# V60 Method



## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

I've just purchased a V60 to start pourover brews.

There seem to be a fair number of different methods around.. matt perger etc.

Just interested in what you guys are using technique wise (other than a decent kettle)?

Cheers


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## TheEspressoNistic (Nov 11, 2014)

Bonavita Gooseneck + Hario V60 with 02 unbleached + Mazzer mini....


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## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

TheEspressoNistic said:


> Bonavita Gooseneck + Hario V60 with 02 unbleached + Mazzer mini....


Cheers, what method do you use?


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## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

The Perger is the go to method


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

aphelion said:


> Cheers, what method do you use?


I made this video recently as I get pretty bored here in Spain. Beans were a little old as fresher beans will bloom more.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Lots of methods look very different, but really have the same objective, to get a certain weight of water to pass through a certain weight of coffee at a desirable rate.

I'd start at 15g coffee, 241g water (97/98C) find a grind setting that allows the water to drain in 2:30 seconds, if you are blooming, add the bloom time to the 2:30 but try to add the bloom so that you don't get significant dripping until the pour proper starts.

A fine grind might mean adding the water in one go (steep heat decline), a coarser grind might see you needing 4 or 5 pours. Try and keep the time intervals and weight of the additions as consistent as you can. Sticking to intervals of 30s or a minute makes this easier.

For example:

24g bloom

Start adding up to 78g at 30s

Start adding up to 133g at 1:00

Start adding up to 187g at 1:30

Start adding up to 241g at 2:00

All drained at surface of bed at 3:00

But this will only happen at a certain grind, if it takes longer, grind coarser or pour in 3 pours, or 2 (adjusting intervals & addition weights accordingly), to get the flow rate up. Conversely, grind finer, more & smaller pours to slow things down.


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## TheEspressoNistic (Nov 11, 2014)

I create an indent in the middle...

I will do 4 pours, each is a 100ml pour...

Each pour is about 45 seconds in which it will add up to 3 mins total brew time...

I will pour in a circular fashion... maintaining an even flow and making sure i dont hit the filter....

.....

The pre-rinse isn't need since the filters dont impart paper-ey tastes.... atleast for me....

The dose is 24grams.... i have dialled in my grind to make sure it restricts the flow to the appropriate level

An increased dose will definately increase the flow restriction (slowing the flow)

And at the end i would look for the " Rao Spin Effect "


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## TheEspressoNistic (Nov 11, 2014)

Don't worry about the temps though....

The bonavita has adjustable temps... if you get that particular model


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## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

MWJB said:


> Lots of methods look very different, but really have the same objective, to get a certain weight of water to pass through a certain weight of coffee at a desirable rate.
> 
> I'd start at 15g coffee, 241g water (97/98C) find a grind setting that allows the water to drain in 2:30 seconds, if you are blooming, add the bloom time to the 2:30 but try to add the bloom so that you don't get significant dripping until the pour proper starts.
> 
> ...


Cheers Mark, 241g of water is a bit precise though no??









Do V60s tend to work better at higher temps?

It's a 1 cup V60, so I'm guessing just reduce things down a bit (although 15g -> 240g should be ok for a 1 cup right?)


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## Beanosaurus (Jun 4, 2014)

I use my Rancilio Rocky at home and it has a surprisingly minimal amount of fines when grinding for this brew method, depends on the bean though.

My Buono kettle lid has been dremeled to take a thermometer, the water temp usually drops to about 94-97c by the time I've decanted from my electric and that's good enough for me,

also recently got a flow restrictor which is excellent, you can get one off CoffeeHit for 5 quid and is really with the punt.

Sometimes I agitate the slurry during the bloom, sometimes I don't at all - this is purely down to how the previous brew have gone in terms of over/under-extraction.

I mostly make 1 cup brews and dose at 15g, if the coffee is really fresh I might leave it to settle for about 40s but otherwise its 30s.

So,

START: 50g water in > 30s/40s bloom (w/wo agitation) > add in 100g in spirals (1:00) > Wiggle and dead knock > add in 100g in spirals (2:00ish) > Wiggle and dead knock > FINISH: (2:20/2:40)

WTF is a wiggle and dead knock? - Basically pick up the V60 and shake it as the water is starting level out, I only started doing this because I'd ensure any stray grounds don't get stuck to the side and along with the tap it allows for an even bed in the slurry.

