The V60 makes excellent filter coffee, and it has a reputation for being fussy that it doesn't really deserve. The dripper itself is simple — a cone, a paper filter, and gravity. Once you understand the handful of variables that actually matter, the technique is straightforward to repeat. This guide covers what matters and skips what doesn't.
What you need
- A V60 dripper
- Paper filters (sized to match)
- A kettle — a gooseneck is ideal for control over the pour, but not essential to get a good result
- A scale
- Fresh coffee, ground just before brewing if possible
None of this needs to be expensive. A dripper and a pack of filters can be picked up cheaply online, and a basic kitchen scale is enough to get your ratios right.
The recipe
Coffee: 15g
Water: 250ml at 93–94°C — just off the boil, roughly 30 seconds after it stops
Grind: medium, like coarse sand — finer than you'd use for a cafetière, coarser than espresso
Total brew time: 2:30 to 3:00 minutes
Step by step
- Rinse the paper filter with hot water and discard the rinse water — this removes any papery taste and warms the dripper.
- Add your ground coffee and give the dripper a gentle shake to flatten the bed.
- Start your timer and pour around 50ml of water to saturate all the grounds. Let this sit for 30 seconds — this is the bloom, and it lets the coffee degas before the main pour.
- Pour slowly in gentle circles, bringing the total up to 150ml by the 1:00 mark.
- Continue pouring to reach 250ml total by around 1:45.
- Let the water drain through fully. It should finish somewhere between 2:30 and 3:00.
What goes wrong and how to fix it
Too bitter, or draining slowly: your grind is too fine. Go coarser.
Too sour, or draining too fast: your grind is too coarse. Go finer.
Uneven extraction: keep your pour aimed at the coffee bed rather than the filter paper at the edges, and try to pour at a steady, even pace rather than in bursts.
Best coffees for V60
Filter brewing suits coffees with clarity and brightness, which makes it a good match for our Ethiopia Yirgacheffe, our Guatemalan, and our Peru Certified Organic. All three hold up well to the method and show clear differences in the cup.
Once you've got the ratio and grind dialled in, the rest is repetition. You can browse the full range in our fresh coffee beans collection to find something worth practising on.