A Beginner's Guide to Pour Overs

If you’re a coffee drinker, you probably know there’s more than one way to turn coffee beans into your morning cup of joe. You’ve almost definitely drank drip coffee before, the type of brew you’ll get out of an electric coffee maker, and maybe you’ve used a French press on occasion. However, there are a whole lot of other brewing options you’re likely missing out on, including (drumroll please) pour overs!

So, what’s a pour over? Well, it’s exactly how the name sounds. Pour overs are made by continuously pouring water over coffee grounds manually. As the grounds become saturated, the water extracts flavor from the grounds and passes through a filter to create (you guessed it) coffee! Compared to drip coffee and immersion methods (like the French press), pour over coffee tends to be more aromatic and brings out bright flavors, like fruity or chocolatey tones. Of course, there’s more than one type of pour over, each with its own style and flavor profile. In this post, we explore a few of the most common types of pour overs to help you get brewing.

V60

Popular for its small size, easy use, and strong flavors, the Hario V60 is a true classic among pour overs. The cone-shaped brewer can sit directly on top of your mug or a carafe, whichever you prefer. To get brewing, just fit a filter in the cone (paper filters are most common, but reusable ones are also an option!), wet the filter, add your coffee grounds, and pour hot water (around 200° F) over them. The ratio of water to grounds is up to you, but we typically recommend about 15 to 18 grams of water for every 1 gram of coffee. Make sure to use a circular motion as you pour the water to really saturate all those grounds, and pour at intervals to avoid overfilling the cone and to get as much flavor as you can out of your V60. Once you’re done, you’ll have a hot drink in your cup and minimal clean-up to do. If you like this simple brew method, we also recommend checking out the Bee House pour over.

Chemex

We have to say, the Chemex might just win for the aesthetic appeal. This pour over method is made of glass and fastened around the center with a wooden collar and tie. Unlike the V60, the Chemex doesn’t require a separate container to brew into and instead acts as its own carafe. To use a Chemex, place a filter in the funnel-shaped top half of the glass container, wet the filter, add your grounds, and start pouring. You can use the same temperature and grounds to water ratio as you would for the V60. Once again, pour in a circular motion and take time between pours. An advantage of this method is that you can fit more grounds in the filter, making it a great option if you’d like multiple cups to share (or for yourself—we’re not judging!).

Walküre

Certainly the least common among our pour over methods, the Walküre (pronounced Valkyrie), is best known for its ceramic style and multiple built-in filters. The body of the pour over is actually made of four parts—a ceramic dispersion plate that distributes the water evenly over the grounds, a grounds compartment with a double grid of built-in filters, a ceramic carafe to hold the brewed coffee, and a cute little lid to go on top. While that might sound like a lot, brewing with a Walküre couldn’t be easier. Because the filters are built-in, you can skip the steps of buying, placing, and wetting the filter altogether. Just add your grounds to the center compartment, replace the dispersion plate, and get pouring! No need to pour in a circular motion with this one, but still be sure to pour at intervals. You can once again use the same temperature and grounds to water ratio as the V60. Your brewed coffee will be a bit more full-bodied than other pour over methods (meaning thicker, richer, and often with more leftover grounds in your cup). If you’re looking to add an exciting and unique pour over to your coffee bar, this might be the brew method for you.

While there are certainly more pour over methods to try—not to mention, other kinds of brew methods—we hope this this short guide gave you some valuable insight into the world of pour over coffee. Want to try any of these pour overs before buying one for yourself? Stop by The Coffee Genre to compare them! Our baristas are always happy to help fellow coffee enthusiasts find their perfect brew.