Hi there! This time we explore the wonderful world of Pour-over filter.
My very first encounters with filter coffee as a term are from about 25y ago. For some reason my parents bought a generic coffee machine at home. Even though it was not used most of the time, it helped me to get to know something different as a brew from the coffee I used to know. So I’ve always envisioned filter coffee as a machine filter coffee. It came much later in life when I got to know about the pour-over filter. Much simpler and tastier brew.
Filter coffee in general has many variants in terms of how it’s brewed, the equipment used, the ways it tastes.. There is the famous pour-over, the french press, AeroPress, the filter machine coffee, etc. It’s also one of the oldest brews in the world. The story goes back at the beginning of the last century. It has a lot to do with German dissatisfaction with the status quo and proactiveness shown by a very inspiring entrepreneurial person. Seen the world at that time, the 1900s, at the dawn of the new century, people were brewing their coffee in a Coffee percolator. They would put the ground coffee in and bring the water to a high temperature. Then serve it and drunk it with whatever came out the pot. Then the world was divided between the optimists that were enjoying a cup of coffee and pessimists that were drinking coffee with bitter chunks of the ground beans. Apparently, very often these chunks would give bitter taste to the coffee. As it’s usually the case, the change is a subtle line between constant complaining and taking actual action, so it was the case for a lady named Melitta Bentz, from Dresden. Some will argue that sense for business is a gift, and it looks like this woman was more than gifted to do business. She despised the bitter chunks of coffee she had to drink every day, but instead of complaining - she took action. One day she used a piece of paper and pinched small holes in it, so that the chunks of coffee beans are filtered out, and let only the tasty liquid through. That worked and she liked it. Her family also liked it. The world liked it. Immediately they started a company and soon they filed a patent for the invention they came up with. The name of the company is Melitta.
The story continues with the later invention of the French press but we’ll stop here as this is more than enough for a brew that survived the years and improved in so many ways by this point. Today, the pour over can mean few things. The Melitta porcelain funnel pour-over, the Chemex or V60. They all belong to the same brewing technique where water is poured over coffee in a paper bag (a filter), in a slow and gentle manner, letting the goodies to be extracted at the right time.
Now, as the intention of Uncoffee is not to serve directly recipes, I want to briefly remind you that brewing coffee overall is and should be a very mindful activity. Especially for the pour-over, where some of the variables are very fragile and your full presence would drastically impact the quality of the coffee. Of course, that should not discourage you from trying out brewing good quality coffee. You just need some of the essential equipment and your full attention for at least a few minutes. Consider it a yoga. Or meditation. Right after, you can quickly enjoy the positive karma.
Be experimental, you will fail the very first time, of course and that should not let you down. You are not headed for a professional barista. Once you come to a point where you say hey I like it today, you will know how much back and forth you need to go the next time. Don’t stress out, your brews will suck sometimes and that’s ok.
What do I need?
In my previous article, I deliberately did not mention the gooseneck kettle as part of an essential equipment. It’s really an extraordinary piece of equipment but technically you don’t need it, so that you can brew a good pour over. A normal pot with a small spout will suffice to start with. Have in mind that you will need to have a full control over the amount of water that flows from the pot. You don’t want your shaking hand to pour all of it over the coffee immediately, it will destroy it as it will impact the extraction. Also, using an open pot will impact another of the essential variables, the temperature. If you bring the water to 93-95° (around 200F), and let the open lid pot stay for 20-30secs, by the time you use the water, the temperature will drop by another 7-10 degrees. This is a good place where you want to step in and recognize the momentum. Good idea is to bring the water to boiling temperature and then use the time for it to cool off for rinsing the filter paper.
Rinse the filter paper? 🙀 you think in desperation.
But it's an easy trick of mastery. The filter paper, regardless if you do a Melitta funnel, v60 or Chemex, must be rinsed and free of all possible scents. Paper accumulates aromas and scents a lot. A lot! So rinsing it before the brewing happens as part of the ritual is a must-do. Also, makes the paper more receptive to the good elements of the coffee.
