Today I decided to release publicly one of the V60 videos from my Patreon. I plan to make a better quality video eventually for my blog, but in the meantime I thought this would be interesting to a wider audience. Please view this recent post I made about what is going on with Patreon if you are worried that I’m making some of my content access-restricted, and this previous blog post explains the method I use here in more details.
You can find a higher-resolution version of this video here, but be warned that it is 1.2 GB large !
In this video I’m brewing Gardelli’s Ethiopian natural Chiriku with a 1:17 ratio and 22 grams dose. I used grind setting 6.8, slightly finer than my usual 7.0@700RPM, because last time I brewed this coffee, it felt a bit watery. Turns out I preferred it at 6.8, and I rarely get astringency at that grind setting. I’ll tell you more about that in a different post, but I now suspect that the average mass of coffee particles is an important factor that determines channeling, because it has a lot to do with the structural integrity of the coffee bed. I therefore suspect that there is a lower limit in grind size that will get you some astringency very easily for a fixed brew technique; it corresponds to the point where channels are being dug by water. Most of the time I still use a 7.0 grind setting, just to be sure.
You will notice in this video that I spin a bit harder than I used to. This is partly because I was being too gentle especially in the first video, but it is also because I realized I have so little fines with the EG-1 grinder + SSP ultra low-fines burrs that fines migration is not as much of an issue compared to other grinders. I suggest to start very gentle, and then try more brews (with the same coffee) where you gradually spin a bit harder. If your brew time goes up significantly, then you might want to go a little easier to avoid fines migrating to the bottom of the brewer. You’ll have to find your own pace, as I suspect it depends (slightly) on the grinder you’re using; in general, a higher quality grinder should allow you to spin a bit harder.
I had pre-rinsed my Hario tabless filter before starting the video, first with a lot of tap water and then with a bit of warm brew water. The kettle was also preheated at 189F before I started the video. My pours will all be made with boiling water, but preheating it at 189F means I’ll have to wait less when I’m ready to pour. The first thing I do is weight and grind my beans – I weighed 22.3 grams and ground 1-2 beans to make sure nothing was stuck on the grinder burrs from yesterday’s brew. I then cleaned up my blind shaker and placed it back on for the main grind.
You’ll notice that during the bloom pour, I don’t concentrate too much on my pour technique: I move horizontally a bit too fast and I also move vertically which I ideally shouldn’t. Instead, I make sure I have high flow and to stop at the right amount. My goal here is to wet everything quickly rather than immediately getting a perfectly level bed. I’m also giving it a much more thorough spin after that pour because I found that helps with getting everything wet at once.
You can see that I spent a short amount of time removing the high & dry grounds with my pours, but otherwise I described a very slow flower pattern that hits the center more often than the sides. I’m trying to get the whole bed agitated by doing that, with more focus on the center because there’s more layers of coffee there. I move very slowly because I want the water to fall very straight (this helps getting a flat coffee bed), and I don’t move vertically. I try to get a very steady flow too, but that’s the part I’m still the worst at without the ability to measure it on-the-go.
When I spin after the first pour to 200 grams, you can see that two bubbles appeared. That is generally not a good sign, as it means some brew water just touched dry coffee. The fact that it happens while I was spinning tells me that I probably just destroyed a channel and forced the water to flow through dry coffee. That doesn’t mean the brew will necessarily be bad, but it means I could have done a better job during the bloom phase. It happens to me 5 times in the last 14 brews, so about a third of the time. This is one reason why I’d really like to have a plastic V60 brewer with a steep & release mechanism (I know about the Clever but I don’t like its shape); it would allow me to stop water from flowing during the bloom, and probably give me enough time & control that I would be comfortable with mixing the bloom with a small spoon.
If you wonder why I tap the cork lid before putting it on the V60, it’s not from an obsessive compulsive disorder, but rather to make sure that there’s no coffee grounds on it (or at least I like to tell myself that).
Notice how clear the water is at the end of the drawdown. This is because the EG-1 with SSP burrs produces a crazy small amount of fines at the optimal V60 grind size. It reminds me of when I experimented with the Melodrip, but now I get even after having agitated the coffee bed. If you pay attention at the end you’ll see that I stop the scale’s timer exactly when the reflection of light from water above the coffee bed ceases because water just went below the height of the coffee bed. I like to use this cue because it’s very repeatable, and it might help you compare your own brew times with mine more precisely.
At the end of the brew, I let the V60 drip a bit more into the beverage, then I place the V60 on top of a small glass and gently move it up and down to get a few more drips and measure the approximate TDS of the slurry at the end of the brew.
After that, I clean up the refractometer and measure the beverage TDS, but I make sure to taste it before looking at the TDS measurement, otherwise I found that it can affect my taste perception. Also notice how I mix the brew with a spoon before sampling it; this is better at mixing up all coffee layers than just spinning the brew.
