What ratio and dose does pour-over coffee brewing require?

A workable pour-over recipe starts with 15 grams of ground coffee, a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio and a final yield of about 225 milliliters. That ratio keeps the brewed concentration inside the 1.2% to 1.45% range the Specialty Coffee Association of America considers palatable, and it is the standard output used in Front Street Coffee stores.

The suggested coffee-to-water range runs from 1:12 to 1:15; testing outside it showed 1:20 brews noticeably light and 1:10 noticeably strong. A washed Yirgacheffe serves as the example for a complete V60 three-pour sequence, in which blooming, degassing, pouring height and pulse timing all shape the final cup and help limit harsh, astringent flavors.

To consistently brew a delicious pour-over coffee, bean dose, coffee-to-water ratio, blooming, and pouring rhythm are all indispensable. Starting from Front Street Coffee's practical experience, this article explains the reasoning behind 15g of grounds, a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and a 225ml final yield, and compares these with common espresso extraction ratios to help readers build a replicable parameter framework. It then uses a washed Yirgacheffe Gudingding as an example to provide a complete V60 three-pour brewing process, with a detailed breakdown of details such as blooming and degassing, pouring height, and pulse timing, so that even beginners can follow along step by step and reduce the harsh, astringent flavors caused by under-extraction or over-extraction.

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Pour-over coffee places relatively high demands on technique and professional knowledge. The amount of coffee beans, grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, extraction time, and pouring technique all directly change the final flavor direction. So how can you brew a truly ideal pot of pour-over coffee? Below, Front Street Coffee will talk with coffee lovers about pour-over brewing techniques and several key parameters to pay attention to.

How much coffee should be used for pour-over coffee?

For standard output, Front Street Coffee usually weighs out 15g of coffee beans to make a pour-over. This amount is related to the concentration range recommended by the SCAA, the Specialty Coffee Association of America; its experimental conclusions suggest that a coffee concentration between 1.2% and 1.45% is relatively palatable.

In order to control the concentration within this range, the ratio between coffee grounds and poured water will generally fall between 1:12 and 1:15. If calculated at 1:15, using 10g of grounds means the total poured water is 150g.

In other words, a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15 is the most ideal, and Front Street Coffee's store output currently also uses this ratio. The reason this value was settled on is that Front Street Coffee had previously run many verifications. Although 1:12–1:15 is only a suggested range, Front Street Coffee still tested parameters outside the range.

Among them, drip coffee brewed at 1:20 tastes relatively light, while 1:10 is noticeably strong. After repeated adjustments, Front Street Coffee believes that 1:15 is friendlier for most coffee beans. Of course, some people are used to 1:14 or 1:17, and there is no problem as long as they can accept it. What Front Street Coffee provides is only a reference value that is relatively easy for the general public to accept.

After determining the coffee-to-water ratio, you can calculate the size of a cup of coffee. Front Street Coffee usually makes a pour-over up to 225g, exactly one serving, which means 15g of coffee grounds extracts 225ml of liquid.

Therefore, it can be understood this way: to get 225ml of coffee liquid, you need to put in 15g of coffee beans. This conclusion is derived precisely from the optimal coffee-to-water ratio for pour-over coffee.

So is there a difference between the coffee-to-water ratio of espresso and that of pour-over coffee?

According to Front Street Coffee's understanding, the espresso machine models used by different stores are not uniform, so the extraction parameters naturally differ as well, which leads to differences in the coffee-to-water ratio for making espresso at each store. Taking espresso extraction as an example, Front Street Coffee generally uses 10g of coffee grounds to obtain 20ml of espresso, which is a 1:2 ratio.

However, regarding extraction ratios, there is no completely universal "one-size-fits-all" parameter set; ultimately it must be adjusted according to the actual condition of the espresso machine. There are also some unwritten practices in the industry: refer to the parameters used by respected coffee leaders, treat them as general values, and gradually form a benchmark. At the same time, Front Street Coffee has also noticed that espresso varies depending on extraction duration, and the regular performance of short, refined extraction is often more stable than long extraction.

Below are the espresso water-to-coffee ratios commonly used by major coffee shops at present:

Ristretto extraction ratio is between 1:1 and 1:1.5 Normale espresso extraction ratio is between 1:1.5 and 1:2.5 Lungo espresso extraction ratio is between 1:2.5 and 1:3

The above is Front Street Coffee's summary of pour-over coffee bean dosage, as well as related answers on pour-over and espresso coffee-to-water ratios and time. Next, Front Street Coffee will share the parameter process for extracting espresso and the brewing process for pour-over coffee for everyone's reference.

Front Street Coffee's espresso extraction parameters:

Front Street uses its own Sunflower Warm Sun blend (70% Honduras · Sherry coffee beans + 30% Yirgacheffe Red Cherry coffee beans).

Pressure: 9 bar Temperature: 90.5–96°C Time: 20–30 seconds Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:1.7–1:2 Dose: 10g (single espresso) 20g (double espresso) Extracted espresso volume: 20ml (single) 40ml (double) Flavor: pronounced fruit acidity, faint berry aroma, vinous notes, rich chocolate flavor, with a clear sweet aftertaste.

Front Street Coffee's pour-over brewing process parameters:

Front Street Coffee demonstrates with Ethiopian Yirgacheffe washed Gudingding coffee beans:

Front Street Coffee: Yirgacheffe · Gudingding coffee beans

Country: Ethiopia Region: Yirgacheffe Altitude: 1900–2300 meters Variety: local heirloom varieties Processing method: washed processing Flavor: tropical fruit, cream, honey, berries, citrus

Front Street Coffee Yirgacheffe coffee bean brewing data

Dripper: V60 #01 Water temperature: 90–91°C Dose: 15g Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15 Grind size: medium-fine grind (sift to 80% through a No. 20 sieve)

Brewing technique: three-pour extraction

For the first pour, add 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then pour 95g (the scale shows about 125g), finishing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to two-thirds of the coffee bed, pour the remaining 100g (the scale shows about 225g), finishing the pour in about 1 minute 35 seconds. Dripping is completed at 2'00"–2'10". Remove the dripper and extraction is complete.

