The V60 is a classic. Made by the Japanese company Hario, the V60 is a simple one-cup pour-over brewer that comes in ceramic, plastic, and metal versions. In contrast to the cafetiere or AeroPress, the V60 and other pour-over methods use percolation to extract flavour from the ground coffee. Rather than the grounds sitting in the hot water as in a cafetiere, with a V60 you pour hot water over the ground coffee and through a filter, leading to a lighter, cleaner cup.
What you’ll need:
- A Hario V60 brewer and a carafe or large enough cup
- V60 filters
- Ground coffee (medium)
- Scale
- Timer
- Hot water just off the boil (or between 93 - 96°C). While a regular kitchen kettle will work fine, we recommend a gooseneck pouring kettle for added precision.
We recommend a 1:16 ratio (but as always, adjust to your personal taste), and a medium grind setting. In this guide we’re going to use 20g coffee and 320g water.
Method:
- Boil your kettle. Place the V60 brewer on top of the carafe or mug, and place both atop the scale. Add your filter. Rinsing your filter isn’t mandatory but will help pre-heat the brewer and your receptacle (just remember to discard the water before brewing!)
- Tare the scale then add your coffee and give the brewer a gentle shake or tap to level the grounds. Tare again.
Start the timer and add about 20g of water, aiming to saturate all the grounds. This is called the bloom phase, and it allows the coffee to degas—it will probably bubble up and expand a bit. The fresher the coffee, the bigger the bloom will be. - After 30 seconds, begin to pour until you have about 100g of water. Try to pour slowly in circles, saturating the grounds evenly.
- Continue to pour in roughly 50g increments (or pulses) until you reach 320g. Your timer should read between 2:45 and 3:00. Option: give the V60 a couple of taps to flatten the bed and help uniform extraction.
- Wait for the water to fully pass through the bed of coffee and into the carafe or cup; all being well it should finish about 3:30. Enjoy!
Notes:
- For more on the differences between immersion and percolation, check out this blog post from Coffee ad Astra.
- If your coffee takes a lot longer than 3 minutes to brew, chances are it’s ground too finely and the water is having trouble passing through the bed. If it takes too long, the final cup may taste overextracted or sour. If it goes really fast, it’s probably too coarse and might taste weak. Chances are it’s still fine to drink, just make a note and adjust the grind next time.
- See here for our full collection of recommended pour over coffee beans and pour over coffee brew kits.
Brewing using a different method? View all of our brewing guides here.
