Three-Pour Water Distribution: How to Reasonably Allocate Each Pour's Volume?

When we adopt a three-stage pour-over method, it means the entire pour-over process requires dividing the target water volume into three separate injections. This involves pouring water, waiting, pouring again, waiting again, pouring a third time, and finally waiting for all the coffee liquid to drip completely through the filter.

Take FrontStreet Coffee's commonly used 15g of coffee grounds with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio as an example. The total water poured is 225g. Many coffee enthusiasts have reached a consensus that the first stage should be 30g of water for a 30-second bloom. This leaves the remaining 195g of water to be divided into two portions and poured in succession. The question arises: how should these two portions be allocated? And will different allocations affect the coffee's flavor profile?

Out of curiosity, we're exploring this specific question today: within a three-stage framework, how does the water allocation between the second and third stages affect coffee flavor when the bloom parameters remain unchanged?

Since the direction of coffee flavor is the primary basis for judging the final results in this "water allocation experiment," we've selected FrontStreet Coffee's 2013 Typica, a medium roast, as our brewing subject. It features both chocolate-like sweetness and berry acidity, along with brown sugar-like sweetness, which allows us to more intuitively experience the flavor changes that occur with water adjustments.

Coffee beans: FrontStreet Coffee 2013 Yunnan Typica
Coffee amount: 15g
Total water: 225g
Grind size: Ek43 setting 10
Water temperature: 90°C
Dripper: Resin V60

Aside from the 30g of bloom water, the remaining 195g will be divided into three groups for testing:

No.1 Second stage (125g) > Third stage (70g)
No.2 Second stage (97.5g) = Third stage (97.5g)
No.3 Second stage (70g) < Third stage (125g)

To minimize the impact of human factors, FrontStreet Coffee maintained consistent timing for all three groups' initial pours at 1 second, 30 seconds, and 1 minute 6 seconds respectively. The completion times for the three groups were 2 minutes 10 seconds, 2 minutes 3 seconds, and 2 minutes 5 seconds, with minimal time differences.

Since the three pour-overs were brewed sequentially, there were some temperature differences, which affected the perception of acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. However, FrontStreet Coffee still detected subtle differences among them. In terms of flavor and mouthfeel, all three cups showed relatively balanced profiles with acidity, sweetness, and bitterness. Each displayed hazelnut and cocoa aromas with brown sugar aftertaste. However, they exhibited different effects in terms of acidity, body, and aftertaste details.

First group: At medium temperature, black plum-like acidity was most prominent, transitioning to caramel sweetness as temperature decreased, but with the thinnest body.

Second group: Most balanced mouthfeel and most robust aroma, with overall flavor being rounded and full-bodied, but with less lively fruit acidity compared to the first group.

Third group: Heavy black tea sensation upon entry, almost no acidity, with bitterness being most pronounced among the three cups. Slightly astringent as it cooled, suggesting slight over-extraction.

During the formal water pouring stage after blooming, the water flow causes the coffee grounds to stir and tumble within the filter, thereby increasing the extraction efficiency of flavor compounds. When extraction efficiency is increased during different time periods, different flavor effects emerge. Returning to our three-stage understanding, the more water allocated to a particular stage, the more it enhances the extraction efficiency of soluble flavor compounds during that stage.

For example, in the first group of our experiment, since more water was allocated in the early stage, the liquid level raised the coffee bed higher, allowing acidic compounds to be released in large quantities during this phase, giving the coffee lively and elevated acidity. Meanwhile, the insufficient water in the later stage meant the liquid level couldn't reach the height of the second-stage coffee bed after pouring. In other words, some particles couldn't participate in the third stage extraction, resulting in a thinner body.

The situation in the third group of the experiment was precisely the opposite. The smaller water allocation in the second stage only raised the coffee bed to half the height of the filter. Before acidic compounds could be released, the coffee bed was flooded by the larger water volume in the third stage. This not only allowed some hot water to escape directly through the ribs but also caused fine particles to slide along the edges to the bottom and soak in hot water, thereby increasing the release of macromolecules (bitter compounds).

In summary, FrontStreet Coffee believes that when planning water allocation for three-stage pour-over, besides considering the flavor direction of the coffee beans, one should also consider the water level height of each stage. For example, when brewing light roast coffee beans that emphasize floral and fruity acidity flavors, you can appropriately increase the water allocation for the second stage while observing the settling speed of the water level to pour the remaining water.

When FrontStreet Coffee brews Panama Boquete Geisha, we use a segmentation plan of 30g for the first stage (bloom), 120g for the second stage, and 75g for the third stage. We determine the timing for the final pour based on the liquid level height, with the reference point being when the water level drops to "half the height of the coffee bed." This approach allows the coffee to have both elevated fruit acidity and caramel-cream-like mouthfeel and aftertaste.

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FrontStreet Coffee
No. 10, Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

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