Beginner's guide | Seven tips for brewing hand-poured coffee

For coffee lovers, a life without coffee is a must.

Hand brewed coffee has also become a part of our daily life. It is simple to operate and has a sense of ritual. The key is that people who brew coffee are very handsome and have a charming aura ~ hehe (anyway, I really like watching people brew coffee, really, they look so handsome).

Today, let’s summarize 7 tips for getting started with hand-brewed coffee!

01 Water Quality

A delicious cup of coffee is of course inseparable from good water quality. In daily life, don't use tap water directly to make coffee. It is recommended to use water purified by a purifier or mineral water containing an appropriate amount of minerals. (However, the pH value of mineral water is generally higher than that of drinking water, especially the sodium ion content is higher. When using mineral water, you can check the label and just the right amount of sodium ions.) However, when making coffee at home, filtered water is generally sufficient.

02Fresh coffee beans

Single-origin beans and Italian beans are both suitable for hand-brewed coffee. However, if you still want to enjoy the charm of hand-brewed coffee, it is recommended to use single-origin beans with detailed bean information (origin, variety, processing method) so that you can taste the coffee flavor characteristics of a single production area. Another way is to buy freshly roasted coffee beans. The flavor of roasted coffee beans will gradually weaken. After getting freshly roasted beans, they need to be raised for 4-7 days. The coffee flavor at this time will be in the best state. After a month, the flavor of the beans will be much bland, so it is recommended that a bag of beans should not be kept for too long. It is best to drink them within a month.

03Applicable utensils and filter cups

Good water, good beans, and of course a set of utensils that suit you. There are flat-mouthed pots, palace pots, pointed crane-bill pots, etc. for hand-poured coffee. However, for beginners, it is recommended to use a hand-poured pot with a narrow mouth. Its water flow is easier to control, and there will not be too much water flow during the brewing process, which is easy to use;

As for the filter cup, in terms of shape, there are V60 funnel-shaped filter cup, cake-shaped flat-bottom filter cup, fan-shaped filter cup, origami-shaped filter cup, diamond filter cup, etc.; in terms of material, there are ceramic, glass, resin, metal, etc.

When you don’t know where to start, choose the Hario V60 filter cup. This popular filter cup is suitable for coffee beans of various roasting degrees, and the extracted coffee is more layered and varied.

Try to use bleached filter paper, as unbleached filter paper is prone to odor. Use filter paper of the same type as the filter cup. Use No. 01 filter paper for No. 01 filter cup, and either No. 01 or No. 02 filter paper for No. 02 filter cup.

04Appropriate grinding degree

The grinding degree will directly affect the concentration and extraction rate of coffee, and is also one of the factors affecting hand-brewed coffee. It is very important. Finely ground coffee will have a high concentration, high extraction rate, and high body; coarsely ground coffee will have a low concentration, low extraction rate, and low body. Generally, medium-fine grinding (the size of white sugar) is suitable for hand-brewed coffee.

05Water temperature

Water temperature will affect the extraction efficiency of coffee. High water temperature will extract faster, low water temperature will extract slower. For light-medium roasted beans, brewing them at 90-91 degrees can bring out the sourness and sweetness of the beans; for medium-deep roasted beans, it is recommended to use 88-85 degrees water to brew them to show the cleanliness and mellowness of the beans.

The water temperature setting should be determined according to the roasting degree of the beans.

06 Steaming

The steaming time is about 30 to 40 seconds, depending on the degassing of the beans. If the steaming time is too long, the coffee will easily become bitter and astringent; if the time is too short, the coffee may not be fully extracted or the coffee may not be fully displayed.

07Center water injection

When you first start making hand-brewed coffee, you don’t know how to pour water or how to make circles. Forget about the one-shot method, segmented extraction, drip method, etc. The simplest brewing method that can produce basically stable coffee is a hand-brewed kettle. You just need to quietly pour water in the center, and you can get a good cup of coffee. As for other brewing techniques, you can practice them later.

Of course, the above is just a suggestion. The fun of hand brewing is that it is highly playable, but in the end, it’s all just for a cup of good coffee~

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