Pour Over Coffee: How to Make It at Home (V60 Guide, Australia)

Reviewed by Chris Newsome, Founder — Coffee Machine Specialist

Pour over coffee is filter coffee made by hand: hot water poured slowly over a bed of ground coffee sitting in a paper filter, dripping through into a cup or server below. It makes a clean, bright, aromatic cup that shows off a good bean better than almost any other method, and a complete setup — dripper, filters, kettle, scale — costs less than a single accessory for an espresso machine. We stock the Hario V60 range, Cafec filter papers, gooseneck kettles and brewing scales in our Woolloongabba showroom, and this guide covers what pour over is, the gear you actually need, a step-by-step V60 recipe with ratio and water temperature, and how to fix a cup that tastes wrong.

What pour over coffee is (and isn’t)

Pour over is the manual version of drip coffee. A drip coffee machine heats the water and showers it over the grounds for you; with pour over, you’re the machine. That sounds like more work, and it is — three or four minutes of attention — but it gives you control of the three things that decide how the cup tastes: the water temperature, how fast you pour, and how evenly the coffee bed gets wet.

It is not espresso. Espresso forces water through finely ground coffee at around 9 bar of pressure in 30 seconds and gives you a small, intense, syrupy shot. Pour over uses gravity alone, a coarser grind, and a lot more water, and gives you a full cup that’s lighter in body but clearer in flavour — the fruit and floral notes in a light-roast single origin come through in a way they never quite do in espresso. It’s also not a moka pot or a plunger: both of those leave more oils and fines in the cup, so they taste heavier. If you like your coffee black and you like tasting where the beans came from, pour over is the method built for you.

What you need

You can make pour over with a dripper, a filter and a kettle from the cupboard. A few extra pieces make it consistent rather than occasional. Prices below are recommended retail as of November 2026.

• A dripper. The Hario V60 is the standard — a 60-degree cone with a single large hole and spiral ribs inside that keep the paper off the wall so water flows evenly. It comes in three sizes: 01 (one to two cups), 02 (one to four cups, the size most people should buy) and 03 (larger batches). The V60 02 plastic dripper is $14.95 and brews as well as the ceramic at $38.95 — plastic needs less preheating, because it draws less heat out of the water than heavy ceramic does. Buy ceramic or glass for the look, not the cup.
• Paper filters that match the dripper. V60 filters are sized 01, 02 and 03 to match the cone. Hario’s own papers are the default; Cafec papers are the upgrade — thinner, faster-flowing and made in Japan, with light-roast, medium and dark-roast versions whose thickness and crepe are tuned to how each roast level extracts, and an Abaca paper made from Manila hemp that flows smoothly and rarely clogs. A 100-pack is $15–$16, so this is not the place to economise.
• A gooseneck kettle. The single biggest upgrade to your pour. A normal kettle dumps water in a rush; a narrow gooseneck spout lets you pour a thin, steady stream exactly where you want it. The stovetop Hario V60 Buono at $85 is the classic. If you’d rather set the temperature and forget it, the Fellow Stagg EKG Pro at $359 is an electric gooseneck with a temperature dial from 57 to 100 °C, a hold mode and a built-in brew timer.
• A scale with a timer. Pour over is a ratio — grams of coffee to grams of water — and a timer keeps the bloom and total brew time honest. Anything with 0.1 g accuracy and a 2 kg capacity works; see our coffee scales guide for what to look for and which we stock.
• A burr grinder. Grind fresh, and grind with burrs rather than blades so the particles are an even size. A hand grinder like the Hario Skerton Plus at $76 is fine for one or two cups a day; our hand grinder guide covers the options, and the coffee grinders range covers electric filter grinders if you brew more.
• A server (optional). A glass server like the Hario V60 600 ml at $47.95 lets you brew two cups at once and see the drip. Brewing straight into a mug is fine for one.

If you want it all in one box, the Hario V60 Craft Coffee Maker at $45.94 bundles an 02 plastic dripper, an 02 glass server, filters and a scoop — add coffee, water and a kettle.

The recipe: how to make pour over coffee step by step

This is a standard V60 recipe for one large cup. Adjust the numbers, keep the method.

1. Weigh 15 g of coffee and grind it medium-fine — a little finer than raw sugar, coarser than table salt. Set the kettle to 92–96 °C; lighter roasts like the hotter end, darker roasts the cooler end. If you have no thermometer, boil the kettle and wait 30–45 seconds.
2. Rinse the filter. Put the paper in the dripper, sit it on your cup or server, and pour hot water through it. This washes out the paper taste and heats the dripper. Tip the rinse water out.
3. Add the coffee and tare. Pour the grounds in, give the dripper a gentle shake to level the bed, and zero the scale.
4. Bloom: pour 30–45 g of water (two to three times the coffee weight) over all the grounds, wetting everything, and start the timer. The bed will swell and bubble as gas escapes. Wait 30–45 seconds.
5. Pour the rest in stages. Pour slowly in small circles from the centre outward, keeping the water level steady and avoiding the paper edge. Bring the total to about 150 g by 1:15, then to 240 g by around 1:45. A 1:16 ratio — 15 g coffee to 240 g water — is the standard starting point.
6. Let it drain. Once you stop pouring, a gentle swirl of the dripper flattens the bed. The drip should finish at about 2:30 to 3:30 total. Remove the dripper, and drink.