I might only do it after the final addition of water if previous brews have been coming out too strong after all its additional agitation but a way of ensuring all grinds are not left behind without pouring water directly to paper.

No idea if anyone else does this but I just started doing it one day because of my stray grounds OCD!

Another method I tried once but didn't get much success from was divulged to me be a mate who went to see the Scott Rao seminar the other week at Prufrock.

It involves doing a bloom with agitation and then slowly adding ALL of the water in one go as to ensure a consistent slurry temperature throughout the brew,

didn't have the flow restrictor at the time so will revisit this method.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

aphelion said:


> Cheers Mark, 241g of water is a bit precise though no??
> 
> 
> 
> ...


If you used 240g or 242g you'd undoubtedly cause a black hole to form and engulf us all! We'd no doubt be a tad miffed at you if you did that! :-o

Seriously (as if I had to state that might not really happen), yeah, you could use 240g, or 250g as long as you used the same method, stuck to the same ratio each time, adjusting grind/time to suit ...but I'll ask why would coffee know to taste good only at metric values that end in "0" or "5"? "241" is no more precise than "240", it just ends in a different number. ;-) When pouring it's a good idea to have the pour times end in "00" or "30" just for ease & repatability, adding water every 47 seconds gets to be a bit of a brain bender...;-)

I tend to stick to 10-12g in the 01 cone, but it's not a rule, it's just what I tend to do.

Coffee brewing temperature is really the temperature of the slurry in the brewer, not the water in the pouring kettle, pourovers have no lid and lose heat easily, you lose heat from the water as soon as you pour, hence the higher start temp & pouring in pulses...for manual pourover, kettle temperatures as high as "still boiling" have been recommended in the past, I tend to stay under that mainly because my kettle taints the water if left boiling for any time.


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## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

Haha cheers for that









Will have a go at 12g into 200g tonight (might try it into 201g if i'm feeling really brave!







)

We'll see how my first V60 of foundry Kenya goes!


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## TheEspressoNistic (Nov 11, 2014)

aphelion, good luck...


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## TheEspressoNistic (Nov 11, 2014)

Question to the OP,

How fine do you grind and how much do you dose....

Increasing the dose or grinding finer will restrict the flow even further.....

It took quite a while to dial in my grinder..

Would be more glad if you could tell me where to get those 02 unbleached filters.....

I'm currently using bleached filters... and it works quite well....

Do you pre-rinse or not? i dont pre-rinse... and i know it seems bad but it didnt taste pappery in the cup (atleast for me it didnt though)


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## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

So last night I did my first V60..interesting!

I did 12g into 200g water at 97C.

Pre-soaked/heated filter paper (white) and V60.

Did a 50g bloom for 30secs (probably too much initially).

Gave that a proper agitation!

Then added water from my travel kettle in 3 lots of 50g up to 200g..took me up till 2 mins.

All water through bed by 2mins30..

Waited till cooled to 55C.

Tasted a bit meh, but not a bad start though..

I think the extraction was over, and a bit uneven.

The bed of coffee was all over the place too...oops!


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## TheEspressoNistic (Nov 11, 2014)

aphelion said:


> So last night I did my first V60..interesting!
> 
> I did 12g into 200g water at 97C.
> 
> ...


I did worse on my first try...

I've got a 4 min brew... i was not really good at it at that time....


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

OK, so I'd try 3 pours, either 66-ish each time, or Perger style 50, 50, 100.

The Rao spin is good for encouraging a flat bed at the end, if you don't get a gentle spin from the pour alone, help it along with a gentle stir at the end of the last pour. Even a good extraction, numbers wise, with a wonky bed may not be ideal.

Not agitating at the first addition will likely drop your yield by ~1% or so, bear this in mind with the results...maybe try without the agitation at start, or go a little coarser with the agitation at start. With 50g "bloom" you're likely to get a fair bit drip through the bed, so you're really extracting the coffee at this stage, not just a pre-wet. But I'd address the very uneven bed first.


