How to Make Good Coffee at Home - V60

July 1, 2022

In this guide, Leicester Coffee House Barista and resident pour over expert Zoe, gives her tips on how to get the best out of your Hario V60 brewer.

What you will need:

Scales
Coffee beans
Grinder
V60 pour over brewer
V60 filter papers
Hot water
Timer/ stop watch

For this recipe, we will be using 17 grams of coffee and 265 grams of hot water. You can adjust the quantities according to the amount of coffee you would like to end up with by using the ratio 1g of coffee to 15g of water.

Weigh out 17g of coffee beans, grind them to a medium fine grind. (Unless you already have pre-ground coffee)
Place a filter paper in the v60 and then pour hot water through the filter to rinse the paper and preheat the brewer. Discard the water after and boil your kettle again.
Add your ground coffee to the brewer, shaking gently to make sure the coffee grounds are evenly distributed.
If you are using scales, place your brewer on top of the scales and have your hot water ready to start pouring. However if you are not using scales then just measure 265ml of hot water but don’t let it get too cool, we are aiming for water just off the boil and up to 95°C.
Start pouring hot water slowly into the middle of the coffee - enough to just cover the grounds. Swirl to make sure all the grounds are wet. Leave for 30 seconds to bloom (this allows the coffee to release gasses before all the water is added).
After the 30 second bloom(a period of time that we let the coffee pre-infuse and release gasses), continue to pour hot water slowly in concentric circles starting in the middle and slowly working your way to the sides of the V60. Do not pour too much water on the sides of the V60 as this will enable it to bypass the coffee grounds and go straight into the carafe/cup and ultimately diluting your coffee.
Once all 265ml of water has been poured through the coffee grounds and the coffee bed is dry then your brew is complete.
Depending on the coffee and the grind size, this should take between 3-4 minutes.
Final step is to enjoy your tasty coffee and figure out if you got the best out of it or if there’s room for improvement!

Tips:

If the brew took less than 3 minutes and is tasting quite astringent (unbalanced acidity, slightly harsh) then that means your coffee is under-extracted. You will need to grind your coffee beans slightly finer next time to ensure more extraction.
If the brew takes longer than 4 minutes and 30 seconds and is also tasting unbalanced by bitterness then it has over-extracted. You can grind slightly coarser next time.
I highly recommend getting scales because it make the whole brewing process a lot more consistent and with the amount of variables pour over coffee can have, its always best to reduce the number of variables if you can.
Use coffee beans instead of pre-ground coffee. This increases freshness and quality of your brew. A hand grinder is a simple step up from pre-ground coffee - they are very affordable and will give you more control than pre-ground coffee would.
If you want to go the extra mile, you can experiment with your pour frequency and bloom times. You can find more information about the effects these little changes can make to your brewing in our other blog linked here Manual Brewing - Making Quality Coffee at Home – Leicester Coffee House Company.

Zoe Da Silva Sweetman, Barista, Leicester Coffee House Company