Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Single Cup V60 Pourover

This recipe is adapted from A Better 1 Cup V60 Technique by James Hoffmann. I’ve been using this mostly with light- to medium-roasted coffee beans.

Note- in 2024, I stopped pre-moistening the filter for a while, and didn’t notice much difference in how the cups were turning out (using a plastic V60 and brown tabbed Hario-branded filters). I suspect that pre-moistening doesn’t matter much with a plastic cone, but I don’t think I’d want to skip it with glass or ceramic. Eventually, I returned to pre-moistening all the time (using heated kettle water) and am still doing that as of summer 2025.

For a 250g cup:

  1. Preheat V60, pre-moisten filter, add coffee, and tare scale
  2. Make small indentation in center of coffee grounds
  3. 0:00: Pour 2x to 3x weight of coffee to bloom, then return kettle to base
  4. 0:10 – 0:15: Thoroughly swirl/agitate to get all of the grounds wet (try not to splash it up the sides of the cone)
  5. 0:45 – 1:00: Pour up to 100g total (40% total weight)
    • Hold kettle for the remainder of the brewing process
  6. 1:10 – 1:20: Pour up to 150g total (60% total weight)
  7. 1:30 – 1:40: Pour up to 200g total (80% total weight)
  8. 1:50 – 2:00: Pour up to 250g total (100% total weight)
  9. 2:00 – 2:05: Gently swirl, enough to wash down any grounds stuck around the high water line
  10. Drawdown should finish anywhere between 02:30 and 03:30, depending on beans and grind size

For a 300g cup (everything is just scaled up from the 250g version):

  1. Preheat V60, pre-moisten filter, add coffee, and tare scale
  2. Make small indentation in center of coffee grounds
  3. 0:00: Pour 2x to 3x weight of coffee to bloom, then return kettle to base
  4. 0:10 – 0:15: Thoroughly swirl/agitate to get all of the grounds wet (try not to splash it up the sides of the cone)
  5. 0:45 – 1:00: Pour up to 120g total (40% total weight)
    • Hold kettle for the remainder of the brewing process
  6. 1:10 – 1:20: Pour up to 180g total (60% total weight)
  7. 1:30 – 1:40: Pour up to 240g total (80% total weight)
  8. 1:50 – 2:00: Pour up to 300g total (100% total weight)
  9. 2:00 – 2:05: Gently swirl, enough to wash down any grounds stuck around the high water line
  10. Drawdown should finish anywhere between 02:30 and 03:30, depending on beans and grind size

Hario Switch variation:

  • After pre-moistening the filter, close the switch drain
  • Leave the drain closed during the bloom phase, and open it at around 0:42 (just before pouring the next 50-60g water)
  • Finish the brew with the drain open

I find that this produces fuller-bodied cups, particularly with beans that drain down quickly, as it keeps the grounds wet during the entire bloom step.

Brewing notes for specific beans (not up to date):