Coffee Brewing Series 2 - Pour Over
Pour over coffee has grown in popularity in recent years, both in coffee shops and at home. Let's discover more about this brewing method.
What is Pour Over?
Pour over method involves pouring hot water over freshly ground coffee. This allows you to customize your brew in a way automatic machines simply can't. The more water you add the longer it stays in contact with the beans and the stronger your brew will be.
Pour over coffee can be made, start-to-finish in much less time compared to an automatic dripper. A well-made pour over coffee maker will also last years and years of use. Easy to clean and maintain as well as easy to maintain.
How to brew coffee using Pour Over
Here's how to brew and pour over coffee at home. To find the method that works for you, you'll need to experiment with different factors and taste your results.
- Begin with a medium grind setting.
A good coffee-to-water ratio is between 30-45 grams of coffee and 500g of water. Pour over drippers work best when they're between one half to two-thirds full of coffee grounds. Any less, and there won't be enough coffee to restrict the flow.
- Place your filter in the brewer and rinse it with hot water before brewing.
This removes the paper residue (which gives your brewer a woody flavor), seals your filter, and warms up your brewer. Warming everything up maintains a consistent brewing temperature.
- Clean water is clean coffee.
Filtered is advisable, but filtered is fine if you're using tap water. About 95°C for medium to light roasts, and about 10° lower for dark roasts. Fresh water has a tendency to extract more from surface layers of the coffee grounds.
- Start your timer and pour in enough water to cover the coffee completely.
Target brew time is 2.5 to 3 minutes for dark roasted coffee, and 3 to 4 minutes for medium to light roasted coffees. This includes the dripping time after you stop adding water - your dripper will drip for between 20 and 60 seconds.
- Continue brewing.
Pour gently and evenly across the surface of the coffee, pausing between pours to keep your brew time on track. In general, the lower you pour from, the better, if only because consistency is easier to achieve and maintain.
- Serve and enjoy!
It is recommended that you make adjustments to your coffee! If your coffee tastes weak, it's generally because the grind is too coarse; try a finer grind next time. If your coffee is too strong, try using less coffee next time or adding a splash of hot water to the completed brew to taste.
History of Pour Over
In 1908, pour over coffee was invented by a German housewife. Amalie Auguste Melitta Bentz started experimenting with different methods of brewing coffee. Brewing methods of the time left grounds in coffee and made the finished product very bitter.
Melitta Bentz invented the paper coffee filter. She started out using her son's school notebook as a filter. The invention won her gold and silver medals at an international hygiene expo in 1914. In the 1930's, Bentz redesigned the filter into a more conical shape.
The pour over brewer was developed in Germany in the 18th century. In 2005 Hario Co.,LTD began making the V60 which is now the dominant pour over brewers in the world.