Essential Pour-Over Coffee Knowledge! When to Add Water in Three-Stage Brewing? The Right Way to Brew Coffee!

The Art of Pour-Over Coffee: Understanding Multi-Stage Watering Techniques

Although the water pouring technique in pour-over coffee may seem quite simple, it actually contains many subtle details that can significantly affect the final taste. Therefore, people often pay attention to and explore various unique aspects of the brewing process. One point that has recently garnered attention is: when using multi-stage water pouring for coffee extraction, should we wait for the water to completely finish flowing before adding the next pour?

Understanding Multi-Stage Water Pouring

Before answering this question, and to ensure clarity for beginners, FrontStreet Coffee will first explain what multi-stage water pouring is. Multi-stage water pouring means dividing the total water volume (excluding the bloom) into multiple segments or pours. Since the bloom is designed to better enable subsequent hot water to extract substances from the coffee grounds, it has become an essential step in most brewing methods (though this depends on the specific situation). When using multi-stage brewing, there is a waiting period before each pour, allowing the previously poured water in the filter to fully drain.

This approach serves three main purposes: first, to allow hot water to better extract coffee grounds at the bottom; second, to prevent overflow due to insufficient filter capacity; and third, to extend the extraction time. So, returning to our main question, should we wait for the water to completely drain before pouring the next stage of hot water? Or should we follow what many bloggers suggest and pour the next stage when the water level is about to reach the bottom but hasn't completely drained?

Should You Wait for Water to Drain Between Stages?

The answer to this question is actually quite simple. We just need to understand the differences between these two approaches to determine the optimal timing for pouring. In fact, FrontStreet Coffee has already conducted relevant experiments, and interested readers can refer to previous articles. When using multi-stage pouring, if you wait until the water has completely drained before the next pour, the total extraction time will be extended compared to the original method. The extended time varies depending on the bean characteristics! When beans have higher density and are harder, they require more time to fully drain.

As we all know, time is also a factor that determines extraction efficiency. The longer the extraction time, the higher the extraction efficiency, and vice versa. Therefore, we can understand that this waiting period can somewhat alter the extraction rate of a cup of coffee. In FrontStreet Coffee's previous three sets of experiments, we used three-stage brewing, meaning we divided the water into two pours after the bloom, with a waiting period in between. The results showed that for anaerobic coffees, there was almost no impact because their drainage speed is faster, so waiting for complete drainage doesn't require much time—10 seconds is sufficient. The main impact was on conventionally processed beans, both light and dark roasts (which have more fine particles)!

Light roast coffee beans have high density and hard texture, requiring finer grinding to allow sufficient extraction of flavor compounds. Fine grinding reduces the gaps between coffee particles, slowing water penetration speed, so after completing the second pour, it takes more time for all the coffee liquid to drain, significantly extending the extraction time! Dark roast coffee, being more brittle, generates more fine particles despite using coarser grinding (poor grinder quality can also lead to excessive fine particles). Additionally, due to their loose structure and ease of extraction, they are more prone to over-extraction. Therefore, when using the method of waiting for complete drainage before the next pour, these types of coffee are more likely to become over-extracted due to the extended extraction time.

This is why FrontStreet Coffee always describes the brewing process in articles as "pour the next stage of hot water when the water level is about to reach the bottom." Because waiting for complete drainage is not suitable for all coffee beans! The extraction time will be extended, extraction temperature will change, and the margin for error becomes smaller.

Conclusion

However, FrontStreet Coffee isn't saying that the method of "waiting for complete drainage before pouring" can't be used—it just requires adjusting extraction parameters to improve the margin for error during extraction. After all, over-extraction occurs because the paired extraction parameters are too efficient and not properly matched! That's all there is to it~

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