How to brew the perfect V60
The V60 is one of the most common conical paper drippers in the world — and there is a reason for that. Its simple shape lets every cup taste different in your hands, as long as the brewer pays attention to the details.
01 · What you need
- Beans:Freshly ground, 15 grams, medium-coarse.
- Filter:Paper, unbleached — Hario or Cafec.
- Water:250 grams, filtered, ~92–94 °C.
- A scale accurate to 0.1 g, plus a timer.
- A gooseneck kettle — the key to controlling the pour.
Coffee is 98 percent water — so the water is extremely important and can affect how the coffee tastes.
02 · The recipe
Bring the kettle to 94 °C. Pour 80 g of water through the filter to rinse the paper taste. Tip that water into the cup — it will pre-heat it.
Add 15 g of ground coffee. Tare the scale to zero. Pour 45 g of water — twice the coffee mass. Wait 30 seconds.
Pour up to 150 g in slow concentric circles. Do not touch the paper. Let the water drop to the level of the bed.
Top up to 250 g total. Swirl the dripper gently to even out the bed.
Total time: 2:45–3:15. Faster than that — grind finer. Slower — grind coarser.
What to expect
A well-brewed V60 tastes clear and sweet — you pick out individual notes instead of one generic "coffee" body. If the cup is bitter, you over-extracted. If it is flat and sour, you under-extracted.
The one universal truth here: change one thing at a time. Adjust three parameters at once and you will not know which one moved the cup.