Nguyen “John” Ha

Pour-Over Coffee and Flash Brew: My Recipe and Ratios

By Nguyen “John” Ha · Updated

What is pour-over coffee?

Pour-over is a manual brewing method: you pour hot water over ground coffee in a paper filter, and gravity pulls the brewed coffee into the cup or carafe below. Because you control the water temperature, the speed of the pour, and the bloom, you can brew a clean, balanced cup that shows off what makes a coffee unique. In a cone dripper like the Hario V60, the coffee bed itself sets the flow rate, so grind size is the variable to dial in first (Equator Coffees, 2024).

Hot water poured from a gooseneck kettle into a pour-over dripper, with a jar of beans and cups on a white table
Pour-over by hand: a gooseneck kettle gives control over the speed and placement of the pour. Photo: Manual drip (pour-over) coffee by Kim Sanso, CC0 1.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped and resized).

My usual pour-over profile

Coffee
15–20 g
Grind size
600–800 μmThe finer the grind, the shorter the brew time
Roast level
Light
Water
225–300 g90–96 °C (195–205 °F)
Ratio
about 1:15e.g. 20 g coffee to 300 g water

How to make pour-over coffee, step by step

  1. Prepare and preheat. Place the filter in the dripper and rinse it with hot water to remove any paper taste and warm the dripper and carafe. Discard the rinse water.
  2. Add the coffee. Add 15–20 g of freshly ground coffee and gently shake the dripper to level the bed, so the water extracts it evenly.
  3. Bloom. Start a timer and pour 40 g of water, just enough to wet all the grounds. Wait 30–45 seconds while the coffee releases trapped gas; this makes the rest of the brew more even.
  4. Main pour. Pour the remaining water slowly in a steady spiral from the center outward until the scale reads 300 g. Aim to finish pouring within 1.5–2 minutes.
  5. Drawdown. Let the water drain through the bed. The whole brew, bloom included, usually finishes around 3–3.5 minutes.
  6. Serve. Remove the dripper, give the coffee a gentle swirl, and pour.

What is flash brew (Japanese iced coffee)?

Flash brew, also called Japanese iced coffee, is a pour-over brewed directly onto ice. Part of the brewing water is replaced by ice in the carafe, so the hot coffee cools the moment it lands. The method dates to around the 1960s in Japan and spread through specialty coffee from the 2010s onward (Gates, 2024). Brewing hot and chilling right away keeps more of the coffee’s aroma and acidity than steeping in cold water, which is why flash brew tastes brighter and cleaner than most iced coffee (Janzen, 2016).

A V60 dripper on a glass server filled with ice, sitting on a digital scale in warm sunlight
Flash brew: the V60 drips hot coffee straight onto ice in the server, on a scale so the ice counts toward the water. Photo: Iced filter coffee with Assembly coffee by Bex Walton, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped, resized, and color-graded).

How to make flash brew, step by step

  1. Add ice. Put 140 g of ice in the carafe under the dripper. The ice counts as part of your water.
  2. Bloom. Pour about 40 g of hot water to saturate the grounds and let them bloom for 30–45 seconds.
  3. First pour. Pour slowly in a circular motion until the scale reads 100 g of water.
  4. Second pour. Continue to 160 g, finishing in about 1.5–2 minutes. The total brew time should be around 2.5–3 minutes.
  5. Chill and swirl. The hot coffee melts part of the ice and cools almost instantly. Swirl the carafe so it chills evenly, then serve over fresh ice if you like.

Flash brew vs. cold brew

Cold brew steeps for hours and tends toward mellow, chocolate-like flavors. Flash brew is ready in minutes and highlights brighter, fruit-forward notes, which makes it a good match for light-roast, single-origin coffees (Gates, 2024; Janzen, 2016).

Tips

Grind a little finer for flash brew. With less hot water doing the extraction, a slightly finer grind than your usual pour-over keeps the cup from tasting weak (Gates, 2024).

Tune the ice. My recipe is close to half ice; Temple Coffee suggests about one third ice and two thirds hot water. More ice gives a lighter cup, less ice a stronger one.

FAQ

What is the best ratio for pour-over coffee?

A good starting point is about 1:15, for example 20 g of coffee to 300 g of water. Go a little longer, such as 1:16 or 1:17, for a lighter cup.

How long should a pour-over take?

About 3 to 3.5 minutes in total, including a 30–45 second bloom. If it runs much longer, grind coarser; if it finishes too fast and tastes sour or thin, grind finer.

Why do you bloom pour-over coffee?

Fresh coffee holds carbon dioxide. A short bloom lets that gas escape before the main pour, so water reaches the grounds evenly and the extraction is cleaner.

Is flash brew the same as iced coffee?

It is one way to make iced coffee. Instead of chilling coffee that was brewed earlier, flash brew pours hot coffee straight onto ice, which keeps it bright and aromatic.

Want a fuller-bodied cup with less technique? Try my AeroPress recipe.

References

  1. Equator Coffees. (2024, January 23). Hario V60 recipe: V60 dripper brew guide. https://www.equatorcoffees.com/blogs/guides/hario-v60
  2. Gates, N. (2024, July 5). Flash brew. Temple Coffee Roasters. https://templecoffee.com/blogs/blog/flash-brew
  3. Janzen, E. (2016, August 9). A guide to Japanese iced coffee. Imbibe Magazine. https://imbibemagazine.com/japanese-iced-coffee/
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