How to brew V60 step by step?

Classic V60 recipe: 15 g of medium-ground coffee (sea-salt sized), 250 g of water at 93 °C (ratio 1:16.6). Rinse the filter, bloom with 30-45 g of water for 45 s, then continue with spiralled pours up to 250 g by 2:15-2:30. Total draw-down 3:00-3:30. Tetsu Kasuya's 4:6 method (World Brewers Cup champion) splits the water into six pours to tune strength and sweetness.

The specialty reference ratio runs 1:15 to 1:17 — 15 g of coffee for 250 g of water is a solid all-purpose starting point. Grind targets a medium sea salt (coarser than espresso, finer than French press). Water at 92-94 °C: too hot extracts bitter compounds on lighter roasts; too cool leaves the cup under-extracted. Preparation: place the filter, fold along the seam, rinse generously with hot water to remove papery taste and pre-heat both dripper and server.

Add grounds, tap to level. Tare the scale. Start the timer on the first pour. The bloom — first phase — is essential: pour 30 to 45 g of water (about twice the coffee weight) across the whole bed in a spiral to degas the CO2 trapped at roasting. Wait 30 to 45 seconds. Fresh coffee visibly foams; stale coffee stays flat (a live freshness indicator).

Main extraction means pouring the remaining water in stages. Two schools: the Hoffmann method (two pours — 60 % then 40 %), or Tetsu Kasuya's 4:6 method, invented in 2014 and now a staple of the global specialty scene. 4:6 splits 250 g into six equal pours (~41.7 g). The first two pours control taste (smaller first pour = sweeter; larger = brighter), the following four control strength (more pours = stronger). A typical split: 40+60+40+40+40+40 g at 0:45, 1:15, 1:45, 2:15, 2:45.

Target drawdown is 3:00 to 3:30 for a correct medium grind. Draw-down under 2:30: grind too coarse, flat and under-extracted. Over 3:45: grind too fine, bitter and over-extracted. Adjust by one click at a time. In Belgium, the filter scene in Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp runs V60 as the default method, often on Ethiopian beans (Yirgacheffe, Guji), Colombian or Kenyan origins where the method really earns its keep.

V60 recipe 1 cup — 15 g / 250 g (Kasuya 4:6)

Building the Habit of Intentional Brewing

The V60 step-by-step process is simple enough to execute in under five minutes once the technique is established, but it rewards attention and repeatability at every stage rather than approximation and guesswork. The most common error among new V60 users is treating the process as a sequence of actions to get through rather than a series of intentional interventions that each affect the outcome. Understanding why each step matters makes it possible to recognise when something has gone differently from the usual and adjust accordingly, rather than simply getting the same result by luck when conditions align and a different result when they don't.

The sequence begins before the first pour: pre-rinsing the paper filter (which removes paper flavour compounds and preheats the dripper) and pre-heating the server or mug (which prevents the brewed coffee from cooling rapidly against cold glass). Many home brewers skip these steps and wonder why their coffee tastes flat or cools too quickly in the cup. The bloom pour (approximately 2-3x the coffee dose in water, e.g. 40g water for a 15g dose) serves a genuine function: saturating the coffee bed evenly and allowing CO2 to escape before the main extraction begins. If the bloom is skipped, the escaping CO2 during the main pour creates turbulence that disrupts even water distribution — a particular problem with very fresh coffee high in CO2.

Practical Recommendations

The full standard V60 recipe: 15g medium-fine ground coffee, 250g water at 93 °C. Fold and rinse the filter, add coffee, level the bed. Pour 40g bloom water, start timer, stir gently to ensure all grounds are wet, wait 45 seconds. Pour remaining 210g water in two to three additions — first 100g in a circular spiral from centre to edge over 15 seconds, wait until bed begins to drain, then final 110g in the same pattern. Apply the Rao Spin (gentle circular swirl of the dripper) after the last pour. Draw-down should complete at 2:30-3:00 total. If brew runs long, coarsen grind; if short, refine it. Cup the result and note the single most prominent flavour characteristic — this note, tracked across several brews, reveals whether your extraction is consistently hitting the same point or varying session to session.