I know the ending is a bit abrupt, sorry about that – my iPhone ran out of storage ! You just missed the brew TDS measurement. I’m starting to be more satisfied with this angle of view, so I’ll start thinking about how I can make a more complete brew video that I can eventually publish on my blog. I’ll make sure I don’t wear slippers for that one.
Here are the relevant measurements for this brew:
- Coffee: Gardelli Chiriku Ethiopian Natural
- Grind size: 6.8 at 700 RPM
- Ratio: 1:17
- Dose: 22 grams
- Water: 374 grams
- Bloom water weight: 77 grams
- Time at the end of first pour (200 grams): 1:08
- Time where second pour is initiated: 1:45
- Time at the end of second pour (374 grams): 2:20
- Total brew time: 4:03
- Beverage weight: 319.9 grams
- TDS of last drops: 0.94 %
- TDS of beverage: 1.43%
- Approximate EY (percolation equation): 20.8 %
- More accurate EY (general equation): 22.4%
I hope you enjoyed it, and don’t hesitate to leave a comment if you have questions.
I’d like to thank Scott Rao for his tremendous help in improving my pour over technique. The method above is also strongly inspired from his method !
Coffee ad Astra 
Oops the embedded video is dead
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What browser are you using ? It works for me on Safari and Chrome on OS X and iOS. Are you sure you gave it enough time to load ?
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The video on the page also doesn’t work for me in either IE11, Edge or Chrome
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Thank you, I’ll look into this. Maybe it’s because it’s a .mov file.
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I just switched it to a .mp4 file, that might fix it for you. If it still doesn’t try emptying your website cache and try again (or use a cache-less safe/private mode to test).
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I think the video might not have worked for Windows users because it was a .mov. I just switched it to .mp4, that might fix it for you.
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Dear Jonathan,
I have to admit that I LOVED your pouring style. I -of course- tried it -not with Gardelli but with a decent Colombia Supremo- right away. It resulted well. The method that you use -holing?- was quite impressive. How do you think scooping affect your coffee in terms of aroma and consistence?
Also what is the best way to pour for you if taken scientifically? Some make it turbinal, some finish it in the middle and some finish it on the side wall and explain it with the inside pattern/form of V60.
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I’m glad to hear that. The hole-shaped bed is an idea I’ve seen used on Barista Hustle, and it helps tremendously with getting the bottom of the coffee bed wet right away. If you mean scooping out of the bag, it might preserve your coffee freshness better than pouring because more CO2 will remain in the bag. It might be true of some volatile coffee aromas too, but I don’t know. As for pouring pattern, my goals are (1) get high & dry grounds in the brew; this justify sometimes hitting the filter but I rarely need to; (2) agitate the coffee bed well, which means I pour about uniformly on the surface first then slightly more toward the center near the end, because that’s where the coffee is; (3) don’t move horizontally too fast because this will cause a slanted coffee bed, so the same solution as #2 works well; (4) stay at the same height always, to be more repeatable and get a better control of your agitation. I if went up and down starting at this height, it would probably splatter for example.
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Btw Ray Muraka shared an awesome video on his IG where he shows fast horizontal spiral movements of the kettle cause a slanted coffee bed whereas center pouring doesn’t as much. I think you don’t need to just center pour, moving slowly is enough.
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Jonathan,
Thanks very much for the V60 video. For me, interesting and instructive. Used it successfully this morning with Hario 03 dripper and filter, 30 gm coffee, and 500 ml water.
Louis
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Great to hear. With 30 grams you’ll probably get a longer brew time, and it will be harder to agitate the full bed of coffee. Maybe do a 1:00 bloom instead of 0:45 and make sure you pour from high enough to get lots of agitation (but no splatter).
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Thanks so much for that advice. I’ll take it.
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Hi Jonathan, You might be pleased to know that Hario have just released a V60 with steep & release, the “switch” brewer, only seems to be in glass, but the mechanism should aloe suffcint preheating.
Have you been able to determine relationship of burr gap to median particle size with your app?
Best regards, Mark.
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Yes I heard about it, it’s fantastic ! I didn’t know that you can remove the glass V60, now that I heard this I ordered one and I’ll remove the base of a plastic V60 to use it with it. I don’t yet have enough data for it but I plan to do so. First tests show me that the peak is a little larger than burr spacing, which makes sense (flat particles can have a larger surface and exit the burrs), but this also depends on RPM. I know that higher RPM = finer peak, and I suspect that at the highest RPM we’ll get particle sized close to the burr spacing. It’s even possible that particles will be more spherical at higher RPM
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Is light vertical tapping (with water inside the brewer) a good thing for killing possible water channels and even out the coffee bett or do fines also migrating to the bottom of the brewer and I should avoid it?
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It should work for channels, but I’m pretty sure it’s not as good to level the bed. Scott also seems to think shaking/tapping causes more fines migration, but I have not verified that myself.
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Great Video! I am just wondering what setting you would use on BG for this method, if you have aligned it and re-zeroed it on 1m. And one more question, the spin would minimize the channeling of water, but is there any possible that the water would pass by through the V60 wall (more like channeling)?
