BREW GUIDES: Pour Over Coffee Brew Guide
Our pour-over coffee guide will show you how to brew delicious pour-over coffee from O to go. Enjoy!
‘Pour over’ is actually a term that’s used to describe a range of different brewing methods, but all of them are brewing via percolation. Percolation is a process of extracting coffee by filtering water through a bed of coffee grounds and then straining the remaining solids out of the resulting coffee with a mesh or strainer.
Pour-over brewers range from simple cup-to-filter brewers to the more complex Bodums, Chemexes and Hario V60 versions of the filter brew world, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. The good news is that all are designed to do the same job. And the principle behind the pour-over method is universal and easily adapted no matter what brewer you choose to use.
Let’s get started with our pour over coffee guide.
BREW GUIDES: Pour Over Coffee Guide
When brewing pour over coffee you need to keep in mind three main variables – the grind of the coffee, the extraction time and the ratio of coffee to water.
The Basics
You’ll need:
Beautifully roasted beans with a fine to medium grind
Filtered water
A scale
Your pour-over brewer
Your ratio of coffee to water:
60 grams of coffee to a litre of filtered water. If you plan to use 500ml of filtered water, you can use 30 grams of coffee or 15 grams of coffee to 250 ml water.
As with all our brew guide ratios, give it a try and then personalise it from there.
Steps to Brewing Coffee with a Pour-Over Brewer
Source beans and grind them (or have them ground) to a fine grind.
Boil a kettle of filtered water.
Take the water off the boil and let it sit for two minutes.
While you’re waiting, measure out (via weight) your coffee to give you the ratio of 60g/1L.
Place the paper filter in the brewer and rinse it briefly under a hot tap to remove any paper taste and to warm up the brewing device.
Place the ground coffee into the brewer and then place the brewer on top of the cup or jug. Place the entire system onto your scales.
Once the water has rested to between 92-96 degrees Celsius, start to pour double the amount of weighted coffee for the pre-infusion or bloom (for example, 60g coffee to 120g water). You’ll want to add just enough to make sure the coffee is all wet. One tip to make sure the coffee is all wet is to swirl the bloom by rotating the water in a spiral gently to catch the coffee grounds caught on the side. It’s also a great way to create a flat even coffee bed for a more even extraction. Wait 30 seconds. (Read more about the pre-infusion or bloom step in Brewing Basics.)
Once the 30 seconds have passed, you can begin to slowly pour up to 60% of the total weight (e.g., 600ml if you’re brewing 1L). Once the bed of coffee is almost visible with a lower water level, you can slowly pour the rest of your water to your total amount (e.g., 1L). Be sure to pour the water directly onto the grounds, and not onto the sides of the brewer (or you may end up with under extracted, weak coffee!).
Once you’ve added all the water, give the brewer a gentle swirl to release any coffee grounds that might be sticking to the sides of the brewer.
Allow the coffee to drip through until the coffee bed looks dry and is flat on the bed of the filter. If you have a glass brewer, you might also be able to see the coffee flow stop.
Remove and discard the paper filter (but be sure to compost or otherwise use your coffee grounds!) and remove the brewer from the cup.
Enjoy (with or without milk).
Remember, it’s your coffee!
At the end of the day, it’s your coffee. Our Pour Over Coffee Guide is just that… a guide. If you find that you’re not 100% happy with the resulting cup of coffee, then feel free to change something. Perhaps the ratio of coffee to water is not strong enough. If the coffee is bitter it may be over extracted, and you could try a slightly coarser grind next time. And if you want to use steamed milk you can find out how to do that on our video (you can skip directly to 3:45)!
Our Brew Guides
If you liked our Pour Over Coffee Brewing Guide check out our other Brew Guides. You can find out the specifics about other brewing methods, including all our tips and tricks.
CTA – We’ve got some excellent coffee beans and blends ready for you and your pour-over coffee brewer. Grab a bag at our shop, and have it freshly ground. You’ll be enjoying your Chemex before you know it!