How fine should you grind for pour-over?

Grind size is the setting that changes a pour-over the most, and the one people are most unsure about. Recipes say "medium-fine" or "like table salt", which helps until you notice that every grinder labels its dial differently. This note gives you a starting point and, more usefully, a way to correct it from what you taste.

Why grind size matters so much

Water pulls flavour out of coffee from the surface of each particle. Finer grounds have more surface, so the same water extracts more, faster. Finer grounds also pack more tightly, so the water drains more slowly and stays in contact longer. Both effects push in the same direction: grind finer and you extract more; grind coarser and you extract less.

Extraction tastes like a curve. Too little and the cup is sour, thin and short, with a sharpness at the front of the tongue. Too much and it turns bitter, dry and hollow, with a finish that clings. In between is the sweet spot: sweetness, a clear acidity and a finish that fades cleanly.

A starting point

For a single cup on a cone dripper such as a V60, use this recipe:

• 15 g of coffee to 250 ml of water (a 1:16 ratio)
• Water just off the boil, around 92–96 °C
• A total brew time of about 2:45 to 3:30, from the first pour to the last drip

Set your grinder so the grounds look a little finer than coarse sand and a little coarser than table salt. On most hand burr grinders that sits in the lower middle of the range; on electric grinders, look for the band the maker marks for pour-over or filter.

Flat-bottomed drippers such as the Kalita Wave drain more evenly and usually like a slightly finer grind than a cone for the same recipe. Larger brews (two or three cups at once) usually want a slightly coarser grind, because the deeper bed slows the water down.

Adjust from the cup, not the clock

Time is a useful clue, but taste decides. Brew, taste, then change one thing:

• Sour, thin, finishes fast and the brew ran short of time: grind finer by one or two steps.
• Bitter, dry, harsh and the brew ran long: grind coarser by one or two steps.
• Sour and bitter at once: the water is running unevenly through the bed. Look at your pouring before your grinder (see below).
• Tastes fine but flat: try a slightly finer grind with the same time, or a fresher bag of coffee.

Change only the grind until the cup tastes right, and keep the dose, water and pouring the same. If you change three things at once, you will not know which one helped.

When the grinder is not the problem

Some faults look like a grind problem but are not.

Uneven pouring. If the water digs a channel through one side of the bed, part of the coffee over-extracts while the rest barely gets wet. A gooseneck kettle makes slow, steady pours much easier; read our note on kettles for why the spout matters.

Stale coffee. Beans lose aroma week by week after roasting. Old coffee often tastes flat whatever you do. Grind just before brewing and buy amounts you will finish in a few weeks.

A blade grinder. Blade grinders chop rather than grind, leaving a mix of dust and boulders. The dust over-extracts and the boulders under-extract, so the cup can be bitter and sour together. A burr grinder gives an even size, which is why we sell burr grinders rather than blade ones.

Filters. Thick paper filters drain more slowly than thin ones. If you switch filter brands, expect to adjust the grind a step.

Writing it down

Keep a note of the grinder setting, dose, water and time for each coffee you like. Next time you open the same coffee, start from that note. When you open a new one, start from your usual setting and adjust from the cup. After a few bags you will find that most coffees land within two or three steps of each other on your grinder.

In short

Start a little finer than coarse sand, brew 15 g to 250 ml at around 94 °C, and aim for about three minutes. Sour and quick means finer; bitter and slow means coarser. Change one thing at a time, and let the cup, not the label on the dial, tell you where to go.