Pour-Over Coffee: 3 Expert Tips for Brewing Exceptional

How to make a perfect pour-over coffee?

It’s one of the challenges you may face in the morning. Many people wake up every day and begin their daily activity by drinking a cup of fresh drink.

Pour over coffee can extract all the flavor of ground beans. As one of the best brewing methods, this method is also referred to as filter coffee.

Different devices can be used for brewing coffee and if you are not a professional, you need to learn more about pour-over coffee and the important techniques to provide a delicious cup of fresh drink.

What makes pour-over different from other methods is the use of the hand for pouring water over the coffee grounds.

Although it’s a simple process and involves using coffee grounds and pouring hot water through them in a filter there are different filters and pouring techniques that are important in brewing coffee.

Therefore, there has been a lot of discussion about the best tools and methods that lead to the best pour over coffee. For example, many people believe that the Chemex coffee maker provides the best pour over drink.

But, there are other devices as well. You just need a bit of experience to get the best result out of your attempt.

Here, we want to discuss a bit more about the brewing process and talk about the best coffee beans, grinding, roasting method, and best tools for making a perfect coffee.

Can any coffee be used for Pour over?

While, you can use any coffee for pour-over, the origin of coffee, its roasting, its freshness, and the grind size are defining factors.

If you want to have the best pour over coffee, it is important to use the best coffee beans that are light-roasted or medium-roasted.

Of course, based on your preferences, you may like dark and highly roasted beans. But remember that the best quality coffee comes from lightly roasted beans.

Use fresh coffee

You should use fresh coffee grounds. Because fresh grounds that are recently provided will give the best results. They make a lot of differences due to giving better flavor and aroma.

Coffee ground size

Grind size affects the extraction rate. So medium grind size or finer size are popular choices.

Remember that low-quality grinders may produce so many fines and grinds with different sizes, therefore it’s much better to have grinders that produce coffee grounds with the same size.

Single origin coffee

Using single-origin coffee beans is recommended by many professionals. They all have their own impact that changes the final flavor of your drink.

How to brew coffee with the pour over method?

As we said above, there are a lot of methods to brew coffee by pouring hot water over ground coffee. But, you do not need to try all of them.

After, buying the best coffee beans that are properly roasted and finely ground, it is time to begin the brewing process.

We recommend you begin with simple a device and try with several filters. Then, you can buy or use other popular equipment.

Remember that the brewing device is simply a dripper that has a filter to prevent the grounds from entering your drink.

The best filters allow the proper extraction of coffee’s flavorful and aromatic compounds while preventing grounds from entering the drink.

Let’s talk a bit more about the brewing process:

Brewing devices

Specialty baristas may use unique devices for the brewing process. For example, a small copper kettle is a choice for some of them. Others may prefer electric kettles.

Stainless steel kettles are also popular. But remember that kettles that are able to keep water at the best temperature and provide a consistent flow of water are the best options.

What is Chemex?

Chemex is a popular device that is a suitable tool for making pour over coffee. It has a unique design and features that have a positive impact on the quality and flavor of your drink.

But, it’s not just Chemex. There are other devices that are suitable for filtering. They are widely used by many people and for sure you can use them to try brewing.

Manual Filter and Classic Filter Coffee Maker

Key Rule When Making Coffee: Ideally, coffee should be freshly ground if possible. This is the only way to ensure the full aroma reaches your cup. We measure 7-8 grams per cup, which corresponds to a decent amount of coffee. The ideal brewing temperature is around 92 to 94 degrees Celsius. After the initial boil, let the water simmer for a short while, leaving a few small air bubbles at the bottom of the pot.

In general, the higher the pressure, the faster water flows through the ground coffee. To bring out all the flavors, the coffee grind should become finer as the pressure increases.

Finely ground coffee is slowly poured over a paper filter with hot water. Both the grind size and temperature significantly affect the flavor of the coffee.

Water that has only been boiled once has the right temperature. This ensures that all the flavors in the coffee are extracted and make it into the cup. Finely ground coffee prevents the water from passing through too quickly.

