The Brew Guide - Hario V60 Pour Over

There are many variables to factor in when making your perfect pour over. Here, we have our favourite method which has borrowed common practice from many professionals out there, as well as a few adaptations that we have found to work really well.

THE KIT
The Hario Pour Over Kit is the perfect starter pack for those wanting to explore manual brewing. ☕️

Assemble brew kit and place the filter into the brewer. Rinse the filter with hot water over your server (decanter). This gets rid of any papery tastes that might affect your overall flavour notes but also preheats your kit to ensure you don't lose any heat with the initial pour. Discard the water once it has drained through. Weigh and grind (or use our pre ground) 16g coffee and pour into the soaked V60. Then, form a pit in the middle - just like a tiny volcano.

Once your water has boiled, pour double the coffee weight (32g) of water onto the grinds. Stir the slurry (mixture of coffee and water) generously with the aim of wetting ALL the ground coffee so as to avoid uneven extraction. Let the slurry sit for 30 - 45 seconds. This is known as the bloom. During this time you will see air bubbles form and the coffee will rise slightly. At this point CO2 (a byproduct of roasted coffee) is released. Some coffees have a bigger bloom than others.

After your bloom, add +/-100g of water to the slurry in a spiral motion* starting from the center working your way outwards. Then swirl the brewer over the server making sure to catch any coffee grinds that stick to the wall of the V60. If those grounds aren't caught, you encourage uneven extraction leading to a weak or flat coffee.

Before the coffee bed (the slurry) is exposed by the draining water, add the remaining hot water to the brewer (+-120g) employing the spiral motion once again. As the coffee drains into the server, be sure to swirl the brewer to catch any coffee clinging to the wall of the V60. At the end of your brew time, a flat coffee bed in your V60 is a great indicator for even extraction (meaning: good coffee).

*tech note

Gooseneck kettles work the best for this as the spout is long and slender allowing for an even stream of water so as not to disturb the coffee bed too much and promote channelling (occurs when water finds the path of least resistance - leading to uneven extraction).

As the last few drops hit the coffee in the server, preheat your cup with some warm water from the kettle. At the 4 min mark, remove the V60 from the server and discard the filter and coffee, rinse the V60 and set to dry (no soap needed, just warm water). Pour your delicious looking coffee into your favourite mug, let cool a little and enjoy. There! You've made a delicious pour over and the world of manual brewing awaits!

Best enjoyed black but feel free to add anything to the brew - it's your coffee after all. If the coffee is too strong, add some more water to your cup and make a mental note to add less ground coffee with your next brew. If the coffee is too weak, do the opposite - add more ground coffee into your V60. 

Grind size plays a huge role in the overall extraction and satisfaction of the coffee. Too coarse and your coffee will flow through your brewer fast, leading to under extraction (sour notes). Too fine a grind will choke the filter and lead to over extraction bringing out bitter notes. Feel free to reach out to us for brewing tips any time and on any platform and we will do our best to help you out.

We hope you've learnt something from this and are excited to give manual brewing a shot!

As always, stay curious.

Purchase the Hario Pour Over Kit here:

https://bbcr.ca/collections/coffee-brewers-1/products/hario-pour-over-kit