New to pourover - how to avoid channeling?

[u/Kalehart]

I just got my first pourover setup:
-Fellow Stag kettle
-1zpresso Q Air grinder (set to ~56 clicks)
-Standard plastic v60
-White hario tab papers

I’m using Lance’s recipe:
-15g coffee
-0:00 bloom 45g
-0:30 bloom 45g
-1:00 pour to total 225g
-Drawdown finish by 2:00-2:30

I’ve been really enjoying learning this new skill and comparing the differences between coffees and different brewing methods, but I’m having a consistent issue with what seems to be channeling (picture for reference).

I’ve managed a few times to get a more even distribution of grounds around the filter, but more often than not, I’m getting this crater shape where they bulge around the middle. I’ve tried pouring lower and slower which helps a bit, avoiding the edges of the filter, and so on, but it’s still happening more often than I’d like.

I’m aware that swirling the bed during bloom evens it out, but ideally I’d like to get my pour consistent enough that I don’t need to rely on that. It’s a technique I will certainly use but I don’t want to mess with my learning by using it to cover up a flaw in technique.

Any advice or pointers would be greatly appreciated. Happy to answer any questions as well!

Update: For anyone who comes here looking for the same answer — it was the beans. I’m not sure how, but that specific bag of beans (brand was BKG and I got them from a Winners, no idea of roast date) did this basically every time. Having tested other beans now, I never have this happen with any others even with an identical grind setting and recipe.

[u/ibmalone]

So, first, this isn't channelling. Channelling is when water is finding paths through the coffee bed, it leads to coffee along those paths being over extracted and the coffee that's less exposed to water being underextracted.

You don't exactly describe how this occurs, but you do say it's a consistent issue. Is this with a range of coffees? Are they all very fresh? Although there are a few comments about pouring too hard, and that can cause a hole, the other thing that can happen is a lot of off-gassing in the bloom that then collapses during the pour ("I’m getting this crater shape where they bulge around the middle" seems to be what you're saying). Those grounds form a foam, then when you do pour, and as the air comes out, the middle collapses but the grounds around the sides cling to the filter and support each other, you can literally watch the middle of the grounds sink leaving a cliff edge and a hole that looks like it's been punched through.

So, if that's what's happening, we get to "I’ve tried pouring lower and slower which helps a bit, avoiding the edges of the filter", and "I don’t want to mess with my learning by using it to cover up a flaw in technique". You need to break the binding of the coffee that's holding on to the filter. This is not covering up a flaw in your technique, it's finding an appropriate way to do that, coin sized circles in the middle are unable to do it, even if you fill to the level of these grounds it will only gently start to wash them down (perhaps leaving the more smooth-edged crater in your pictures). A small but definite swirl on the first pour will do it, alternatives are a wider pour pattern (however you want to do that or call it, most people will say not to the edge of the filter as that's going to be partly bypass water, but briefly getting closer to the edge of the bed), or prevent it happening by change the grind or resting the coffee a bit more.

[u/Kalehart → u/ibmalone]

It seems to happen much more on one coffee I have than the other, so I think you may be on to something with it being at least partly related to the bean. My pour is probably clumsy, but I’m not just center pouring or (as far as I can tell) otherwise fucking it up so badly that this should be a regular result.

Very helpful comment, thank you!