well. Your tongue does the same job.
The bloom
Freshly roasted coffee is full of carbon dioxide. When hot water hits it, the gas rushes out, the bed puffs up and bubbles, and that gas pushes water away from the grounds. The bloom gets this out of the way first:
- Pour about 2–3× the coffee's weight in water, for example 45 g for 18 g of coffee.
- Make sure every ground gets wet. A gentle swirl of the dripper, or a quick stir with a spoon, helps break up dry clumps.
- Wait 30–45 seconds. Very fresh coffee bubbles a lot; older coffee barely moves.
Pouring techniques
Pulse pours vs one continuous pour
Pulse pouring adds the water in several stages with short pauses, like the recipe on this site: bloom, then pours to 50%, about 83% and 100%. Each pour re-stirs the bed. It's easy to control and repeatable. Continuous pouring keeps the water level steady with one slow pour after the bloom. That's gentler, often sweeter, and harder to keep consistent at first. Neither is "right". Try both.
Where and how to pour
- Spiral slowly from the centre outward and back. Avoid pouring directly onto the paper, where water can bypass the coffee entirely.
- Pour height: closer to the bed stirs less; higher stirs more. Keep it consistent.
- Flow rate: a thin, steady stream about the width of a pencil lead is a good default. A gooseneck kettle makes this easy.
- Finish with a swirl. A gentle swirl of the dripper after the last pour levels the bed, so the water drains evenly and leaves a flat bed instead of grounds stuck high on the walls.
Agitation
Stirring, swirling and pouring from a height all stir the grounds. That speeds extraction and evens it out, but too much pushes fine particles to the bottom, where they can clog the filter and slow everything down. Pick a level of agitation and keep it the same each time.
Popular methods
- The 4:6 method, made famous by Tetsu Kasuya, who won the 2016 World Brewers Cup with it. The water is split into 40% and 60%. How you divide the first 40% across two pours shifts the balance of sweetness and acidity. How many pours you split the last 60% into adjusts strength. It uses a coarser grind than most V60 recipes.
- Big bloom, few pours, a style popularised by James Hoffmann among others. A generous bloom with a thorough swirl, then the rest of the water in one or two steady pours, a gentle stir to knock grounds off the walls, and a final swirl.
- Steady pulses, like this site's recipe: bloom, then three pours with short pauses. Simple, and easy to repeat.
Brew time as a diagnostic
Total time is less a target than a clue. For a single cup in a V60, most good brews finish somewhere around 2:30–3:30.
- Much faster, and the cup tastes sour or thin? Grind finer.
- Much slower, and the cup tastes bitter or dry? Grind coarser, or agitate less.
- Time looks fine but the taste doesn't? Trust your taste. See the grind guide for what to change.
Tasting and serving
- Swirl the server before pouring. The first and last coffee to drip through taste different, and swirling mixes them.
- Let it cool a little. Very hot coffee hides flavor. As it cools toward drinking temperature, sweetness and acidity become much easier to taste, and flaws show up too.
- Taste in three passes: Is it sour or bitter (extraction)? Is it weak or heavy (strength)? Then, what does it remind you of?
- Write it down. Dose, grind setting, ratio, time, and a few words on taste. After three or four brews you'll know exactly where to go next.
Good pour-over should taste sweet and clean, with a pleasant acidity and no harshness as it cools. When you get there, you've dialed in that bag. Enjoy it.