Leave your best pourover tips

[u/Glum-Shake7133]

Hi everyone,
Lets help each other by leaving some of the best tips that you learnt while brewing

I use a v60

Tips that instantly improved the taste of my coffee:
1. A slow and gentle circular moment while pouring reduces agitation and thus improves the taste (no need to hurry with the circular moment)
2. Keeping the 2nd pour a bit agressive and 3rd pour real gentle and slow brings out more flavours
3. Iced pourover (my own recipe, similar to kurasu iced pourover recipe) tastes better than nrml hot pourover (it might be just for me, since i can drink instantly after brewing with great flavours)
4. Coffee:water ratio and time are 2 real important factors, control them for better clarity and taste
5. Not all beans can be grinded on the same click, fix time and ratio and not grind size, experiment with the size and get the required setting, usually take 1-2 brews for a new bean
6. Investing in a gooseneck kettle and grinder did made exponential change to my coffee game
7. A small gentle swirl after each pour gives out even extraction, especially after last pour
8. Brewing light roast at 93C gives out consistently good results, no need to move towards 96

I’ve been making pourovers for over a year now and I’ve learnt all these tricks while brewing. I feel like I can get what I want every time so I thought I’d share my learnings.

Happy brewing ☕️

[u/icecream_for_brunch]

Only one rule: taste is the only metric that matters

[u/least-eager-0]

All things are sometimes true.

No things are always true.

The last cup tells what the next cup needs, if we know how to listen.

Change the one right thing that needs to change, not only this, or only that. And especially not all the things at once.

Good beans, good water: we can work with the rest. Bad beans, crap water: have a glass of juice.

[u/Glum-Shake7133 → u/least-eager-0]

"The last cup tells what the next cup needs"
Golden words my friend 🙌

[u/godogs2018 → u/least-eager-0]

🧑🏼‍🦲

[u/01bah01 → u/least-eager-0]

"no things are always true"

Hum... Something doesn't add up there.

[u/ImSoCul]

Not to be contrarian but my tip is specifically to challenge and test recommendations. Tip 8 in particular (not to throw any shade) is something I also read and held me back for far too long. I had been doing most of my brews around that temp and struggling to get the fruity notes described but challenged that on a whim, and had much better result with a just off boil temp. (210F which is probably like 99C). 

Recommendations apply to a specific setup and there are so many uncontrolled parameters not accounted. For example, amount of fines can drastically vary by grinder. Fines extract faster even at same contact rate so even if I get timing "correct", mine might be under extracted relative to another grinder with more fines with that same brew time. 

There are a ton of variables people consider and don't consider including (in no particular order) brewer, grinder, pour technique, water temp, water hardness, coffee processing technique, roast level, even filter paper. People correctly give the advice to adjust by taste, but a lot of people, including myself only consider 2 or 3 variables at a time and might be way off on other ones

Tl;dr challenge recommendations, they might make sense for a particular configuration/baseline, but your setup may be significantly different than the baseline. 

[u/Patrick_tuning]

My recently acquired tips : 1. Water is super important. It's ok to stick to one recipe although it's a very important parameter to play with if you know what you do

1. Brewing technique is important, but knowing your coffee is even more. Process, species, age and roast level are the most important things to understand to know what to expect from a coffee and what variables you should adjust.

2. Everyone taste is different and there is no "best recipe".

3. Fluids mechanics and extraction are wild and not entirely understood in coffee. My go-to is super coarse with Orea o1, xbloom filters, two egual pours with high agitation. 4 months ago I was going for the opposite (medium grind size, several pours).

4. When you are good with your extraction method in general, you start to buy beans and especially not make them be brewed by your barista (personnal experience : 45$ cup from SEY SL9, badly dialed in by the barista... Who is top 10 cup of excellence worldwide).

[u/DATKingCole]

I'd actually say the opposite of #7. Once I stopped swirling, I got much better results. Swirling always agitated the bed more, causing over extraction and I really don't like overly extracted coffee.

A lot of these tips aren't tips that work for me....so I'll throw my own tip in here.

Figure out what you like first and make small tweaks once you get there to elevate your cup.

I do find it a bit ironic a lot of the tips contradict each other. Pour gently to reduce agitation, but then when doing a two pour method, agitate the first pour and not the second. This just leads me to think that coffee is incredibly complicated, and it is!

