It's time for the first of our series of buying guides! These guides will help you pick the perfect products to start your coffee journey. We'll cover a range of different brew methods and product ranges here. Today we're starting with pour over, one of the simplest, most cost effective ways to get started with craft coffee. Today we'll offer a starter and upgrade option each for a kettle, dripper, scale, grinder, and drink-ware.
Overview
Brewing pour over is a simple concept. You simply place your filter in your dripper, put the dripper on your drinkware, add medium-coarse ground coffee to the filter, then pour hot water over the grounds. How much per pour, and how many pours, is something you'll have to experiment with. While most coffees will work best with a 1:16 ratio of coffee to water, how much water you add with each pour is the tricky part.
Because this brew method is nice and simple, the gear you need is pretty simple too!
For a great all-in-one option, take a look at our
pour over starter kit. We'll dig into more specific separate options, but this is a good deal if you don't want to read any further!
Kettle
The first piece of gear we're going to talk about for your initial setup is your kettle. There are two keys for picking out a kettle to brew pour over with: One, you want a gooseneck. The reason is that gooseneck kettles pour at just the right flow rate, so you can focus on timing and volume rather than rate of pour. The second thing you want to make sure of is that the kettle is variable temperature. You want to be able to set it to a temp rather than have it boil water and then cool. This is because you should be brewing your coffee at our around 200 degrees. You'll still want the flexibility to go a bit lower or a bit higher as well depending on taste and roast.
With all of this in mind, the best starter kettle we can recommend is this
Bonavita Variable Temp Kettle. It's simple, reliable, and affordable.
For an upgrade, the
Fellow EKG+ is expensive, but offers connectivity with Acaia's Brewbar app for dialing in specific recipes. More on that later!
Scale
Your scale is key because you need to ensure specific weights from measuring out coffee all the way to pouring. Getting an accurate scale that is resistant to water is a big plus, and many coffee specific scales offer some bells and whistles that make brewing pour over easier.
For your first scale it's hard to go wrong with the Brewista Smart Brew. This scale offers excellent accuracy and even includes a basic timer. Plus, it's super affordable.
For an upgrade, take a look at the
Acaia Pearl and
Pearl S. Both of these scales offer connected apps that work with the above mentioned EKG+. These apps let you dial in and save specific recipes to recreate the perfect pours for your favorite coffees.
Grinder
Your grinder is an interesting purchase. Any non-espresso burr grinder
will work for pour over, but buying a grinder that offers some flexibility is useful in the long term. Maybe in a few months you'll want to brew in a press? What about drip brewers? As you can see, getting a good all around grinder for filter coffee is the best option. That said, the easiest way to avoid waste is to weigh your coffee before you grind it, rather than approximating an amount and tossing the extra.
This means you want a hopper that's easy to work with. For a starter grinder for drip and pour over it's hard to go wrong with the
Baratza Encore. In terms of consistency and performance, it's one of the best brew grinders ever. The only downside is that it is a little light on bells and whistles, offering timed grind and on/off options.
It's hard to recommend grinder upgrades for pour over because you're really upgrading into specific things for specific reasons. The
Eureka Mignon Filtro is an excellent option if you want to get hyper granular in your grind adjustments to extract every drop of flavor from your pour over. On the other hand, if you want to make brewing faster and more efficient, the
Vario-W includes a built in weight function. Which direction you go is up to you!
Dripper
Your dripper is going to determine the type of filters you use and does have an impact on flavor. It's hard to understand what this impact is until you've tried coffees from a few different dripper styles. For this reason, we're recommending three different drippers that we think work great. Whichever one best fits your budget is the way to go!
First up, the
Hario V60 is one of the simplest, most popular drippers in the world.
The
Kalita Wave is also extremely popular, and has a fervent fanbase.
Finally, a
Chemex is a great option that offers unique flavor and a built in server. Perfect if you are making coffee for a group.
Servers and Mugs
Last but not least, you'll need something to brew into and drink out of! To get a clear view of the brewing process, and to brew multiple cups of coffee for yourself or to share, check out a server like the
Bonavita Glass Carafe. If you're brewing for one, you can brew right into a mug like the
Acme Union of the
Fellow Joey!
With all of that gear you should be good to go! Adding it all up may seem like a lot, but scales and grinders offer so many coffee applications beyond pour over. It's why we recommend starting with pour over, because lots of the parts you use will be transferable to other brew methods. Good luck with your first brew!
Check out the rest of our getting started guides!
