How to Pour Water for Pour-Over Coffee? How Many Stages of Pouring Are Best? What's the Difference?

Why Does Pour-Over Coffee Require Segmented Pouring?

Currently, the mainstream pouring methods are divided into at least two stages. Why? Because... because they all need blooming! The first pour is for blooming, and subsequent pours extract the coffee substances, so at least two stages are needed. Just kidding! Most coffee enthusiasts are concerned with how many stages to use after blooming. If you pour all the water in one go after blooming, it's called "single-stream pouring" in the coffee community. If you divide it into three pours after blooming, it's called "three-stream pouring." FrontStreet Coffee commonly uses a two-stage pouring method after blooming, called "three-stage brewing" (counting the bloom stage, and don't ask me why it's not called two-stream pouring!). How does the number of stages affect the coffee? With all other brewing parameters fixed, how much does the pouring method influence the coffee's flavor? FrontStreet Coffee compares single-stream, three-stage, and three-stream pouring methods using Panama Butterfly coffee beans.

Looking back at the brewing process, single-stream pouring involves pouring all water in one go after blooming, causing the coffee bed (liquid surface) to rise significantly. In contrast, the two-stage three-stage method and the three-pour three-stream method maintain relatively lower levels. Due to the V60 dripper's characteristics, when the liquid level rises above the short ribs of the V60, coffee liquid flows more quickly into the server below. Therefore, the most direct impact is on the brewing time. With identical brewing parameters, single-stream pouring completes extraction fastest, followed by three-stage pouring, with three-stream pouring taking the longest.

So how do we determine how many stages to use for coffee brewing? Since we now understand the flavor changes from segmented pouring, how should we judge how many stages to use in actual practice? Generally speaking, when brewing light to medium roasted coffee beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends segmented extraction. These coffees have relatively weaker degassing, so when the water level in the dripper rises to a certain point, the coffee grounds, lacking gas support, will sink and accumulate more at the bottom of the dripper. At this point, the scouring force of the water column will be dispersed by the rising water, and the coffee grounds cannot tumble properly, leading to under-extraction. This is especially true for some light roast beans, which are harder in nature and difficult to extract flavor compounds from. If all water is poured at once, brewing typically completes in about 1 minute and 20 seconds, with the remaining time spent waiting for the coffee to drip freely. Without the external force of stirring, the subsequently dripping coffee often tastes weak.

Some coffee enthusiasts enjoy continuing to pour water over the coffee bed after brewing to taste the tail liquid, often surprised by its floral and sweet notes. But thinking more deeply, isn't this simply evidence that not all the good flavors have been fully extracted from the coffee?

When brewing dark roast coffee, there is sufficient degassing to support the coffee particles, allowing a large portion to float in the upper layer. During brewing, they can rise with the water level, and continuous pouring keeps the coffee tumbling up and down. In this case, excessive segmented pouring is not recommended. Using one or two stages can better express the cleanliness and body of dark roast coffee.

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