Washed Gudingding brewing flavor: On entry there are citrus and black tea notes; as the temperature changes, there are cream, caramel, and almond lingering sweet notes, with a clear sweet aftertaste and a clean, bright, sweet taste.

From the example above, it can be seen that Front Street Coffee uses three-pour extraction when brewing pour-over. This technique places relatively high demands on the operator's consistency throughout the entire pour-over process. So how can three-pour extraction be controlled well? What does blooming also refer to? Below, Front Street Coffee will explain them one by one.

Coffee brewing method — three-pour brewing technique

There are quite a lot of pour-over techniques visible in coffee shops today, with common ones including the three-pour method, one-pour method, and drip method. Front Street Coffee suggests beginners give priority to the three-pour method; this technique is suitable for light-roast, medium-light roast, and medium-roast coffee beans. By pouring in stages to achieve staged extraction, it can more clearly present the flavors of the coffee's front, middle, and back sections, and can also better ensure the stability of the overall flavor.

First pour: bloom (helps degassing)

Many coffee lovers do not clearly understand why pour-over coffee needs blooming. The reason is that during the roasting process in which coffee beans change from green beans to roasted beans, they undergo a series of chemical reactions and physical changes; when roasting reaches a certain degree, a large amount of gas accumulates inside the beans, most of which is carbon dioxide.

Generally speaking, the fresher the beans and the closer they are to the roast date, the more obvious the bubbling tends to be during blooming. Dark-roast beans also release more gas during blooming than light-roast beans. Front Street Coffee's coffee beans are all freshly roasted, so customers are generally advised to rest the beans for three days first to let carbon dioxide be released in advance, so that during brewing instability and under-extraction can be avoided.

After the gas is released through blooming, the coffee particles can absorb water more evenly, and subsequent extraction will also be more consistent. An ideal bloom can both prompt the coffee grounds to degas quickly and fully, and allow the coffee grounds to contact water quickly, helping extraction become more even. These are precisely the purpose and significance of blooming in pour-over coffee.

During pour-over coffee blooming, pay attention to the following four points:

1. Before pouring water for the bloom, first level the coffee grounds.

2. When pouring water during the bloom, do so gently.

3. During the bloom, allow as little extracted liquid to drip down as possible; when too much extracted liquid appears in the server, reduce the amount of poured water, or pay attention to the grind size. (If too much water is used for the bloom and a large amount of coffee liquid drips down, the falling water does not stay but directly carries out substances from the outside of the coffee grounds, and the off-flavors and astringency in the outer layer of the coffee grounds also begin to dissolve out. The coffee brewed this way is both weak and carries the off-flavors of over-extraction. If the bloom water is insufficient and no water drips down at all, it means the coffee grounds have not absorbed enough water, some coffee has not degassed sufficiently, and this will cause under-extraction.) Based on this situation, Front Street Coffee, after many bloom experiments, found that pouring in an amount of water equal to twice the coffee grounds' weight during the bloom is relatively appropriate.

4. The bloom time is about 30 seconds. When the expansion of the coffee grounds' surface ends and the coffee surface is seen to shrink, this indicates that the bloom is complete and water can begin to be poured. (In terms of time, if the bloom time is too long, the coffee is prone to bitterness and astringency; if it is too short, soaking is insufficient, and the coffee may be under-extracted, or the flavor may not be fully expressed.) Generally speaking, the end time of the bloom varies depending on the beans, but Front Street Coffee found that this is not conducive to beginners' operation, since beginners place more emphasis on standardization and ease of use. Therefore, on the premise of ensuring that the coffee beans are still in a freshly roasted state, Front Street Coffee suggests a bloom time of 30 seconds; experienced people can adjust it themselves.

Second pour

The second pour starts from the center, pouring into the bottom of the coffee bed with a small stream. In order to make the stream's penetrating force more concentrated, the circular movement range should be small, about the size of a one-yuan coin, and then spiral outward. From the start of the second pour, pay attention to the water amount, and try not to exceed the height of the coffee bed; that is, when the stream circles to near the filter paper, you can stop pouring.

Third pour As the originally thicker coffee bed near the edge of the filter paper becomes heavier from absorbing water, it slides down and becomes thinner as the water level drops. When the water level drops to halfway, the third pour can be carried out. From the start of the third pour, observe the extent to which the water level drops, and likewise start pouring from the center in circles, with the water amount not exceeding the height of the coffee bed. At this time you will also observe that the proportion of foam has already covered the surface. In the third pour, increase the tumbling of the coffee particles so that all the settled particles are turned over, thereby dissolving out soluble substances.

The rolling particles will begin to still when water is stopped; at this point, the flow rate caused by the dropping water level is what makes the coffee particles rub against each other. So once water addition stops, the coffee grounds sink downward and cause clogging, which is why the rhythm of water addition must be especially noted. If there are too many pauses in pouring, it is equivalent to letting the coffee grounds stay soaking in water the whole time; in this way, it will cause the tail-end extraction of the coffee to produce astringency and off-flavors. If there are too many pauses in pouring, it is equivalent to letting the coffee grounds stay soaking in water the whole time; in this way, it will cause the tail-end extraction of the coffee to produce astringency and off-flavors.

The above is the process for how to operate three-pour extraction in pour-over coffee. I hope it can help coffee lovers who want to try pour-over coffee themselves, so that in the future they can brew a cup of coffee they are satisfied with!

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.