Brewing Tips

Need some tips to get the best flavor out of your coffee?

We’ve provided some tips below to help you get the best flavor out of your coffee with different brewing methods. One thing to remember is that you can make a great brew without having to buy a ton of fancy equipment and supplies. Do your best with what you’ve got, what you can tweak, and what you can afford!

Pour Over Tips

  • Water quality matters! If you’ve got some bad tasting water, you will have a bad tasting cup of coffee. Good tasting filtered water is a great start.

  • Rinse your paper filter before use. Before you brew your coffee, rinse your filter with hot water. This rinses out the paper residue that often adds a woodsy flavor to your coffee.

  • Start with a medium grind. If your coffee particles look like the same coarseness as sand, that’s a good place to start. If your brew tastes sour, try a finer grind. If your brew tastes bitter, try a coarser grind. Use the best grinder you have available that can give you a consistent grind size.

  • Start with a good ratio. As a general rule, try a 1:17 coffee to water ratio. You can add or take away grams or adjust grind size to get the right flavor. If you want to avoid using math, you can use this Coffee Ratio Calculator (though they use a 1:16 ratio, but that’s close enough). Here are some sample sizes using a 1:17 ratio:

    • 8oz/1 cup/237 grams of water: use 14 grams of coffee.

    • 10oz/296 grams of water: use 17 grams of coffee.

    • 12oz/355 grams of water: use 21 grams of coffee.

    • 16oz/473 grams of water: use 28 grams of coffee.

  • Practice your pour. The first pour should just saturate all of the beans, and then you should wait about 30-45 seconds for the CO2 gasses to release from the beans (the “bloom”). After the bloom, pour water in slow and steady spirals to make sure all of the beans are getting the flavor extracted. You’ll want to keep the beans wet at all times until you finish. Check to see how long it takes for the water to get through the beans - if it’s too long, you will be extracting too much from the beans and will have a bitter cup. If it’s too short, you won’t be extracting enough from the beans. A gooseneck kettle makes the pour easier, but you can use any kettle to do this.