How to Brew V60 Pour-Over Coffee
The V60 rewards precision more than any other brewer. This recipe — 15 g of coffee to 250 g of water — is a dependable starting point you can tune to any bag.
Step by step
- Rinse the filter and heat everything.Place the paper filter in the V60 and rinse it thoroughly with hot water, then discard the rinse water. This removes paper taste and preheats the brewer and your cup.
- Add coffee and level the bed.Grind 15 g medium-fine — around the texture of table salt. Add it to the filter, shake gently to level, make a small well in the center, and tare your scale.
- Bloom: 50 g of water for 45 seconds.Start the timer and pour 50 g of water in a spiral, wetting every ground. Gently swirl the brewer once. Trapped CO₂ escapes now instead of pushing water away from the coffee later. Wait until 0:45.
- Pour to 150 g by 1:15.Pour in slow, steady circles from the center outward until the scale reads 150 g, finishing around 1:15. Keep the flow gentle — aggressive pouring digs holes in the coffee bed.
- Pour to 250 g by 2:00, then swirl.Top up to 250 g by about 2:00, then give the V60 one final gentle swirl so the bed settles flat. A flat bed means even extraction.
- Let it draw down.Drawdown should finish between 2:30 and 3:30. If you land far outside that window, adjust your grind (see the fixes below) and taste the difference next brew.
Troubleshooting
| The cup tastes… | What happened | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Bitter, drying, harsh | Over-extraction — water and coffee were in contact too long or too hot | Grind coarser; drop water temperature ~2°C; pour a little faster |
| Sour, thin, grassy | Under-extraction — the water left before it finished its job | Grind finer; use water just off the boil; make sure the bloom wets every ground |
| Slow drawdown (>4:00) | Grind too fine, or fines clogging the filter | Grind coarser; pour more gently to avoid stirring up fines |
| Weak but not sour | Ratio too wide for your taste | Try 1:15 (15 g : 225 g) before reaching for more coffee |
Common questions
What is the best coffee-to-water ratio for V60?
Start at 1:16.7 — 15 g of coffee to 250 g of water — then adjust to taste. Most specialty recipes fall between 1:15 (stronger) and 1:17 (lighter). Changing the ratio changes strength; changing the grind changes extraction.
What water temperature should I use for pour-over?
92–96°C (198–205°F). Use the top of that range for light roasts, which are harder to extract, and the lower end for dark roasts. If you don't have a temperature kettle, boil and wait 30 seconds.
Why does my V60 taste bitter?
Bitterness almost always means over-extraction: the grind is too fine, the water too hot, or the brew too long. Coarsen the grind one step and taste again — one variable at a time.
Do I really need a gooseneck kettle?
For V60, it helps more than any other brewer — pour control directly affects agitation and evenness. A scale matters even more, though: repeatable doses and pours are what make a recipe tunable.
Keep brewing
Brew it, then remember it
Sola Coffea has this recipe as a guided, timed brew — follow the steps, then save the result straight into your coffee journal with grind, ratio, and tasting notes.
Download Sola Coffea freeWritten by the Sola Coffea team. Last reviewed July 2026.