The longer the coffee grounds and water are in contact, the richer the flavor will be. Paper filters retain a significant portion of the fats and oils present in the coffee. As you may know, fat carries flavor and is responsible for a full-bodied sensation in the mouth.

Paper or cloth filters

Nowadays, specific filters have been designed to offer an efficient extraction.

Filters that people usually use for making pour over are from paper or cloth.

It is worth mentioning that Chemex has filters that are from paper. They are heavier than regular paper filters and may retain more oils during the brewing process.

Some believe that paper gives a papery taste that is not desirable. If you have the same problem, try to rinse the filter before the brewing process.

Remember that cloth filters have been used for years and as they do not affect the flavor are the preferred option for some people.

You can choose either of them to brew coffee. But be sure that filters fit your device and are not bunched up.

Scaling the water and coffee

Perhaps, you don’t think that scales are as important as other factors. But, keep in mind that if you want to make good coffee, it is necessary to measure the amount of water and coffee. It helps you to become more experienced.

Gradually, you will learn how much water and coffee are needed for brewing and having a perfect drink.

How to go through the brewing process

Different baristas may use their own techniques. Let’s give an example of one of these techniques:

A brewer told us that he uses finely coffee grounds, not coarse or medium size, to make pour-over coffee. Also mentioned that he plays with the water temperature until it reaches 198 degrees Fahrenheit or 92 C water.

He says fast extraction is key to success. therefore, they finish the whole process within 2 minutes to 2 minutes and 10 seconds.

What are the benefits of this technique?

In the above-mentioned method, finely ground size will give a better body. Therefore, if you care about the body of your drink, it’s a good idea to use a smaller grind size.

The fast extraction will provide a better aroma. It also helps in having more sweetness.

Therefore, if you’re looking for sweetness, body, fast extraction, and aroma, it is a perfect way of brewing pour over coffee.

What’s the best ratio of water and coffee?

But as we said above, you need to learn more about scaling to find the best ratio that gives your desired drink. Every barista may suggest a ratio. But, as an example, 1 gram of coffee ground with 15 grams of water is a good starting point.

You can try to change the ratio and make different drinks from intense to light. Be sure that the water does not contain minerals or contaminants.

What’s the best video to learn about pour over coffee brewing process?

There are many videos in online platforms. They are overwhelming and confusing. Therefore, it’s a good idea to try it yourself.

So, we recommend that just begin making coffee by pouring over the process and trying it several times.

Bubbling up of water

When you first try to pour hot water over the coffee grounds, bubbling up of water, which is created by degassing of roasted coffee grounds, will happen.

Degassing is due to the presence of carbon dioxide which is made during the roasting process.

If you want more bubbles, fresh coffee grounds can give more blooms.

But, carbon dioxide may prevent perfect extraction. Therefore, if you let the gases to escape, there will be more chance for better extraction.

How to do this? If you have 20 grams of coffee grounds, pour around 40 ml of hot water over them. Then wait for around 30 to 40 seconds until the blooming ends and the grounds settle.

Multiple pouring or continuous pouring

Pouring hot water has to be in a way to prevent raising coffee grounds up the different sides of filter.

Continuous pouring is a good idea. But if the grounds are raising, it’s important to wait and let the ground settle then you can pour hot water again. This is called multiple pouring.

Coffee agitation and its benefit

During the brewing process, mild disturbance of the grounds can prevent them from remaining high and dry. In other words, agitation can ensure that all the grounds are well-saturated. By preventing dry clumps creation, it also increases the efficiency of coffee extraction.

The benefits of making coffee using the pour-over method

Pour over allows the aroma, essence, and flavor of coffee beans to come out and provides a perfect drink for you. This technique has been used by European people since the nineteenth century. Outside Europe, pour-over coffee may have a longer history.

But the benefits of pour over coffee have made it more popular in recent years. As a manual or hand-brewing method, it brings out the intricate flavor of coffee beans and especially is considered as a perfect brewing method for single-origin coffees.