The pour over coffee is made by pouring hot water to dissolve the coffee powder in the water, and then the extracted liquid drips into the container at a free speed through a filter paper or screen to obtain the coffee liquid.
Invented in the 19th century, pour-over coffee is still popular today.
It looks so simple to brew, and you will marvel at the number of details when you get to know it better. If we are at home, how should we brew a good cup of pour-over coffee?
What is Pour Over Coffee?
The preparation of pour-over coffee looks simple, but it brews a very clean coffee that extracts the full aroma and sweetness of the coffee.
Coffee beans with a medium roast or less are suitable for pour-over extraction, so it is also a popular extraction method in daily life. Because of the layer of filter paper in the middle, the extracted coffee is less oily and clearer overall.
To make a good cup of pour-over coffee, you need these tools.
Electronic scale, bean grinder, thermometer, hand brew pot, filter cup, sharing cup, and of course the most indispensable coffee beans and filtered water.
To learn how to brew a good cup of pour-over coffee, you can check out my past posts. This time we share some common questions that people have and the points to note in our pour-over coffee.
Tips for Pour Over Coffee
Pour-over coffee is a ritualistic brewing style. Coffee, like wine, is one of those drinks that need to be savored and felt slow. How can you make coffee taste better?
Tips 1: The bean grinder should not be sloppy
To brew a good cup of pour-over coffee, whether the coffee powder is ground evenly is an important measure of a good grinder. Of course, if you are a one-person coffee, hand cranking is no problem, please remember that it must be evenly ground. If it is an electric bean grinder, it will be even more convenient.
Tips 2: Grind at the end of the preparation step
The flavor of coffee beans dissipates quickly after grinding into powder, so the best way is to prepare a filter cup and other equipment, and grind the coffee beans after the water is ready.
Tips 3: Check carefully before filling
Before filling the pot, please check if the pot has been emptied. When wetting the filter paper and warming the pot, the water is left in the sharing pot, and sometimes you forget to pour the water and just flush it. Even experienced baristas will make this kind of mistake, so be careful before filling the pot.
Tips 4: Grabbing the extraction time
Generally, it is reasonable to control the brewing time from 1 minute and 50 seconds to 2 minutes and 10 seconds.
Tips 5: Please shake the sharing pot after brewing coffee
Normally, the freshly brewed coffee liquid is not fully integrated, and generally shows the state of the bottom strength and top weakness. So you need to shake the sharing pot to make the coffee blend evenly.
These five points are small details that can help you improve the flavor of your coffee. Of course, to brew a master coffee, you need to practice and study the characteristics of different coffees, choose different water temperatures, etc., so you can brew a great cup of coffee.
Common Questions
Common problems I: Coffee is too light
Possible causes: incorrect powder-to-water ratio, too much water, diluted coffee flavor; coffee grinding powder being too coarse, insufficient coffee extraction; coffee freshness not enough, flavor loss.
Solutions：
1. adjust the ratio of powder to water
Compared with espresso, the concentration of hand-brewed coffee is only one-tenth of it.
The amount of coffee powder required is less, and the amount of water is more, usually, the ratio of coffee powder to water is 1.94 a 2.82oz coffee powder / 33.81 fl oz water.
If the ratio is 1.94oz coffee powder / 33.81 fl oz water: lighter coffee
If the ratio is 2.82oz coffee powder/33.81 fl oz water: strong coffee
It is important to keep increasing or decreasing this ratio to figure out how to get the cup you like best.
2. fine coffee grind
The finer the coffee powder, the larger the contact area with water, and the faster the soluble components of the coffee will dissolve.
Espresso requires a finer coffee powder to compensate for its lack of brewing time (usually less than 30 seconds).
To get a good pour-over coffee, the coffee grounds used should be coarser than those used for espresso and ground as evenly as possible.
3. no longer fresh enough, try to raise the water temperature
Beans roasted for more than two weeks (non-exhaust valve bag packaging coffee, specifically coffee placed in a sealed can of coffee, stored at normal temperature), freshness has been lost, try to use high-temperature production.
Beans that are about to go sour have a poor ability to lock water in the filter paper, so a high temperature of 194 °F or higher is necessary to allow the coffee to release its flavor and aroma and avoid the flavor from becoming too thin.
However, increasing the water temperature for coffee that has lost its freshness may also result in coffee that is too bitter and has too much flavor.
Common problems II: Coffee is too strong
Possible causes: The powder-to-water ratio is not right.
Solution： Increase the amount of coffee powder or increase the amount of brewing water
Common problems III: coffee is too bitter
Possible causes: water temperature is too high; coffee extraction time is too long; freshness is not enough
Solutions:
1. High water temperature leads to a burnt and bitter taste.
The water temperature is not only affected by the freshness of the beans but also changes according to the roasting degree.
Generally speaking, deep roasting is suitable for slightly low temperatures (167~174 °F) or medium temperatures (176~179.6 °F) light roasting is suitable for Chinese or slightly high temperatures (181.4~185 °F).
2. Extraction time is too long resulting in excessive extraction.
In the normal extraction, small molecules of acidic substances are released first, then sweet molecules, and finally a large number of large molecules of bitter substances will be released.
The purpose of brewing coffee is to extract more quality acids and sweetness while avoiding bitterness.
If the brewing time is too long, then large molecules of bitter substances will be more easily extracted into our coffee, causing a cup of coffee to become bitter.
3. Grinding too fine resulting in excessive extraction.
Do not use the same grinding scale, know that each bean is different in density and roast degree, the required scale will not be the same, very hard beans or shallow roast scales can be adjusted slightly finer, and deep roast can be adjusted coarser.
4. Excessive stirring leads to excessive extraction, reduce the stirring action.
Stir the coffee with a coffee spoon or stirring stick, you can let the water and coffee powder for full integration.
If the stirring action is regular and continuous in moderation, then stirring can also be used as a complementary factor to produce a good cup of pour-over coffee.
5. Freshness is not enough, it is recommended to drink as soon as possible.
In general, the best period of appreciation for hand-brewed coffee beans from the date of roasting is 4-30 days, the longer it is stored, the more the flavor of the coffee will dissipate.
Fresh coffee beans smell very aromatic, which is often referred to as "coffee flavor", while coffee beans that have been stored for a long time will have a woody, oily taste. Coffee beans that have lost flavor matter will naturally have a woody, bitter taste when brewed.
