For something so simple, it’s so easy to get wrong; the Hario V60 is essentially a coffee filtering ‘cup’ to sit on top of your…cup. What could be so hard about packing some coffee grounds into the filter and pouring your hot water over the top? Well, everything, actually.

The Beans

It goes without saying that using good quality beans makes a big difference when brewing any style of coffee. But what makes a good quality bean?

When choosing your beans, it’s always best to find a speciality coffee roaster (try our coffee Roaster search!), and ensure you get nice fresh beans. Coffee beans will naturally oxidise and leak out their rich oils over time, resulting in stale beans sooner or later. For best results, only buy enough beans to last a week or two and ensure you only grind them when you need them. Store in an airtight container in your pantry and you’ll be laughing.

Psssst! We love and adore our local coffee roasters who have listed their business on brewstr. If you’re a coffee roaster, it’s free to add your coffee business on brewstr.

The H2O

Everyone has a kettle and a kitchen tap, but STOP right there. Water quality is perhaps one of the most overlooked parts of brewing with the Hario V60. Your 10 year old kettle probably has a build up of limescale, rust and god knows what else is in that thing. Clean or purchase a dedicated kettle, ideally having a separate pouring jug to ensure an even and steady pouring stream.

If you live in a city, you likely have chlorine and/or fluoride added to your water supply. You may also have soft or hard water. All of these factors will change the outcome of your brew. You can either use filtered/bottled water, or invest in a bench top filtration system to remove these chemicals and soften or harden your water appropriately. This will ensure a higher quality brew, free of impurities and tainted extraction due to the chlorine/fluoride.

The Grind

Getting the grind on your beans just right is critical. Being gravity fed with a paper filter, the Hario naturally slows down the extraction process; the hot water will come into contact with your grinds and slowly filter down with resistance provided by the filter. If you grind your beans coarsely, the water will run straight through the grinds and filter through the paper, resulting in a weak extraction, and less flavor. On the other hand, a very fine grind will filter slower, resulting in more flavors being extracted from the coffee. The added surface area also allows for more flavors to be extracted. Too fine, and you’ll end up with over extraction, which will give bitterness to your brew.

The Pour

Simply pouring your hot water over the coffee grounds can do more damage than you may realise. Pouring in a single spot will disperse the grinds, resulting in the water forming a path of least resistance straight through the filter, resulting in an under extracted brew. The best way to pour is in two phases.

Firstly the ‘bloom’ phase, where you pour roughly 30g of water onto the grounds, in a circular motion, from the outside of the Hario to the inside. This helps the beans to release carbon dioxide before you move onto extraction. This is left around 30 seconds to allow the gases to be released.

The next phase, extraction, uses a steady and slow pour, again using circular motions. This time smaller circles from the middle to the outer, making sure that all of the grinds have been saturated evenly.

These are just a few tips on perfecting your Hario V60 brewing at home. Have you got some suggestions? Leave them in the comments below!

Want to try the Hario V60 for yourself? You can pick up a Hario V60 starter kit from Amazon