The Best Hario V60 Brewing Guide

Brewing on a Hario v60 can be intimidating. But, once you've got it down, it's easy to see why it is so iconic and ubiquitous in the coffee world. Few coffee drippers give you as clean and pleasant a cup as the V60, especially when it comes to quality, freshly-roasted roasted specialty coffee.

There are many great resources and guides to help you learn how to brew coffee with a V60 cone, but many of them get overly technical and don't teach you what you really need to know. I'm going to walk you through a basic recipe while providing you with a few tips so that you can brew a quality cup of coffee on this classic dripper right away. 

Before we get to the actual brewing guide, you may want to check out this guide to the quality of your cup of coffee. In this article, I dive into the three factors that have the biggest impact on your cup's quality: the coffee you use, your grind size/quality, and your water.

If you don't feel like reading that one right now, here's the tl;dr version:

Your Coffee

  • Expertly roasted specialty coffee is the way to go. 
  • Freshness matters. Most roasters will put the roast date in some form on your coffee bag. The further you are from that date, the more you can expect the coffee flavors to degrade.
  • There is such a thing as too fresh. A general rule of thumb is to wait at least a day or two but finish the bag before ~3 weeks have passed.

Your Grind

  • Grind size and quality have a massive influence in brewing a quality cup of coffee.
  • There is no more worthwhile investment in improving your cup than a quality burr grinder. Check out our recommendations in the notes below the guide.
  • For the best results, grind your coffee as close to the start of your brew as possible.

Your Water

  • The quality of your cup is affected by your water's taste.
  • The solution isn't using water with no flavor, e.g., distilled water. Instead, you should use water that has the right flavors in it.
  • You can accomplish this with a water filter (preferably one geared towards coffee use) or by adding minerals to distilled water.

Now, let's jump into brewing on the Hario V60.

What You'll Need

  • Hario V60 Coffee Dripper
  • V60 Paper Filter
  • A carafe or mug
  • Scale
  • Timer
  • Kettle (gooseneck highly recommended)
  • Burr grinder set to medium-fine
  • 20 grams of coffee
  • 340 ml of filtered water plus more for rinsing/preheating

The Method

  1. Start by filling your kettle and heating the water to ~205° F. If you're in Colorado like me, that means a rolling boil. Otherwise, you can achieve this by bringing your water to a boil and letting it cool for about 30 seconds.
  2. Fold your filter along the crimped edge and place the filter into the V60 dripper.
  3. Wet the entire filter with hot water going around the dripper a few times, thereby preheating the V60 as well.
  4. Weigh and grind 20 grams of coffee and add it to the dripper leveling out the bed of grinds by gently shaking or tapping.
  5. Start your timer and pour up to 60 grams over 10 to 15 seconds. 
  6. At 0:45 seconds, begin your second pour. Pour slowly and evenly in small circles around the center of the dripper up to 210 grams of water. Avoid pouring around the edges of the filter.
  7. Once about half of the water has drained, pour one more time up to 340 grams giving you a 1:17 coffee to water ratio.
  8. Allow all the water to drain through the filter, clean up, and enjoy your magnificently brewed cup of coffee.

A Few Notes/Recommendations

  • You're shooting for a total brew time of 3:00-3:30. If you're coming up short, try a finer grind; if you're going long, go coarser on the grind.
  • A decent scale that reads out to at least the nearest half gram will help you get consistent results from your manual coffee brews. You don't have to break the bank to get one, though. Check out a couple of our recommendations below.
  • A gooseneck kettle may seem a little unnecessary, but using one makes pouring a slow, consistent stream of water so much easier and ergonomic. 
  • Here's some suggested equipment to make brewing with your Hario V60 a breeze. I've included suggestions for any budget. 

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Scales

Grinders

Kettles

Water Treatment

And that's it! The last thing I'll mention is that there is no one way to do a manual pour-over on the Hario V60 (or any other brewing device, for that matter). In this case, the best way to learn is to experiment! Try different coffee to water ratios, different grind sizes, or even different water temperatures. Then taste and adjust some more until you're happy. After all, the most critical part of the process is savoring the product.

Enjoy!

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