Our Unconventional Pour-Over Brew Guide
As a multi-roaster cafe, our brew recipes is ever-changing and heavily influenced by the diverse beans and roasting styles of our roaster partners — each bringing their own distinct flavor profiles, as well as many brewing variables that come into play when it comes to brewing.
Our goal with this somewhat lengthy guide isn't just to outline the steps of brewing, but to highlight the reasoning behind different brewing decisions. By understanding these fundamentals, you'll be well-equipped to enjoy and master brewing our rotating selection of exceptional coffees from around the world!
To Start
As a basis for brewing lightly roasted coffee, we strongly suggest that you consider these factors to ensure the best tasting cup that highlights the characteristics the roasters and farmers strive to achieve.
In terms of basic brewing setup and preparation, we recommend the following:
Grinder
Using a burr grinder to freshly ground your coffee before brewing (assuming the coffee is optimally rested).
Water
Using clean, filtered water, with an ideal PPM of 50-150.
For bottled water, we tested Crystal Geyser to be closest. Do not use distilled or pure-RO water as it’s too soft to extract coffee properly.
Measure
Using a timer and scale to ensure precision of brew ratio and time.
Kettle
Using a temperature controlled gooseneck kettle. You can also use stovetop gooseneck kettle 30-120 seconds off boil, but using a thermometer for precise temperature readings will be helpful.
Factors To Consider
Resting Period
A lot of factors play into how we brew our coffee, especially the amount of time the coffee has had to rest. Waiting for the beans to “degas” after roasting so a good amount of CO2 dissipates — is imperative especially for lighter roast coffees. Proper resting ensures that “roast-y” flavors are mostly gone by the time you brew the coffee, as well as not having excessive gasses in the coffee cell structures to interfere with proper extraction.
You should follow the roasters recommendation for how long to rest your coffee, but it is typically optimally enjoyed between 10 and 42 days post the roast date. In some rare cases, usually for ultra light roasts, roasters recommend extended rest periods upwards of 60 to 90 days.
In general, the more well-rested a coffee is, the more it can take (and even welcomes) more aggressive extractions, such as hotter water or finer grind.
Roasting Style
We also heavily consider where and who roasted the coffee, as the geographical location and cultural biases of a roaster's market impact the decisions they make. For example, a Nordic roaster typically roasts much lighter than an American or Asian roaster, whether it be due to historical influences or simply the type of coffee their local audiences typically enjoy.
For Nordic coffees from some of our roasting partners like Prolog, Tim Wendlboe, April, and Koppi, we might grind finer, use hotter water, and/or use longer ratios so that we can fully extract these lighter beans, which are harder to extract due to higher density as well as lower solubility from less roasting.
For Japanese and other Asian roasts from some of our roasting partners like Leaves Coffee, Bean Barn, and Coffee County, we might use cooler water, and/or use shorter ratios, as the beans can be sometimes more developed roast-wise, resulting in coffees that tend to be more easily extracted.
Origin and Processing
With all that being said, the most important factor when approaching a brew method is the actual coffee that you’re brewing with. Especially with the April Brewer — our cafe’s dripper of choice — understanding the processing and origin of the coffee assists us greatly with how we want to brew our coffee, especially since a brewer like the April is a ‘slower’ brewer and the draw-down time is very sensitive to varying degrees of bean density,
Generally, higher elevation coffees will be denser than lower elevation. Washed coffees will be denser than natural, which will be denser than heavily-fermented coffees (anaerobic, co-ferment etc.). Denser coffees generally warrants more aggressive parameters than less-dense ones.
The “Baseline” Recipe
Our recipe is specific to April Brewer, subjective to our preferred flavor, and highly fluid depending on the coffee we’re brewing — that’s why internally we call this the “Baseline” recipe. As such, it should be used as a suggestive starting point, and you should definitely adjust and brew according to your own preferences!
Ratio
15 grams of coffee : 240g of water (1:16)
Grind Size
Medium fine grind (judge by draw-down time)
Water temperature
Nordic roasters — 93-95 degrees celsius, going up to 100 degrees if necessary
Asian roasters — starting at 90-92 degrees celsius.
*Rinse the paper filter and dispose the water to get rid of potential paper flavor
0m00s - 45g, fast circular pour, saturating all the grounds
0m45s - 150g, 50g circular pour, 50g center pour (roughly 5g per second)
1m25s - 240g, 50g circular pour, 50g center pour (roughly 5g per second)
End ~ 2:30 to 3:00
Dial-in By Taste
Generally, when your coffee tastes sour, lacking sweetness, or weirdly salty, you could grind finer for more extraction, and if your coffee tastes bitter and muddy, you could grind coarser for less extraction.
One thing to note on the April brewer though — you can actually easily manipulate the extraction without adjusting grind, and focusing on pouring structure — slower circular pours to increase contact time, and faster center pours to accelerate drawdown.
We suggest starting with changing the pour structure first to see if it gets you there, as adjusting grind size is actually quite a big change to the entire brew dynamic, and sometimes can be finicky with less capable grinders with more inconsistencies and ground retention.
Additional Notes and Tips
Drinking Temperature
Most specialty-level coffees that are skillfully light-roasted tastes even better when cooled. Leave your coffee on the table for a bit before you judge how your brew turned out.
Brew Time
Though the estimated brew time is 2:30 to 3:00, we use this only to assist us with tracking consistency, and never an overly important factor in our dial-in. Some (especially washed) coffees can drain much slower, up to 4 minutes brew time, and still taste clean and delicious. Conversely, a natural processed coffee can drain as quick as 2 minutes, with equally good results.
Triaging
If your coffee is draining very slowly we suggest using a longer and more aggressive center pour, and vice versa.
If your coffee is tasting light and watery, we suggest pouring slower and using a smaller ratio (1:15) to increase the intensity of flavor and a more concentrated body.
If your coffee is tasting muddy and bitter, we suggest pouring slightly faster, and potentially using coarser grind size with a larger ratio (1:17) to extract less and create a more open-tasting cup.
Lastly, don’t be afraid to experiment! We’ve had amazing coffees anywhere between 1:12 to 1:20 ratios. We’ve had initially mediocre-tasting coffee taste amazing when diluted with by-pass water. Nothing’s “wrong” especially when brewing at home as long as you’ve created a cup of coffee that you enjoy!