Trouble shooting pour over 101

Hi friends of ickle. It's Rowena here, roaster, green bean buyer and QC of ickle.

I have collected a fair bit of questions and often get asked for trouble shooting tips from our dear home brewers and the baristas from all over Australia.

As we all love trying new recipes, new merchandise and new coffee roasters. But how do we get the best out of those coffees without wasting the whole bag trying to get the most balanced cup possible? These problems are common especially for those who buy coffee from different states or even from international coffee roasters. Not only the roast developments are quite various but also the roasted coffee gets QC and tested with different water quality or even have different preferences of what is "ideal" in their perfect cup of filter coffee. Chasing the best result could be challenging when it comes to unfamiliar roasters.

Firstly we make sure we have all the tools!

Essential equipments for pour over :

-drip cone

-paper filter

-coffee grinder

-weighing scale

-pouring kettle

-thermometer to measure water temperature or digital temperature control kettle

-timer

Then we need a "starting point" recipe!

I recommend 1:16 coffee to water ratio. 2:30-3:00 minute total brew time (bloom included) and 95-98 degree celsius. This recipe is very approachable to most coffee roasting styles and suitable with most dripper available in today's market.

Now in your cup!

What we usually look for in our coffee here at ickle coffee are the tasting notes, the smooth body, sweetness, acidity and pleasant after taste. Of course these qualities you'll find in the cup when you do everything right and most of time could be achieved after multiple tweaks of recipe.

When the coffee is tasting weak/watery, usually comes together with unpleasant sourness.

Try these variables, do one adjustment at the time to see what actually will improve the brew

-grind finer

-use higher water temperature

-increase contact time by adding pour pulses

-decrease water ratio, try adding 1g at a time, smallest adjustment of ratio could make a big difference

-try thiner paper filter

If the coffee is tasting medicinal, dry, bitter and astringent sour:

-grind courser

-use lower temperature water

-remove agitation

-increase water to coffee ratio

-decrease contact time, finish the total amount of water faster to fasten the brew time

Good quality water is also very important to achieve tasty cup of coffee.

Here are recommended range of ideal coffee brewing water:

These range of measurements are recommended for brewing. For balanced and flavourful coffee. If brewing water chemistry are far too different to these standards coffee quality could be compromised.

Enjoy brewing and let's keep improving our perfect cup :)

Rowena