How to Brew Better Coffee at Home

Start by weighing coffee and water

For pour-over, try 20 g of ground coffee and 320 g of water for a 1:16 ratio. If you brew with an automatic drip machine, try 20 g to 340 g. For French press, start with 20 g to 300 g and steep for around four minutes before pressing gently and pouring.

Adjust the taste

If the cup is sharp and sour, grind a little finer to help extract more from the grounds. If it tastes harsh, bitter, or drying, try a slightly coarser grind. If the flavour is balanced but the cup is too strong or weak, change the amount of water before adjusting the grind.

Keep track of what works

Change one thing at a time. Note the coffee, dose, water, grind, and how the cup tastes. Once you have a recipe you like, write it down so you can repeat it the next morning.

Scale your next brew

Multiply the coffee dose by the water ratio. For example, 25 g of coffee at 1:16 takes 400 g of water. The calculator on the Forge homepage does the same math for you.