Hand brewed coffee, as the most mainstream method of brewing fine coffee, has been loved by many coffee shops and coffee lovers. Its convenient operation and low investment cost also give more friends the opportunity to participate in it and brew a cup of delicious coffee.

But how to make a good cup of coffee is also a problem encountered by many friends. Therefore, through this article, we will systematically introduce how to make a cup of good coffee!

What coffee beans should I use for pour-over?

The choice of equipment is very random, V60, Kalita are both OK, but more importantly, you should consider the coffee beans used for hand brewing. Here are some suggestions for you to choose:

• Roasting degree

Since hand-brewed coffee emphasizes the main flavor and aroma of coffee, you can choose lighter roasted beans, which have the most prominent and bright acidity.

Lightly roasted beans can best show the original grade of this bean.

Of course, you can also choose medium or darker roasted coffee, but the focus of hand brewing is still on highlighting the main flavor.

• Grinding fineness

The coarseness of the grinding of coffee powder affects the extraction rate. Hand brewing belongs to the drip brewing method, which means that the time that the coffee powder is in contact with water is shorter than that of the immersion method, but the extraction time is longer than that of espresso.

Pour-over coffee must have enough surface area to be extracted by water, but not too fine to cause over-extraction and bitterness.

You can start with a medium grind and test it first, evaluate your coffee and adjust the grind size. If the coffee tastes a bit watery or smells sour, grind it finer. If the coffee is too bitter or lacks sweetness, try a coarser grind.

It’s also important to invest in a good quality grinder to ensure your coffee grinds are of a consistent coarseness. A low-quality grinder will produce inconsistent grinds and a lot of fines, which can cause over-extraction and ruin your coffee.

Stathis Koremtas, 2018 Greek Brewing Champion, works for Taf Coffee. He said that the V60 brewing should be:

“Use fine grinding and 92°C hot water for quick extraction, with a total brewing time of between 2 minutes and 2 minutes 10 seconds. The advantage of using fine grinding for brewing is that it can increase the body and aroma of the coffee. If you want to use a quick extraction method, you must also control the sweetness and clean taste of the coffee.”

What powder-to-water ratio should be used for brewing?

There are many different suggested coffee-to-water ratios. I recommend starting with 1:16, which is 1 gram of coffee to 16 grams of water. Use this method to brew coffee while adjusting other variables that affect brewing, such as grind size and water temperature, one at a time until you find your favorite brewing combination.

After that, you can try changing the coffee powder to water ratio. If the coffee tastes watery or weak, you can simply increase the amount of coffee powder to see if it improves the problem. If the coffee tastes too strong and concentrated, you can try reducing the amount of coffee powder.

But remember, no matter how you adjust the parameters, you must be able to reproduce the flavor of every cup of coffee you brew.

And don’t overlook the importance of water quality. Tap water may have chlorine taste or pollutants that affect the flavor, so use filtered water to make coffee.

Do you have the best hand pouring technique?

When you first start to learn hand-brewing, don't rush to find instructional videos on the Internet. Taking in too much information at once will confuse you.

At the beginning, you just need to simply focus on your water injection, as well as how to steam, cut off the water, stir and disturb the flow to achieve the purpose of extraction.

Many people use concentric circles to pour water, which can better maintain the stability of the water flow. When you are more familiar with the basic movements and knowledge, you can try to experiment in different directions.

• Steaming

Steaming is the process of using a small amount of water to expand the coffee powder. It occurs at the beginning of hand brewing to expel the carbon dioxide in the coffee as a pre-extraction process. The amount of carbon dioxide depends on the degree of roasting. Dark roasted and fresh coffee will produce a greater degree of steaming expansion because there is more gas in such coffee beans.

Carbon dioxide will block water and cause uneven extraction, which will in turn cause uneven distribution of coffee powder, so it is necessary to vent first to increase the chance of stable extraction.

The amount of water for steaming is about twice the amount of powder. If you use 15 grams of coffee, you can add 30 grams of water for steaming, and then wait for 20 seconds to complete the steaming step.

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• Water Breaking Method and Ittouriyu

The water cut-off method means injecting water in batches, and experimenting with the amount of water injected each time and the number of water injections. This method can prevent the occurrence of channeling effect, or prevent the powder wall of coffee powder in the filter cup from being overly piled up, while allowing the coffee powder to move, achieving the opportunity for more uniform extraction.

Another method is called continuous water injection (一刀流) , which is to continuously inject water in one go after steaming until the required amount of water is reached. This method requires a very uniform and stable water flow, which is completely different from the water cut-off method.

You can use different water injection methods to match your brewing. Different brewing methods will achieve different extraction results, which in turn affects the flavor of the coffee you brew.

• Spoiler

Turbulence is a slight disturbance of the water flow during the hand pouring process. It can be achieved in many ways, including stirring, side swirl of the water flow, etc.

The turbulence can disperse the dry powder trapped in high places, prevent the occurrence of channel effect, and disperse the agglomerated powder in the filter cup to ensure that the powder in the filter cup is extracted as evenly as possible.

Pour-over coffee is a great option for everyday coffee drinkers, and it can be simple. By understanding the key elements, you can continually improve the flavor in your cup, and achieve results that satisfy you every time. Get a V60, Kalita Wave, Chemex, and some good coffee today. The world of pour-over coffee is waiting for you to explore!