75% of the time (estimated), I’m brewing a V60 coffee if I’m at home. It is an easy brewer to get started with and leaves room for infinite levels of exploration. There are a lot of variables—including grind size and placement, pouring technique, bloom, brew time, etc.—that can impact your final cup, but like many coffee brewers, it only has to be as complicated as you’d like.
SIMPLE HOW-TO
An every-time disclaimer: Be sure to pour the proper ratio of water to coffee grinds. For example, if using a 1:15 ratio, 20 grams of coffee would require 300 grams of water to be brewed properly. You may prefer a different ratio, so don’t be afraid to experiment. Generally, 1:15 up to 1:18 are the preferred coffee-to-water ratios to produce enjoyable cups of coffee.
For best results, grind whole beans with a burr grinder immediately before brewing.*
Fold the filter along the crimped edge (if needed) and place it in the cone brewer resting atop a coffee mug or serving pitcher. Heat your water.
Preheat the brewer and mug, and rinse the paper filter simultaneously with hot water. Toss the rinse water before brewing. If using a brown filter, rinsing twice may help reduce any paper taste.
Set brewer atop mug on a kitchen scale, tare the scale to zero grams, and add coffee grounds. At a minimum, make sure your grounds are level. Some experts recommend making a small indent in the middle of your grinds.
Pour about 1/4 of your total hot water over the grounds. Be sure to thoroughly wet the grinds. You’ll see your coffee start to bubble as the hot water and grinds interact. Those bubbles are carbon dioxide being released. Let this process continue for about 30 seconds.
Continuing pouring. How you pour will impact your coffee and is an art that is continually debated by professionals. If you’re getting started, here are our basic tips:
Start in the center and swirl the pour outward.
Keep the spout close to the brewer. No tall/long pours!
Use the water to prevent grinds from building up the sides of the filter.
The pulse: Some coffee pros recommend a start, stop, start, stop method to pouring. That is up to you. We tend to add water until it reaches high up in the filter, pause, and then add the remainder.
Let the water drain into the mug. Your total brew time (including the bloom) should be between 2:30 - 4:00m depending on the size of your brew. For 1-2 cups, a brewing time in the range of 2:30 - 3:00m is about right. If the coffee drains too fast, your grinds are too coarse. If it drains too slowly, your grinds are too fine.
Drink and enjoy!
*Please don’t use a hammer to grind your coffee. Just don’t.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The V60 is a reasonably iconic Third Wave coffee brewer. Third Wave refers to the rise of craft coffee producers and cafes that place more emphasis on flavor, quality, and brewing techniques.
The V60 is a pour-over coffee device manufactured by Hario Co., a 102-year-old glass company based in Tokyo, Japan. The V60 hit the market in 2005.
The cone-shaped brewer comes in a variety of materials, including ceramic, glass, stainless steel, copper, and plastic.
The cone shape, the sides of which are angled at 60 degrees, is designed so that the layers of coffee grounds are thicker towards the middle, which will force water to flow towards the one big drain hole in the center.
Spiraling ribs extrude out on the inside of the cone. The ribs create airflow between the filter and the brewer, which prevents water from channeling down the sides, creating an under extracted cup of coffee.
The quality of the grind and your pouring technique will impact the pace or rate of flow the water takes through the grounds.
The V60 uses an 01 or 02 cone filter, depending on size. White filters have been bleached with oxygen in an effort to remove the paper taste.
Brown filters do not go through that process, making them slightly better for the environment, but that paper taste can impact your cup of coffee.
If you’re buying brown filters for environmental reasons, make sure you’re buying naturally brown filters. Some companies have been dying white filters brown in an effort to appear more environmentally friendly in the form of greenwashing.
To reduce or remove a paper taste from your filter, preheat the brewer by pouring in hot water before you brew. If you find that you still have a little paper taste, try rinsing the filter twice or looking for a different brand of filter.
It helps to have a kitchen scale, a gooseneck water kettle, and a decent grinder in your coffee toolbox.
Chris noted a James Hoffman video he watched recently (below). This is a more complex effort at brewing a V60 if you are looking for coffee cup perfection. I can’t honestly say I’ve ever done this in the morning because it is a process, but coffee experimentation is part of the fun! There is a nice bit about preheating in the last third of the video.
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E5: Coffee Smarter - V60 Hario