Brewing V60 for two

With the world cup soccer on, I’ve been staying up late watching the games with my dad. I do my best to impress him whenever I make him a coffee, so I whip out my V60, it is the baristas go to brewer after all. I love brewing with the V60 and I want to share a great recipe that brews two full strength cups of coffee.

What you need

Freshly roasted White Horse Coffee
Grinder
Stirrer
V60 cone and V60 papers
Scale
Timer, mine is built into the scale
Kettle
Range server
Two of your favourites mugs

The recipe

32g coffee, ground at 5 on Porlex, 12 on Baratza Encore
500g water at 97 degrees C (including 100g bloom water)

How to brew it

1. Heat your water to 97 degrees

If you have a fancy kettle where you can preset water temp, then set it to 97 degrees.
We sell the beautiful Bonavita kettles here.

I’ve been experimenting with pour over brews using a hotter water temp, and it has been working well seeing there’s a lot of heat loss from the open style of brewing. If your kettle does not allow presets, then just boil the water and set a timer for 1 minute off boil before using the water.

2. Place the V60 filter paper into the brewing cone

Place on a range server carafe or large milk frothing jug if you don’t have a carafe and pre-wet the paper, V60 cone and carafe with hot water.
Then drain when the water has passed through.

The merits of pre-wetting the filter paper and heating the range server far outweighs the extra 30 seconds it takes. I love the extra heat it adds to the final drink. Who doesn't love a hot coffee! It also removes any paper taste the filter may add to the brew. if you hear people dismissing the impact of paper taste, just drink the plain water that comes off the paper in the carafe. It tastes weird!

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3. Grind the coffee

Grind 32g of coffee. I use a Baratza home grinder, and I use setting number 12. On a porlex hand mill I use 5 clicks from fully closed.
You can grab a Porlex grinder.
Place the ground coffee into the cone.

The astute among you may note that this is slightly coarser than normal, which is because this recipe calls for 32g of coffee. And with all of that mass there is a bit of extra resistance and too many coffee fines blocks the pointy tip in the V60 and causes a flat over brewed extraction.

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4. Pour and time

Pace the entire setup on the scale and tare (zero) it.
Start a timer, then start the pour. Start by pouring 90-100g in a circular motion.
Because we’re brewing 32g of coffee our end water amount will be 500g, including 90-100g for the bloom.

How you pour and how fast you pour is important. Don't rush it otherwise you risk breaking the coffee bed and pierce straight past all of the valuable flavour. On the other hand pouring too slow is also not great as you will lose heat and therefore, lose flavour. Seek to pour in a steady, consistent, circular motion.

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5. Bloom and wait

After pouring 100g of water, use a spoon or Japanese brewing paddle to stir your coffee.
Wait 45 seconds after finishing the stir.

I know more waiting, but trust me, this is important. While you wait something delicious is brewing! You need to allow the water to fully saturate and extract the flavours from the coffee.

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6. Slowly pour in the rest of the water

At this point the coffee has degassed, saturated and you’re ready to continue a steady pouring motion.
Pour in a steady circular motion until you reach 500g on the scale or the brewer is full.

7. Stir and wait

Lightly stir once in a clockwise direction. It doesn't matter too much if you scrape the sides of the brewer.
This step helps move the finicky bits of grind from the edge of the filter into the centre, forcing water to extract more flavour.
Wait for all the water to extract through the coffee bed.

Lately I’ve been carefully picking up the V60 cone and lightly swirling, which acts as the same as scraping the edges. Be careful not to burn yourself.