That’s it. The whole thing takes four minutes, and after a week you’ll do it without looking at the clock.

Dialling it in: sour, bitter, weak, strong

The recipe gets you close; the grinder gets you the rest of the way. Change one thing at a time.

• Sour, thin, finished draining quickly — under-extracted. Grind finer, or pour slower. Check the water was hot enough.
• Bitter, harsh, drained slowly — over-extracted. Grind coarser, or drop the water temperature a couple of degrees. Cafec’s faster-flowing papers help here too.
• Weak but not sour — you want more coffee, not a finer grind. Move the ratio toward 1:15 (16 g to 240 g).
• Too strong — more water, toward 1:17.
• Different every day — weigh everything, use the same water temperature, and grind right before you brew. Consistency is the scale and the timer, not the technique.

Choosing a dripper, filter and kettle

V60 vs the rest. The V60 is fast-flowing and rewards a steady pour, which is why it’s the reference dripper. The Cafec Deep 27 flower dripper at $30 uses a deeper, narrower cone for small doses. The Brewista Tornado Duo at $54.95 is a double-wall glass cone with spiral ribs that holds brewing temperature and stays cool to hold. A Chemex 6-cup at $86.49 is dripper and server in one, uses thicker bonded filters, and makes a very clean, lighter cup for two or three people. Start with a V60 02; branch out once you know what you like.

Plastic, ceramic or glass. Same shape, same coffee. Plastic is cheapest and needs the least preheating. Ceramic and glass look better on the bench and need a thorough pre-rinse to warm up. Metal (the V60 2-cup metal dripper) is for people who want it to last forever.

Filters. Match the size to the dripper. Hario papers are consistent and cheap; Cafec’s roast-specific papers are a real, tasteable upgrade for light roasts, and the Abaca paper is the one we’d buy for everyday use.

Kettle. Buy a gooseneck. Stovetop if you have a thermometer or don’t mind the boil-and-wait method; electric with temperature control if you want repeatability without thinking about it.

See the full pour over range for everything above, and our drip coffee brewers and brewing equipment page for the wider filter-coffee kit.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best ratio for pour over coffee?

Start at 1:16 — 15 g of coffee to 240 g of water for one large cup, or 30 g to 480 g for two. Move toward 1:15 if you want it stronger and 1:17 if you want it lighter. Weigh both the coffee and the water; scoops and cup markings are too inconsistent to repeat.

What water temperature should I use for pour over?

92–96 °C. Use the hotter end for light roasts, which need more energy to extract, and the cooler end for dark roasts, which turn bitter if pushed. Without a temperature-controlled kettle, boil and wait 30–45 seconds before pouring.

How do I make pour over coffee without a scale?

You can — use a level tablespoon per 100 ml of water as a rough guide and time the brew with your phone — but the cup will vary day to day because coffee scoops don’t weigh the same twice. A basic brewing scale with a timer costs around $55 and fixes it.

Why does my pour over taste bitter?

It’s over-extracted: the grind is too fine, the water too hot, or the pour too slow, so water sat on the coffee too long. Grind a step coarser first, then try dropping the water temperature a couple of degrees. A brew that took well over four minutes to drain is the giveaway.

Is a V60 better than a Chemex?

They make a different cup. The V60 is faster, more responsive to how you pour, and better for one or two cups; the Chemex uses thicker filters for a very clean, lighter-bodied brew and suits larger batches. Most people should start with a V60 02 — it’s $15 in plastic and it teaches the method.

Do I need a gooseneck kettle for pour over?

Not to make coffee, but yes to make it well. A gooseneck’s narrow spout lets you pour a thin, controlled stream and wet the bed evenly; a standard kettle dumps water and channels through the coffee. It’s the upgrade that makes the biggest difference to a beginner’s cup after fresh beans.

See it in the showroom

Pour over is the cheapest way into properly good black coffee, and it’s a method you can learn in a week. Come and see the V60 sizes, papers and kettles side by side in our Woolloongabba showroom, pick up some fresh coffee beans, or contact us and we’ll put a starter kit together for you.

See also: coffee scales for espresso and pour over, hand coffee grinders, drip coffee machines, and the moka pot guide.