Once you set the cup, the funnel and the paper on top of each other, rinsing the paper with high temperature water guarantees uniqueness of temperature between the three of them. Same applies for v60 and Chemex. The paper needs to be warmed and released of its scents, the funnel needs to be warmed, as well as the dripping pot/cup at the bottom. Once rinsed, make sure to pour out the water you rinsed with. Rinsing takes time for the water to get through, so if you brew with an open lid pot, do not give in more than 30 seconds of rinse with a boiling water. For the rinse, the hotter the water the better.
🌿 I got to know the importance of rinsing after an unintentional act of carelessness, when we put a bag of dry (and for some reason very strong in smell) Oregano next to our box of filter paper. After I brewed the coffee the next day for both me and my wife, having our first sip we both looked at each other and said: why does it taste like herbs? I immediately (think: jumping off of the bed) went to check what’s in the compartment - was shocked to find the oregano bag next to the paper box. I would have never believed that paper accumulates everything to that extent! So, if possible, think of buying a plastic container dedicated just for keeping filter paper or a small plastic freezer bag as a quick solution. You can put your filter paper inside, safe from its surroundings.
In my case, rinsing the paper twice did help to get rid of the oregano smell.
When it comes to the grind itself try to go sugar size or a bit bigger. This is how my pour over grind looks like:
If you find the water flowing through the filter very slow and you need to intervene with a spoon, then you’ve gone a bit too fine. If you are too coarse you will notice not just by the abnormally fast flow of the water but also by how the coffee tastes. As the extraction time is shorter with coarser grind, the brew will contain just the sour tastes and aromas and there won’t be enough time for the sugars to get released, making the coffee rather sourish. Juggle with it a few times.
My ideal ratio for pour-over is 21g of coffee with 250ml of water. I’d do 210ml if I could get a guarantee that the same amount of water will flow back into the cup, but there is some loss, so I add just a bit more water.
The very first thing you need to do doing a pour-over is a phase called blooming. It's a short part of the brewing when you allow the coffee to release its roasting-time accumulated gasses (like CO2). These gasses will destroy the brew, so please consider to bloom.
Simply, once you put the coffee inside the rinsed paper pour just a bit of the water (you can go one third of it, so around 80ml). Remember, the blooming is part of the brewing, so the water that goes through will be part of your coffee (do not throw it). But as soon as you start the blooming phase, make sure the water gets evenly in all parts of the ground coffee. The photo above is not ideal, but at least you can see, the water is not evenly distributed. You can do that with either spinning the funnel in circling motion or by using a wooden/plastic spoon. Be a bit quicker so that you make use of the momentum while there is still water in.
Once the water goes through, start pouring, very slowly, the reminder of the water. Don’t pour it immediately over as that will cause uneven extraction (and you can notice uneven extraction by seeing islands of coffee flowing amongst the water). It should be more like a calm volcano eruption. This of course is impacted by the quality of the coffee and the temperature, but no worries if you don’t see that right away - you’ll get there. So - key point here: make sure all of the area of the coffee in the filter is wet and not floating.
At the end, do not let all of the water go through the filter. The final bits of the brew are not that great and might impact the taste a lot.
The key variables for pour-over are: temperature, grind size and proper spread of the water after the blooming. Allow yourself to play with them to come up with a taste that you will enjoy. If you enjoy stronger flavour coffee - you go towards the direction of over-extracting, thicker paper and finer grind. But try to learn how not to over-extract. Over and under extracted coffee are destroyers of the experience. If you enjoy more sour and watery coffee, go a bit coarser in terms of your grind. Also, see what happens if you brew pour-over with a boiling water vs brewing it with suboptimal temperature water.
If you are in a hurry, then it could be that pour-over is not the right brew for the moment. Sit down, think about what you do and just enjoy it. It's your coffee time and very well deserved break.
Let me know what you think!