Start with 20 g of coffee and 320 g of water. This recipe uses a bloom followed by three pours, with a starting target of about 3:00–3:30 total. Keep the dose and water weight steady while adjusting the grind for your dripper and beans.
How to brew pour over coffee: the recipe at a glance
| Setting | Starting point | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Coffee dose | 20 g | Fits most 1–2 cup drippers; a comfortable bed depth for even flow |
| Water | 320 g (1:16 ratio) | Balanced strength; see the pour over ratio chart to scale up or down |
| Grind | Medium-fine, like coarse sand | Controls how fast water drains; the main lever for fixing taste |
| Water temperature | 93°C / 199°F (range 92–96°C / 198–205°F) | Hotter extracts faster; use the lower end for dark roasts |
| Bloom | 50 g for 45 seconds | Releases trapped gas so the main pours extract evenly |
| Number of pours | 4 (bloom + 3) | Keeps the bed agitated without flooding it |
| Total time | 3:00–3:30 | A quick check that grind and pour speed are in range |
Start with one small brew
Use this as a starting recipe for a compatible dripper. Keep dose and water weight steady while learning the pour, but slow down or pause if the water approaches the filter rim. Larger batches change bed depth and drainage as well as ingredient quantities.
Pour over passes hot water through grounds and a filter into a receiving vessel. The National Coffee Association’s method overview covers equipment and preparation. The 20 g / 320 g recipe here is a practical starting point to adjust for your brewer and beans, not a certification standard.
Gather your equipment
You need a dripper, a filter that fits it, freshly ground coffee, a kettle, and something to brew into. Two more items turn "roughly" into "repeatable." A scale lets you hit 20 g and 320 g instead of eyeballing scoops and cup lines, and a scale with a built-in timer means you are not glancing at a phone with wet hands. If you are deciding between models, the coffee scale with timer guide lists what actually matters for pour over.
A gooseneck kettle makes the four pours below far easier because the narrow spout gives you a thin, steady stream you can aim. A standard kettle works to start, but you will find yourself pouring in bursts and flooding the bed. If you would rather heat and hold water at a set temperature, the electric gooseneck kettle guide explains what to look for.
Grind whole beans right before brewing if you can. Pre-ground coffee labeled for drip or pour over will work, but it loses aroma within days of opening and gives you no way to adjust when the cup tastes off. A manual burr grinder is the cheapest way to get a consistent medium-fine grind. For a paperless setup, the glass pour over brewer with a reusable steel filter skips the paper entirely; expect a heavier body and grind slightly coarser to match the faster flow.
Prepare the filter and vessel
Fold the paper filter along its seam so it sits flat against the cone, then rinse it with hot water from the kettle. Rinsing removes the papery taste and preheats the dripper and carafe. Pour the rinse water out — if it stays in the carafe, your scale will count it as brew water.
Put the dripper and carafe on the scale and add 20 g of medium-fine ground coffee. Shake the dripper gently side to side so the bed is level; a tilted bed drains unevenly and tastes muddled. Press tare so the display reads zero, then start the timer the moment your first pour touches the coffee.
Wet the grounds (the bloom)
Start around 93°C/199°F if that suits your coffee and brewer. Use a thermometer or temperature-controlled kettle when you want to measure it: waiting a fixed number of seconds after boiling does not establish a particular temperature. Pour 50 g over the grounds, wetting the whole bed, and use 45 seconds as an initial bloom time.
This first stage is the bloom. Fresh coffee releases carbon dioxide when it meets hot water, and the bed puffs up and bubbles. Letting that gas escape before the main pours matters because trapped gas pushes water away from the grounds and leaves parts of the bed under-extracted. The check that matters is not how dramatic the bubbling is but whether any dry patches remain. If you see one, drip a little water directly on it.
Pour over timing chart: 20 g / 320 g
Use the timing chart as a starting rhythm, with cumulative weights of 50, 160, 240 and 320 g. Begin the next pour when the brewer has room for it. If water is pooling near the rim, pause rather than pouring to match the clock.
| Timer | Action | Scale reads | Water added |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | Bloom pour, slow spiral to wet the whole bed | 50 g | 50 g |
| 0:45 | Second pour, spiral from center to edge and back | 160 g | 110 g |
| 1:30 | Third pour, same pattern, keep the stream gentle | 240 g | 80 g |
| 2:00 | Final pour, mostly in the center to avoid the walls | 320 g | 80 g |
| 2:45–3:30 | Drawdown; remove the dripper once it drips slowly | 320 g | — |
If your brew finishes well before 2:45, the grind is probably too coarse. If it is still draining at 4:00, the grind is too fine or the pours were too aggressive and clogged the filter with fines. Either way, finish the cup and taste it before deciding — time is a clue, not the verdict.
Add the remaining water
The three main pours after the bloom all use the same technique. Hold the kettle low, a couple of inches above the bed, and pour a thin stream in slow circles about the size of a quarter, widening gradually toward the edge and then coming back to the center. Avoid hitting the paper along the walls of the cone; water that runs down the filter bypasses the coffee and dilutes the cup.
Watch the scale, not the dripper. Stop each pour a few grams early because water still in the air will land after you tilt the kettle back. Keep the water level well below the rim of the filter; if it is rising faster than it drains, pause, let it drop, and slow your next pour down. Those pauses are built into the timing chart — the 0:45, 1:30, and 2:00 marks assume you spent about half of each interval pouring and half waiting.
Let it drain and taste
Let the main flow drain, then remove the dripper and record your chosen stopping point. The final drops are not inherently defective; consistency and taste are more useful than a rule that they must be discarded. Swirl the carafe and taste when the coffee is comfortably cool.
Taste it black first, even if you normally add milk. You are checking one thing: is it sour and thin, bitter and harsh, or somewhere in the middle with some sweetness? That answer tells you what to change on the next cup, and the table below turns it into a specific adjustment.
Fix a sour, bitter, or weak cup
Change only one row at a time, brew again, and compare. The most common mistake is adjusting grind and temperature together and then not knowing which one helped.
| The cup tastes… | Likely cause | Adjust next time |
|---|---|---|
| Sour, thin, or sharp; finished under 2:45 | Under-extraction (grind too coarse or water too cool) | Grind one step finer. If still sour, raise water to 95°C/203°F. |
| Bitter, dry, or harsh; finished past 3:45 | Over-extraction (grind too fine or poured too hard) | Grind one step coarser. Pour lower and slower. |
| Weak or watery but not sour | Too much water for the dose | Drop to 300 g of water (1:15). Keep grind the same. |
| Strong and muddy, hard to taste anything | Too little water, or fines clogging the filter | Go to 340 g (1:17), or grind a touch coarser. |
| Fine one day, off the next | Inconsistent dose, temperature, or pour speed | Weigh everything, standardize the kettle routine, follow the timing chart. |
| Hollow, flat, little aroma | Stale beans, not brewing | Use beans roasted in the last 4–6 weeks; check how you store them. |
Grind changes have the biggest effect, then water temperature, then ratio. Pour technique matters most once the other three are close. If you switch from paper to a metal filter, or the other way around, the paper vs metal filter guide explains why you will need to re-dial the grind.
Make the second cup easier
Record the grind setting, water temperature, total time and a few words about taste. Use those notes when adjusting the next brew or returning to a bag you have brewed before.
For a larger batch, 30 g of coffee and 480 g of water preserves the 1:16 ratio. Confirm both filter and vessel capacity first. The deeper bed may need a grind or pouring adjustment, but there is no fixed extra drawdown time. Use the ratio chart to scale ingredients and compare the finished cup.