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I’d use 6L for that with the Hario tabless filters, a bit coarser with the tabbed filters. I don’t think there will be much more water bypass when you spin. There is always some, but it doesn’t affect extraction uniformity anyway. In the extreme it would just lower the TDS more than you’d like.
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I’d probably be around 6L in that scenario. I don’t think spinning significantly affects water bypass around the filter (I wouldn’t call it channeling because it doesn’t extract anything).
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A plastic V60 retains the temperature better than glass, ceramic or metal. Since metal transfers heat so well, could the grounds be more evenly heated and extracted than in the others?
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Water is also a great heat conductor, so I highly doubt there’s any significant difference in temperature across the slurry with any time of V60 material
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Thanks for the video. A question I have is do you pour counter clockwise and agitate clockwise?
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Clockwise if you’re in the Northern hemisphere, anti clockwise if you’re in the Southern hemisphere. And if you’re at the equator, do a heavy vertical up-and-down motion.
I’m joking 😂 the direction of rotation probably has no effect – I do clockwise but I really don’t think it matters. It’s possible that the Hario V60 directional markings may favor one side, but I’d be surprised. Which hemisphere you are in has zero effect unless your V60 has the size of an olympic pool.
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I have been using Scott’s technique for quite a while. Your technique though really resonates with my preferences. Using a spoon, stirring the slurry can become a bit involving.
A question I have for you is: Have you jerking instead of spinning? Involves less movement.
I’d also like to give you a piece of information, I came across a dripper that was being used in a cafe here in Cyberjaya, MY. I brewed using that dripper a few times. I feel that I find it easier to get a flat bed in that dripper than in V60. It is a product from a company called Hero, probably from China I believe. The internal walls are textured like a turtle back. With that dripper I use Scott’s techniquewithout but instead of spins I use jerk & tap.
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Thanks! Interesting, I never heard about that brewer. By jerking I suppose you mean knocking the V60 or inducing a back and forth motion ? Knocking is more susceptible to fines migration and back and forth makes it harder to obtain a flat bed, in my experience. Scott doesn’t use a spoon anymore, he does what I described; he’s the one who taught me most of this.
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Could you please upload this video to youtube/vimeo/similar? It doesn’t load more than a few seconds per minute here…
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Can you try right click -> “Download the video as” ?
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So I notice you pour relatively high and are causing a bit of turbulence/agitation. Would you recommend this on lesser quality grinders, such as the Lido 2/3? Would that cause fines migration?
I was having issues with my drawdown slowing down/choking at the end. I eliminated two variables at once (spinning bloom, replaced by gentle spoon excavation and pouring high replaced by pouring low and gently), so I’m not quite sure which one fixed it for me.
I also notice you let it drain most of the way in between pours. Any particular reason? I do two pours but only let it drain for about 20 seconds, about a quarter-inch before pouring again.
Thanks!
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Hey Stiven, grinders that produce more fines may indeed require less agitation. I recommend trying it out and see if it clogs. Here are some strategies to reduce clogging: (1) pour lower and slower, (2) do a generous swirl during bloom to catch some fines up on the filter walls, then do the subsequent swirls very gently, (3) do not knock the fines down the walls by pouring water directly on the filter, leave them there for the whole brew after the bloom, (4) grind coarser, and (5) use a smaller dose of coffee. I would definitely avoid any stir of the bloom, replace it with a swirl to avoid fines migration.
For the water draining, I now always leave almost an inch of water on top of the coffee bed, because I have recently realized that this makes a big difference in preserving a high slurry temperature. A lot of heat is lost when there is almost no water left in the slurry.
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Hi Mr. Gagne! But now that you leave the water less time in contact with the water, don’t you do less extraction?
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Yes, reducing contact time reduces extraction.
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Have you since experimented with only on pour instead of two? You mention several times in v60 posts that you will, but seen no post about it.
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Not much no, and I’m afraid one pour will make bypass slightly worse. There’s just too many other things I want to try first.
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Why is it you don’t like the shape of the clever dripper (or also traditional Melitta filter)?
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Because there’s no reason it shouldn’t be symmetric 😛 and asymmetry, or corners just sound to me like a way of getting less even extraction. Note that now, I simply prefer flat bottoms.
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Thank you for your brew method ! After your blooming of 77 grams ,you use 200 grams or 77 grams + 123 grams of water for the end of the first pour ? Thank you for your answer ! Best regards
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Np! 77+123
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Thank you for sharing your brew! Actually I was very much inspired by your post about kettle stream, and has been thinking about your suggestion of “pouring just a bit lower than the point where you can hear a splattering sound as the stream enters the slurry”. Then I found this insightful video, however, I am little confused because it seems that there is some splattering sound while you brew in the video.
I noticed that this video was posted nearly a year before than the kettle stream one, so is the suggestion about pouring height something you developed after the video, or, I should look for even louder splattering sound to apply your suggestion?
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Hi Yu, you are absolutely right, this post was my very first one and I knew nothing about the physics of kettle streams back then 🙂
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