How to Customize Your Pour-Over Coffee Brewing Method? What Are the 4 Key Detail Parameters?

Many coffee enthusiasts have their own brewing habits, and when visiting FrontStreet Coffee and seeing so many different coffee beans, some friends vow to try every single bean on FrontStreet Coffee's menu.

When many friends purchase a coffee bean they're not familiar with, they suddenly don't know how to brew it and ask FrontStreet Coffee for the best brewing approach. FrontStreet Coffee takes this opportunity to share some brewing insights with everyone.

Know Yourself and Know Your Coffee

Know Yourself: Understanding Your Brewing Habits

Most people tend to develop inertia - once accustomed to a brewing method, it becomes difficult to change. This isn't about completely transforming your approach, but rather when you find a method that works well for a particular bean, you tend to use those same parameters and techniques for brewing various coffee beans. The important thing to note is that not all coffee beans are suitable for brewing with fixed parameters.

Know Your Coffee: Understanding Coffee Beans

This is about our understanding of coffee beans. When facing a coffee bean you've never tasted or brewed before, observing the label information is the fastest way to get to know it. In pour-over coffee, adjusting brewing parameters mainly depends on the roast level of the coffee bean - simply put, understanding whether it's light, medium, or dark roast. Since many coffee bean labels don't directly indicate the roast level, FrontStreet Coffee suggests you can glean some information from the flavor description.

You can categorize flavor descriptions into the following types:

Floral and Fruit Acidity:

White floral, yellow floral, purple floral, citrus fruits, berry fruits, tropical fruits

Sweetness:

Honey, cane sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, caramel

Spices, Nuts, Cocoa, and Bitterness:

Nuts, cocoa and dark chocolate, cinnamon, pine aromas

Fermented Aromas:

Various wine aromas, fermented fruit flavors, lactic acid

When the flavor descriptions on coffee bean labels mostly belong to floral and fruit acidity, fermented aromas, or honey and cane sugar sweetness, they basically fall into the light roast category.

When descriptions are mainly dominated by brown sugar sweetness, supplemented by cocoa, dark chocolate, or weak fruit acidity, they basically belong to the medium roast category.

When coffee flavor descriptions are mainly dominated by spices, nuts, cocoa, and bitterness, they basically belong to the dark roast category.

Therefore, by observing flavor descriptions, you can determine whether it's a highly acidic light roast, a balanced medium roast, or a rich dark roast. This allows you to make corresponding parameter adjustments.

Secondly, observe the origin, region, and altitude on the coffee label. Different origins and regions have their unique flavor characteristics. For example, both Kenya and Ethiopia are known for acidity, but Ethiopian coffee tends toward light citrus acidity, while Kenya exhibits acidity with strong body. Although brewing these two beans with the same parameters wouldn't cause major issues, optimization can better express the characteristics of each bean.

Altitude is a standard that reflects the hardness of beans. For example, relatively low-altitude Brazilian beans are softer than high-altitude Ethiopian beans, so this requires targeted calibration of grind size when grinding.

Processing method can also reveal some information. For example, anaerobic processed coffees are basically never dark roasted, and brewing anaerobic processed coffee beans requires parameter recalibration. For example, in terms of grind size, if normal coffee uses grind setting 'a' to produce grind size 'x', then to achieve grind size 'x' with anaerobic beans, you need to adjust to a setting finer than 'a'.

Brewing Parameter Adjustments

After learning to master coffee bean information, FrontStreet Coffee will briefly explain brewing parameter adjustments (data is not fixed or absolute):

Coffee-to-Water Ratio:

Pour-over basically uses 1:15, which can be adjusted between 1:13-1:16 according to actual situation and personal preference. For those who like rich flavor, you can use 1:13; for those who prefer light, subtle aroma, you can use 1:16.

Grind Size:

If conditions allow, follow the principle of using a #20 sieve for calibration - that is, 75-80% pass-through for light to medium roasts, 70-75% for medium to dark roasts. If you don't want to use sieve calibration, you can refer to other methods.

Water Temperature:

Light roast: 90-93°C; Medium roast: 88-90°C; Dark roast: 86-88°C

For light roast, if you want sweeter coffee, you can use the higher end of the range; if you want to be more conservative, use the lower end of the range.

For medium roast, if it's natural processed coffee with rich sweetness, you can use the higher end of the temperature range; if it's washed processed, use the lower end of the temperature range.

For dark roast, 87-88°C is commonly used.

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473