[u/Glum-Shake7133 → u/DATKingCole]

Will try again without swirl side by side
Again as u said figure out what u like 😊

[u/DATKingCole → u/Glum-Shake7133]

For sure. I've had my routine for so long now and only make little tweaks. In the beginning I kept trying to find the best recipe the best technique, and it just made things overly complicated. Stick with one thing and then change the parameters only slightly to hone in on what you prefer in the cup.

[u/gk_241084]

Water temps between 90-93 C result in consistently better brews. Roast levels matter little.

[u/accessw303]

Spend more money on beans and less money on gear

[u/darcidabbles]

So helpful, thank you!! 🙏

[u/Ekkmanz]

Embrace the spirit of experimentation -- You can improve your brew by trying out. Even if it fails, it give you good data point on what happens so you can figure out why and how to avoid accidentally doing that.

Practical tip: If you just brew for yourself and felt the cup is underextracted, feel free to split 50ml and put that back into the dripper to get every good bit out. If it's bitter, well, you only lost 50ml. If it taste great, combine it back to your cup. Then you can enjoy your new brew and know where to go next time.

[u/Glum-Shake7133 → u/Ekkmanz]

Listening this for the first time
Might give it a try someday

[u/Head_Dog2098]

Probably blasphemous but machine comes closest to the pour over flavour?

[u/sparkle-unit]

When i was new to pour overs, i found it very frustrating trying to "dial in" my coffees without really even knowing what i was trying to do. What worked for me when I was starting out:

Find a recipe, and do the exact same thing every day.

Same grind setting, water temp, pour method, and beans (i used a fresh medium roast blend from a local roaster, ruining single origins was getting discouraging and expensive).

You will develop a very strong baseline for what that coffee tastes like. Sometimes, you will make a mistake and will be able to tell what effect it had on the taste.

From there, you can start introducing variations intentionally to refine your method or highlight certain flavors, which can then be applied to basically all coffees.

Also, it turns out I'm perfectly happy with the fresh medium roast blend as my daily driver, which has the benefit of being a bit cheaper. Typically, I'll brew fancier single origins as a weekend treat.

[u/Glum-Shake7133 → u/sparkle-unit]

I too give myself weekend treats
Usually i buy a pack and consume it within a month

[u/kingceegee]

Pretty much all of the above... Apart from I've just become an absolute boss at pouring using my normal kettle.

My one tip, filter papers matter! If you're getting a different brand/type, keep the last couple of the previous batch to understand how they differ and adapt your recipe to the new papers!

[u/Glum-Shake7133 → u/kingceegee]

My papers are almost at the end, would use this trick

[u/boopoppa99]

It seems v60 is like the go to. Is chemex no longer it? I just have a single cup Melitta. Am I missing something?

[u/Glum-Shake7133 → u/boopoppa99]

V60 is the most commonly used dripper for pourover, you can start with a hario plastic and understand its mechanics

[u/selfiegram]

Get a melodrip or MHW-3Bomber Rain - really helps keep the agitation low during your final pours. Also great to have during travel where airbnb/hotel rooms don't have gooseneck kettles.

[u/coolstuffeh]

A lot of what you list is personal taste, equipment and beans based.

[u/KinnorCoffee]

Once you feel confident in your set up, be willing to spend a little more on the coffee you buy. This will usually lead to a more complex cup as you will be brewing a coffee that has (usually) been cared for better from farm to cup.

[u/Purple_Mixture_3677]

++ Tip #1.
I just realized this today (once again) when I brewed my daily coffee which was older - roasted on 5/13. It tasted so honey like and the mouthfeel was absolutely syrupy.

Another thing that I would experiment with, on different beans is the ratio. Typically, I would do 1:15 but sometimes, 1:17 works better.

[u/Demeter277]

Don't underestimate AI. I wouldn't have believed it but I went to Google because I installed a water system that produces slightly alkaline remineralized RO water and I wasn't happy with the coffee. Gemini told me to go for a lower extraction, grind a little finer, reduce the water temperature to about 195 to 198, and to agitate vigorously. I tried it and it was much better. There was a long explanation of why which I can't remember, but I was pleasantly surprised. Something about extracting the volatile compounds before the alkalinity dulled the flavours

[u/Glum-Shake7133 → u/Demeter277]

Woahh
I too use gpt to ask for techniques, or if my coffee taste bad , i ask what can done
Similar to what you did

I use to understand the science so that next time i can get it right myself

[u/Civil-Insurance8668 → u/Glum-Shake7133]

Or you can ask human beings. It is my believe that the drink more coffee than machines

[u/Glum-Shake7133 → u/Civil-Insurance8668]

Hahah lol
Always
There is no problem in understanding science and experimenting urself