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## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

Cool, will give that a go tonight.

Regarding the uneven bed, it was more 'up the walls' than uneven, so probably got too close to the filter edges on my pours, and didn't stir my final pour (as per Rao).

Will have another go!

Cheers for the tips peeps


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

TheEspressoNistic said:


> Would be more glad if you could tell me where to get those 02 unbleached filters.....


I picked some unbleached 02's (100 per pack) up from Clifton Coffee in Bristol (you can order off their website) if you struggling to find any.

Hope of some help

John


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## TheEspressoNistic (Nov 11, 2014)

Thanks Johnealey...

Btw.. i will not be active for quite a while...


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## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

Ok, so tried 2 more last night...

Went a bit coarser on grind too.

12g to 200g as before.

First, 30g bloom 30 secs gentle agitation.

Further 3 pours up to 200g. All in by 2 mins. Still getting lots of high and dry up the sides of the filter...tasted pretty bad (uneven and over extracted).

Second was much better. 30g bloom (no agitation). Several small pours into centre. Coffee bed was tidy, but it was almost like a well in the middle with grounds mushrooming up around the sides in a U shape. Coffee was definitely improved however.

Gonna try something similar later, with a more Hoffman style larger pour (with gentle stir at the end)...practice practice!

Any tips for pouring without a gooseneck?

Might need one of those come xmas ...


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## Southpaw (Feb 26, 2012)

Pouring from a 12oz pitcher seems easier, but I've never measured the temperature loss given it's an open top.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

aphelion said:


> Ok, so tried 2 more last night...
> 
> Went a bit coarser on grind too.
> 
> ...


Are you pouring with a regular kettle? If so, I would fine up the grind and get all the water in in one go, you'll be really kicking up the bed with multiple pours with a very "splotty" kettle, maybe over agitating or allowing water to bypass the grinds. Same timing still applies (~2:05 plus bloom), V60 isn't the most forgiving without a gooseneck kettle.

Don't worry about finishing the pour as it touches/washes the grinds off the filter wall, if going for a flat bed. Spiral out, last spiral washing down the filter walls (like in Perger's video). The coffee wasn't overextracted because you were aiming for a flat bed, it was overextracted because the water drained too slowly, "All in by 2 minutes" sounds a bit late, I' be aiming for more like all in by 1:40/1:45 if pulse pouring, with a gooseneck, at your brew parameters.

Pouring in the centre does tend to cause a "well" in the grinds bed, however it's likely that the speed that the water was added & drained caused the improvement, rather than bed shape specifically (some cones like the old Kone require a central pour & still "work").

The Square Mile recipes I have seen in recent times advocated pulse pouring and in his World Atlas of Coffee, Hoffmann suggests the bed should be reasonably flat.


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## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

Thanks, this is all useful stuff..

Unfortunately I'm stuck with a crappy travel kettle until the bonavita pid turns up. Will keep experimenting tonight

Cheers


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## DNA (Jan 17, 2013)

wow my method is quite lazy compared to some of these!

I bloom coffee grounds in about 50g of water....

add about 1/3 to half the water directly into the center of the grounds (i dont bother pouring carefully in spirals) and stir with chopstick and add the rest of the water after most of it is done with another (smaller) quick stir

The grounds settle pretty evenly and the resulting cup is quite good...

But i havent tried a v60 from anyone else so cant compare!


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## aphelion (Nov 23, 2012)

faye1010 said:


> *I'm faye from China.*
> 
> *We are a specialist for export engine parts, especially for **turbocharger and turbo parts.*
> 
> ...


Hmm..I've never had an imported turbocharged V60..sounds pretty great actually!

Can you post any tips on how i'd modify mine?

Do I need a garage??


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## Big_Fat_Dan (Aug 21, 2014)

I use my V60 1 cup at work, I basically wing it.

13/14g coffee, then I finger my coffee making a little hole in the middle of the bed. 30 sec bloom, not sure of the weight, once i've poured the bloom I give it a quick stir, then add water to the top twice, then a little top up at the end, must use around 280/300ml of water (including bloom)

normally get a good cup of coffee at the end of it, but occasionally get a shit one. Better than the crap coffee I get at work anyhoo.


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