Patrik Rolf Pour-Over Coffee Brewing Method - How to Make Light Roast Sour Coffee Taste Delicious

Patrik Rolf's Pour-Over Coffee Method: A Beginner-Friendly Approach

Pouring techniques, timing judgments, and balancing various parameters are challenges that must be overcome when learning pour-over coffee. Even the three-stage method recommended by FrontStreet Coffee as most suitable for beginners still requires some experience in controlling water flow and judging pouring timing. However, the brewing method shared by FrontStreet Coffee today can overlook these issues. Even if you're brewing for the first time, as long as you follow the brewing method, you can make delicious coffee.

This method was shared by Patrik Rolf, founder of the Norwegian coffee brand April, who himself was the runner-up in the 2019 World Brewers Cup Championship.

Patrik has a unique and systematic understanding of coffee roasting and brewing. As FrontStreet Coffee introduces his brewing method today, it's clearly different from traditional methods, but undeniably practical.

Brewing Method Overview

First, let's briefly explain Patrik's brewing plan. The filter cup used is the Origami dripper paired with trapezoidal filter paper as the filtering equipment, which is the core of the entire brewing plan. (FrontStreet Coffee tried replacing it with similar filter cups or filter paper, but directly copying the parameters wasn't feasible - parameters needed adjustment to achieve the same results.)

This brewing method is suitable for a wide range of conventionally processed light roast coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee tested commonly available light roast coffee beans on the market, and they all performed well with this brewing method.

Brewing Parameters

In terms of parameters, use 12g of coffee grounds with 200ml of water (approximately 1:16.7 coffee-to-water ratio), at a water temperature of 94 degrees Celsius. The grind size should be relatively coarse (65-70% retained on a #20 sieve - this is the coarseness that FrontStreet Coffee typically uses for three-stage brewing of dark roast coffee).

Pouring Technique

The pouring method is truly simple, divided into just two stages. In the first stage, pour 100ml of water in about 10 seconds, so the water flow will be quite large. At this point, you don't need to deliberately control the water flow - just pour boldly, keeping the circular motion within a small central circle.

Normally, around the 50-second to 1-minute mark, the coffee liquid in the filter cup will finish dripping. The coffee bed will show a central depression with thick powder walls surrounding it, forming a "bowl" shape.

The second pour begins at the 1-minute mark. This pour is also 100ml of water, starting from the powder wall to wash away the surrounding powder walls, then slowly circling back to the center point. This second pour ends around the 1-minute 20-second mark. Again, there's no need for deliberate water flow control - even if you accidentally pour onto the filter paper, it's fine.

The remaining time is left for the filter cup to drip on its own. It basically finishes dripping around 2 minutes 40 seconds, but in Patrik's sharing, it's recommended to wait until 3 minutes before removing the filter cup. On one hand, this ensures parameter consistency; on the other hand, although the surface of the coffee bed appears dry, there's still a small amount of coffee liquid at the bottom that hasn't finished dripping, so waiting longer allows the coffee liquid to drip completely.

Tasting Results and Method Logic

Perhaps looking at this brewing method alone gives a "summer brew" feeling, and the lack of a conventional blooming stage might easily raise questions. However, as soon as you try the coffee brewed with this method, you'll find it's very smooth and clean, and the coffee's natural fruit acidity and fruit sweetness are well expressed.

Let's briefly explain the logic behind Patrik's brewing method. Using the Origami with trapezoidal filter paper, on one hand, reduces the thickness of the coffee bed (including using a small 12g amount of coffee); on the other hand, the origami's folded structure adheres well to the filter paper, reducing water from flowing away even without powder walls.

The entire brewing process can be summarized in one sentence: "using extended time to improve the stability of uniform extraction." Of course, the parameter design must revolve around avoiding over-extraction. For example, the grind size is coarser than general brewing methods.

Understanding the "Non-Traditional" Bloom

While it seems there's no blooming stage, the first pour actually serves as an unconventional blooming stage. In our understanding of blooming, we use as little water as possible to wet the coffee grounds and release gases. Patrik's method, however, uses 100ml of water for "blooming" with a duration of up to 1 minute. This approach, on one hand, achieves complete blooming - thoroughly ensuring all gases from the coffee grounds are released; on the other hand, the excess coffee liquid that drips out during the first stage extracts the bright acidity of the coffee.

The second 100ml pour then serves as a long-steeping uniform extraction to adjust concentration, enhance sweetness, and ensure body.

Conclusion

This brewing method is not a universally applicable one, nor is it a conventional approach. However, the brewing data provided by Patrik is highly suitable for brewing light roast coffee. Even beginners can perfectly replicate the brewing parameters to make delicious coffee. Importantly, the requirement for water flow control skills is virtually zero.

Important Notice :

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