A non-hipster’s guide to brewing amazing filter coffee

In an age of espresso machines considerably more expensive than cars and ‘artisan’ coffee shops on every street corner, why are a new generation of people becoming obsessed with brewing their coffee through a small plastic cone?

I’ve been doing it for the last year, and I’m here to convince you to give it a try.

Why you should make coffee in this way

• It’s cheap to make at home
• You don’t need complex equipment or machinery
• The process is relatively simple
• The taste is much more complex, less ‘intense’ than espresso-based coffees.
• The ritual forces you to slow down for a few minutes in your morning (rather than pressing a button on a machine).
• It forces an understanding and a connection to what you’re actually making.
• It makes you realise that you don’t need milk, sugar, stevia, syrup, soy, chocolate sprinkles or any of that other crap that’s used to mask the flavour of BAD coffee.
• That strange satisfaction in considering a takeaway coffee, and then realising you can make a far better one at home :)

Things that affect the taste of coffee, in order of magnitude

• The bean, and how it’s roasted
• Ratio of coffee to water
• Length of extraction (how long the coffee is in contact with the water)
• The grind (coarseness / uniformity)
• Atmospheric pressure during the extraction
• Water temperature
• Other water characteristics (hardness, taste etc.)
• Countless other small things that we're not going to worry about here.

When we’re brewing, we’re really just focusing on ratio and length of extraction. If we get these right, we should end up with a decent cup of coffee.

Things you'll need

Good filter-roast coffee beans

Obviously there are a million different variations of coffee beans to buy out there. But for filter coffee like this, you’re going to really taste the bean a lot more than with other coffee. Buying bad quality coffee beans for this means you’re losing from the outset.
My recommendation? Find a third-wave coffee place near you. Go there, and buy some filter-roast beans. Filter roasts tend to be lighter than an espresso roast, and are (believe it or not) tailored to brewing filter coffee. The likelihood is that these guys care a lot about good coffee, and you’ll end up with something far better than a product from the supermarket shelf.

“The third wave of coffee is a movement to produce high-quality coffee, and consider coffee as an artisanal foodstuff, like wine, rather than a commodity.”

A grinder (or not…)

As shown above, the coarseness of the grind is a huge factor in how your coffee will taste. If you want to invest in a grinder, make sure it’s a burr one like this — the blade grinders won’t get the grind fine or consistent enough for what we’re making.
In my experience, it can be better to get the coffee shop to grind it for you in the begnning — one less variable to try and get right in the process. Ask them to grind it for a V60 (or similar filter). They should understand.

A kettle

Not much explaining required here. You need to boil water.

A funnel (‘dripper’)

I’m using the Hario V60 dripper. There are both plastic and ceramic versions, but I’m just using the plastic one because I don’t believe it makes a difference to the taste.

A filter

I recommend Hario V60 filter papers, to go with the V60 funnel. These are single-use (put them in the recycling afterwards)

A vessel

Put simply, the coffee needs to drip into something as it filters down through the coffee. This can be a mug, a pot, pretty much anything, as long as the funnel sits on top of it. I use this Hario glass server, which is part of the starter set mentioned below.
Need everything? This pour-over starter set from Hario will get you the above three items for a very reasonable price, if you don’t have any of them.

Scales & Timer

You need to be able to measure the amount of coffee and water you’re adding, as well as the time. These scales from Hario are geared for exactly this (they have both), or you can just use kitchen scales (make sure they’re at least accurate to 1g) and the stopwatch on your phone.

Alright, you’re set! Time to brew.

Preparation

Fail to prepare, prepare to… taste crappy coffee.

• Boil some water in a kettle. Don’t worry about letting it stand for a bit after boiling, 90 degrees celsius (~190F) is a good temperature.
• Put the filter in the funnel, and put them both on the vessel.
• Pour a little of the freshly boiled water around the filter, allowing it to drip into the vessel. You’re making the filter wet to lose any papery taste that might exist, and warming everything up.
• Pour away the water that just dripped through.
• Put the entire assembly — filter, funnel, vessel — on the scales, and turn them on (so they tare to zero).
• Add 14g of the ground coffee to the funnel, and give it a little tap to even it out.
• Zero the scales.

This is it. From this point, the whole process is timed — you’ll need to give your full attention for the next couple of minutes. Shit’s getting serious.

The ‘Bloom’

• Start the timer.
• Pour 30g water from the kettle over the coffee, in small circles, aiming to cover as much of the surface as possible.

Fun fact: You see those bubbles coming out of the coffee during the Bloom? That’s actually Carbon Dioxide, which is locked into the coffee during the roasting process. By unleashing it now, we stop it from ruining our brew with a bitter taste.

The Extraction

• Timer reaches 30 seconds.
• Pour 70g of water steadily over the coffee, in small-but-growing-outwards circles. The funnel will fill up a little, the coffee will develop a golden brown color on the surface.
• Timer reaches 50 seconds.
• Pour 50g of water steadily over the coffee, in the same fashion as before.
• Timer reaches 1:15.
• Pour another 50g of water, in the same fashion.
• Timer reaches 1:40.
• Pour the last 50g of water, in the same fashion. The scales should be up to 250g now.
• Timer reaches 2:30.
• Remove the funnel from the top of the vessel. There will still be some coffee dripping through, but we don’t want that (it’s going to start getting bitter and over-extracted from now).

You’ll should have about 200–250ml of brewed coffee in your vessel — if you go back to our “perfect” ratio, this is what 14g of coffee should produce.
If it’s closer to 200g, it might be a little strong. You can actually add some water from the kettle to make it up to the proper amount. This’ll help you to taste all of those delicate coffee notes.

Tasting

Pour a small amount of your brewed coffee into a cup. You don’t want to drink it at the temperature it’s brewed at though, as you won’t get as much flavour from it. So wait a few minutes until it’s cooled a bit.
When you drink it, try slurping from the cup. This adds some air into the equation, and helps to expose all of the different tasting notes.
Keep pouring small amounts from the vessel, rolling it around the cup, letting it cool a bit. Slurping.
Troubleshooting

The coffee tastes really weak. What’s the deal?

Firstly, remember that compared to espresso based coffees, this will be much weaker in taste. It’s like comparing fortified wine to normal wine. But if you train your mouth, you’ll be able to taste much more complexity in what we’ve just brewed.

The coffee has a bitter taste, or like damp leaves.

Sounds like it’s been over-extracted. This means the coffee has been in contact with the water for too long. Try shortening the length of time a bit.

I tried all the things you said and I’m just not getting a good taste from the coffee.

You might need to just experiment a little bit. All coffee beans are different. Play around with balancing the following variables until you find the sweet spot:

• The amount of coffee you use. Bit less, bit more…
• The length of time you extract for. What happens if you stop 30 secs earlier, how does it taste then?
• The way you pour the water over the coffee. Faster, slower, etc.
• Try out some different roasts. Maybe it’s just a characteristic of what you’re brewing.