7 Rookie Mistakes People Make When Brewing Pour-Over Coffee

Is your pour-over coffee bitter or watered-down? These are the reasons why.

Published April 11, 2024

·

Pour-over coffee is more prone to human error than any other coffee brewing method. Whether you’re using a Kalita, Hario, Chemex or another brewer, there are myriad ways you could be compromising your cup of joe. Here are the seven most common ways people mess it up.

1. You’re using pre-ground coffee

Oxygen is coffee’s greatest enemy. Grind your beans right before you’re about to start brewing. It may be more convenient to grind your beans the night before but doing so exposes the grinds to aggressive oxidation and off-gassing. This will warp the flavor of the brewed coffee.

Pour-Over-Gear-Patrol-Slide-4 — Even if you grind your own beans, doing so too far in advance can warp the taste of your coffee.

Pro tip: be sure to keep your whole beans in airtight containers — either the bag they came in or capsules like these from Fellow.

2. You’re not dialing in the grind size

Coffee ground size is not one size fits all. Pour-over coffee calls for a medium-coarse grind to ensure proper extraction. Grounds that are too fine will result in over-extracted, bitter coffee; grounds that are too coarse result in under-extracted, sour coffee.

A medium-coarse grind will look like sea salt, and different beans might require some fine-tuning to get a coffee that achieves your desired taste.

Pour-Over-Gear-Patrol-Slide-6 — Different beans require different grind sizes. Start with one that looks like sea salt and go from there.

3. You’re not rinsing the paper filter

You aren’t imagining that papery taste in your coffee. Chemexes, Hario V60s and other drippers that use paper filters can impart an unpleasant flavor if they aren’t rinsed first. You might not notice the papery flavor if you’re brewing a dark roast bean, but the unsavory flavor will be prominent in light roast brews.

Before you pour water to bean, place your filter in the dripper, pour over hot water and dump out the water that falls through. Plus, removing the papery taste with hot water is sort of a two-bird-one-stone situation, as you’ll see in our next section.

4. You’re not preheating the carafe

Brewing hot coffee into a cold container will result in lukewarm coffee once you’re ready to serve. Bringing your carafe (and mug, if you’re slightly crazy) up to temperature will make your coffee stay hotter for longer. You can accomplish this in the same step as rinsing your filter by using hot water for your rinse.

5. Your water is too hot

We all love our hot coffee, but if you’re using water that’s too hot, then you’re burning your coffee grounds.

Save yourself the disservice of drinking crap coffee by using water heated between 195°F and 205°F, per the Specialty Coffee Association’s recommended pour-over protocols.

Pour-Over-Gear-Patrol-Slide-9 — The Specialty Coffee Association’s recommends using water that’s between 195°F and 205°F for pour-over.

6. You’re rushing the brew process

In the morning, we all want coffee as fast as possible but a few extra steps will result in a better cup.

First, you have to “bloom” your coffee grounds before going all in. Blooming requires pouring double the volume of water to coffee grounds to let the gases in the coffee release. If you just start drowning the beans, the carbon dioxide bubbles coming out of the coffee will prevent water from getting to the grounds to extract properly. This can throw off flavors dramatically.

If you just start drowning the beans, the carbon dioxide bubbles coming out of the coffee will prevent water from getting to the grounds.

The next step is to get them agitated. After pouring the initial dose of water over the coffee, some grounds are going to clump up. Grab a spoon or chopstick and swirl the coffee and water to break up any clumps of grounds. (Just don’t stir too aggressively or you risk tearing the filter.)

Agitating the grounds will ensure there’s more contact between the water and the surface area of the grounds so your final cup tastes as intended.

7. Your pour is off

When you’re pouring water over the grounds, make sure you’re actually hitting the coffee bed. As the water level drops and coffee grounds stick to the sides of the filter, you may be tempted to aim the water kettle at those orphaned grounds on the edges of the filter. Don’t do that.

Any water that hits the side of the filter — or brewer — may slide straight down the side of the brewer into the brewed coffee below, making for a severely watered-down pot of joe.

To learn more about the differences between pour-over coffee makers, read our guide.