Dialing in a pour-over at home

Pour-over gets sold as fussy, mostly by people selling the kettle. It's a cone, a paper filter and hot water. What makes it good is what makes any coffee good: fresh beans, the right grind, and the right amount of water for the amount of coffee. Get those three and you can fix almost any cup by changing one thing.

This guide uses a V60-style cone. A flat-bottom dripper or a Melitta cone works the same way with a slightly coarser grind.

The numbers

• Ratio: 1 to 16. That is 20 g coffee to 320 g water, which makes one big mug or two small cups. Anywhere from 1 to 15 (stronger) to 1 to 17 (lighter) is normal. Start at 16 and move from there.
• Water temperature: just off the boil, about 200 F (93 C). Coffee people work in the 195 to 205 F (90 to 96 C) range. If you have no thermometer, let a full boil settle for 30 seconds.
• Grind: medium-fine, about like table salt. Every grinder's numbers mean something different, so go by the look and then by the clock and the taste.
• Total time: water in and drained through in 2 minutes 30 seconds to 3 minutes 30 seconds.

Weigh everything. A tablespoon of a dark roast and a tablespoon of a light roast are different amounts of coffee, and the scale is how you make tomorrow's cup the same as today's.

The method

1. Heat the water. Heat more than you need. You will rinse the filter with some of it.
2. Rinse the filter. Set the paper in the cone, set the cone on your mug or carafe, and pour hot water through it. That washes out the paper taste and warms everything up. Dump that water out.
3. Grind and level. Grind 20 g of coffee and pour it into the filter. Shake the cone gently so the bed is flat. Put the whole rig on the scale and zero it.
4. Bloom. Start a timer and pour about 40 to 50 g of water, enough to wet all the grounds. Fresh coffee will puff up and bubble. That is carbon dioxide leaving the beans. Wait 30 to 45 seconds. If it doesn't bubble at all, the beans are old.
5. Main pour. Pour slowly in small circles in the middle, staying off the paper, until the scale reads 320 g. Aim to be done pouring by about 1 minute 45 seconds. You can pour it all at once in a steady stream or in two or three pulses. Pick one way and keep doing it that way, so the grind is the only thing that changes.
6. Drawdown. Give the cone one gentle swirl so the bed settles flat, then let it drain. When the water is through, look at the clock.
7. Read the bed. A flat bed with no deep crater and no grounds stuck high on the paper means the water went through evenly.

Fixing the cup

Change one thing at a time. Usually that thing is the grind.

What you taste or see	What it means	What to change
Sour, thin, sharp, salty	Under-extracted: the water did not pull enough out	Grind finer
Drained in under 2 minutes 30	Water ran through too fast	Grind finer
Bitter, dry, hollow at the finish	Over-extracted	Grind coarser
Took longer than 4 minutes	Grind too fine, or the paper clogged	Grind coarser
Tastes fine but weak	Not enough coffee	Go to 1 to 15 (about 21 g to 320 g)
Tastes fine but heavy	Too much coffee	Go to 1 to 17 (about 19 g to 320 g)

Sour and bitter can show up in the same cup. That usually means an uneven grind or an uneven pour, with some grounds over-done and some under-done. A burr grinder fixes most of it. A blade grinder makes dust and boulders in the same pass, and no amount of fancy pouring makes up for that. I burned through a lot of decent beans finding that out.

Water

Brewed coffee is more than 98 percent water. If your tap water tastes like chlorine or rust, your coffee will too. A pitcher filter is enough for most people. Distilled water on its own makes flat coffee, because the minerals are part of what pulls flavor out.

When it still tastes off

Check the bag. No roast date, or one more than a month or two back, and no grind change on earth will save it. Old beans taste like the paper bag they came in, however you brew them. The bean buying and storage guide covers what to buy instead.