How to Make Pour Over Coffee? – EASY Beginner’s Guide!

Wondering how to make a delicious-tasting pour-over coffee but don’t know where to start? 

Well, this pour-over coffee method is the best you’ll ever come across. It has been tried and tested. You will always get the same consistent, delicious, and satisfying cup of coffee. It’s also effortless to master! 

Here, I will share everything you need to succeed, including troubleshooting tips for brewing the perfect cup of pour-over coffee. 

So, what are you waiting for? Let’s get started! 

Equipment

• Burr grinder. Burr grinder promises evenly-sized grains of coffee, making them all on the same extraction level.
• Pour-over Brewer: v60 or Chemex. I recommend the V60 brewer for a single cup of coffee; a Chemex brewer is better if you want to make more than that. 
• Swan Neck Kettle. This kettle is designed for precise pour-over brewing, unlike traditional kettles that pour too quickly and lack control. Kettles also maintains a stable water temperature, ensuring consistent extraction.
• Coffee/Digital Scale. The scale offers precision that spoons or cups can’t. It removes all the guesswork, allowing you to get consistent results. 
• Coffee filters. Any type of filter would do. 

Ingredients

• Filtered water. Water quality is vital in brewing coffee, affecting extraction and taste. The right balance of minerals in purified water enhances coffee brewing, whereas tap water has excessive minerals, and distilled water lacks the necessary minerals for optimal brewing.
• Fresh Light Roast Coffee Beans. Light roast beans tend to have higher acidity, which can create a more vibrant cup of coffee. They also preserve the unique aromas of coffee due to shorter roasting times. Light-roasted beans showcase the most authentic quality of coffee. 

Note: The coffee-to-water ratio of 1:16 is an excellent starting point to get a feel of the strength of the brew. 

How to make Pour Over Coffee -Step-by-step Guide

Step 1: Boil water. 

Add slightly more water to the kettle. You’ll need a little extra to wet your filter later.

If you want to be exact, the temperature of the water should be between 195 and 208 degrees Fahrenheit. If you can’t accurately measure the temperature of the water, wait about 30 seconds after the boil to get the right temperature.

Note: The appropriate water temperature varies depending on the roast type. For light roasts, you want to be at boiling point; for darker roasts, you can slightly lower the temperature.

Step 2: Measure and Grind the coffee beans

Using a burr grinder, you can grind your coffee beans to a medium-fine, medium, or medium-coarse grind. We, coffee lovers, prefer the medium-fine grind, though some people would tell you that the differences are subtle. 

Step 3: Pre-wetting the filter 

Place a filter on your brewer. Using a kettle and guiding it with a circular motion, gently pour some water over the filter until it is all wet. Then, pour out any excess water from your brewer. 

Pre-wetting the filter ensures it stays steadily in place during your pouring and prevents any papery taste in your coffee.

Step 4: Getting your Supplies Ready.

Add the coffee grounds, dig a little mound in the middle like a volcano, shake your brewer to ensure the bed of grounds is nice and even, then place the brewer on your mug, put on the scale, and get a timer.

Step 5: Blooming.

Zero your scale, and start the timer.

Pour about 50 mL of water in a circular manner, ensuring all your grounds are saturated. Then, gently swirl and let it sit for 30-45 seconds. The amount of water for blooming is around twice as much as the mass of the coffee. 

The purpose of blooming is to release the gasses hiding inside the coffee beans, making your coffee less acidic. In this step, large bubbles are formed, mainly from Carbon Dioxide gasses escaping. 

Step 5: Pouring water.

Here, you’ll pour 50mL of water over 10-15 seconds, then pause for another 10 seconds before repeating the process three more times. You should have 250 grams of water in your brewer by the end. You can refer to the timeline below. 

Note: Refrain from obsessing over the accurate second or gram. Approximating is enough. 

I recommend the little pulsed pours with 50 grams every 10 seconds or before the coffee bed gets dry. It also gently disrupts the grinds, causing them to move about and creating more even contact with the water.

We refrain from using the continuous pouring method as it channels to grounds to rise near the filter. Our goal is to have a consistent amount of water covering the bed of coffee, giving it a nice mixture of even distribution and agitation.

Some tips:

• Always pour circularly. Maintain your spout flowing circle outwards and back towards the middle to evenly saturate the coffee and get the grounds to stay in the same layer.
• Keep the spout close to the brewer. The distance of the water drops to the coffee bed can affect brew temperatures and the amount of agitation. We agitate the grounds to break up any dry clumps inside the bed of coffee. It also ensures that grounds are saturated, enhancing extraction. The closer you are to the brewer, the better.

Step 6: Let the coffee extract drip.

When you add water, your brewer will continue dripping for between 20 and 60 seconds. You know you’ve maintained a consistent brewing process if you hit a target time of around three and a half minutes.

Don’t wait until the water has drained. The final drops can be bitter!

Step 7: Taste, ponder, and enjoy!

Taste you pour over coffee and think, does it satisfy you? Is it too strong or too weak? Too bitter? Too sour? Think about what you can do to improve it next time.

But above all, enjoy! The key is having fun through the experience of making your own coffee.

Troubleshooting

Ultimately, you control five main influencing factors in coffee brewing: grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, agitation, brew time, and temperature.

1. Grind Size. Using a coarser coffee grind can result in a fast brew that tastes sour and weak while opting for a finer grind can slow down the brew time and produce coffee that tastes bitter and strong. 
2. Coffee-to-water ratio. If your brew tastes watery, add more coffee without changing other factors and evaluate whether it tastes better. If you find your cup too intense, consider reducing the amount of coffee or adding more water. 
3. Agitation. Sometimes, pouring water on the coffee bed causes uneven extraction. Excess center agitation creates fully extracted solubles in the middle and sour organic acids on the outer edges, resulting in an over-extracted brew with astringent, bitter, and sour taste.
4. Brew time. Different baristas prefer different brew times; the total time usually varies from 2 min 30 seconds to 3 min 30 seconds, depending on the chosen bean type. For example, opting to use a finely-grinded dark roast instead would likely need less time than the standard light-roasted coffee with a medium-fine grind.  
5. Water Temperature. We suggest the general temperature is 195 to 208 degrees. Hotter water could facilitate faster extraction, while cooler temperatures could decelerate extraction. 

Note: I recommend investing in a high-quality burr grinder to ensure your coffee particles are ground uniformly. 

If you need more information about the best beans for pour-over, simply click here!

Want an easier way to make coffee? Check our article “How to make cold brew coffee.”

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