What are the differences between V60 models 01 and 02? Why does coffee brewed with increased dosage taste unpleasant? What are the causes of weak and flavorless coffee?

The Impact of Coffee Dosage Changes on Pour-Over Brewing

For most people, coffee dosage will be a relatively fixed parameter. After all, it doesn't need to be adjusted based on the roasting level of coffee beans, so under normal circumstances, we always use a fixed dosage for brewing.

But sometimes, when we suddenly need to increase the dosage for brewing, we might find that the resulting coffee tastes different from our usual brews! So why does this happen?

Changes in Coffee Bed Thickness

Anyone who has read the article "Why Does Single-Serve Pour-Over Always Use 15g?" will know that the difference in brewing is caused by changes in coffee bed thickness. Regardless of the shape of the dripper, increasing the amount of coffee grounds simultaneously increases the thickness of the coffee bed in the dripper. The more coffee grounds, the thicker the coffee bed. Let's look at a comparison of 15g and 20g of grounds in the same model of dripper.

A thicker coffee bed means hot water needs to pass through more coffee grounds to extract more substances. At the same time, due to increased resistance, hot water takes more time to pass through the coffee grounds. Therefore, when the dosage is increased to a certain level, if we continue using the original brewing method, we're likely to experience over-extraction due to extraction time being too long. Here, the brewing method refers to the water flow state during pouring! Large or small water flow, high or low water levels, etc.

Therefore, when increasing the dosage for brewing, we must pay attention to adjusting the water flow state. FrontStreet Coffee would recommend using a larger water flow to raise the coffee bed, thereby reducing the thickness of the coffee bed that hot water needs to penetrate, while also being able to spread the coffee grounds evenly in the dripper, allowing for more even extraction by hot water. This achieves two goals at once. However, it's important to note that the dripper's capacity is limited, so we cannot unlimitedly increase the dosage, which is also a factor why the coffee tastes different after increasing the dosage.

Dripper Limitations? How Much?

Drippers are not infinitely accommodating, which is why they have 01 and 02 distinctions. The 01 dripper is suitable for brewing 15-20g of coffee grounds (1-2 servings), while the 02 dripper is suitable for brewing 20-40g of coffee grounds (3-4 servings), double the capacity of the 01. What FrontStreet Coffee means by "limited" is not the dripper's capacity for grounds, but its capacity for water.

When brewing coffee, we divide the entire brewing process into several segments, which could be 2 or more. The reason for separating water pouring is not only for blooming but also to extend extraction time and because the dripper cannot accommodate too much water.

This is because the hot water we pour during brewing doesn't penetrate all at once but flows downward in an orderly manner, relying on gravity. During the penetration process, hot water needs to avoid the "obstacle" of coffee grounds, which means there's limited space for water to flow. If too much hot water is poured in a short time, it will cause water to accumulate. The increase in dosage will cause hot water to increase simultaneously according to the coffee-to-water ratio, so the same segments will require pouring more hot water due to the increased dosage, which can easily exceed the dripper's threshold.

An analogy might make this clearer: brewing with 15g and 25g of grounds, both using three-stage pouring, both with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and a V60 01 dripper. For 15g grounds, the second stage of the three-stage pour requires 50% of the total water, about 110ml. For 25g grounds, the second stage also requires 50% of the total water, but the amount needed is close to 190ml!

Assuming the drainage speed is relatively slow, 15g grounds plus 110ml of hot water would be at about the halfway point of the dripper, while 25g grounds plus 190ml of hot water would exceed the dripper's capacity threshold. If the hot water doesn't penetrate in time, it won't be possible to completely pour all the water in the second stage. At the same time, excess water will seep out from the top where there are multiple ribbed flow channels, creating bypass water! Ultimately, the coffee will likely taste both bitter and weak.

Therefore, if you don't want your coffee to end up in this situation, when increasing the dosage, you need to pay attention to using a suitable dripper. For example, with a V60, when using more than 20g of grounds, it's best to switch to the larger 02 model V60, which is the safest approach. For brewing around 20g of coffee grounds, you only need to change the water flow of your brew!

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473