Filter Brew Guide

When it all comes down to it, making delicious coffee is pretty simple if you have the right ingredients. To us, that means delicious coffee, great water, a recipe that matches your grind size, grinder and beans, and sometimes a filter paper too.

At Ninth, we love experimenting with our coffees using a range of different brew methods to find how they taste best to us. One of our favourites is the V60: it’s classic, affordable and accessible, and produces wonderfully complex and juicy cups that we’re big fans of. As a starting point, we recommend following these guidelines or scanning the QR code that comes with your beans for a more specific recipe. These should have the coffees tasting fantastic, but of course, your taste buds are key, and it’s important that the coffee tastes good to you specifically.

P.S. You do not have to follow these guidelines to a T to enjoy our coffees, but they generally reflect how our coffees taste best to us. Please enjoy them however they taste best to you!

Golden Ratio

With our filter coffees, we mostly recommend starting at the classically modern ratio of 1:16.6 (15g to 250ml). We typically start here, but if the coffees are tasting a little astringent or too intense, we change the ratio. For more heavily processed coffees, we either dial it back a bit, as they’re easier to over-extract, or increase the water to dilute them (depending on which tastes best). And for our omin roasts we tend to start at 1:15.

A newer approach

In the past, the coffee community has mostly been chasing higher extractions. The theory is that the more you extract from the coffee the more flavours you can get. Although this is true, a lot of the tasty flavours we get from coffee are released quite early in the extraction, while the less tasty ones (harshness, bitterness and dryness) are released later. For this reason, we have recently been enjoying lower extractions in our filter coffee that allow the acidity, crispness and clarity of the coffees to shine through. We do this by altering our variables to extract less. However, we try not to go so far that the coffee comes across as hollow — we are still big fans of body in our coffee, so pushing extraction a little is still necessary (but not too much).

Water Temperature

In the past, it’s been recommended to use water straight from the boil, as this is the most consistent — the temperature will be the same every time. At Ninth, we love consistency but feel that, in the context of coffee extraction, boiling water (100°C) is not optimal. It’s for this reason that we prefer a temperature closer to 92–93°C. For any coffees that are more heavily processed, we may take this further and use a water temperature of around 86°C or less.

Water Chemistry

In the roastery, we use reverse osmosis to filter our water. This takes our PPM (Parts Per Million) from around 400 to just 80.

On the whole, we do not recommend tap water for filter coffees. If you live in a hard-water area (like us), we would recommend filtering it or distilling it and then remineralising it. That said, some places have fantastic water straight from the tap. If that’s the case where you live, or if you only have access to tap water, then by all means use it. Our favourite method would be to use a water distiller and then remineralise the water yourself using barista hustle’s amazing blog post or use pre-made products like lotus water drops, apex, third wave etc. Otherwise, just use filtered water.

Once again, filtered water isn’t necessary for great coffee, but it does allow more of the complexity and vibrancy to come out in the cup.

Grind Size

This one can be somewhat difficult to communicate online, as every grinder is different, and even grinders of the same make and model can create different grind sizes and results when brewing. Each one will have a different sweet spot for each coffee and brewing method. That being said, one of our go-to options for a delicious coffee is the 1zPresso Zp6. We often start around 4.5–5.5. This is pretty coarse and tastes fantastic with this grinder as it produces very few fines (known as a unimodal distribution) which allows us to do high agitation (5 pours + high turbulence) at this grind size. Low agitation and fewer pours also produce fantastic results at this grind size. However, as we mentioned, every grinder is different and will have a different sweet spot. If your grinder produces more fines, we would recommend a recipe with less agitation (fewer pours) or something much more forgiving, like a cafetière. This will have a little more body and slightly less clarity but still produces delicious cups, which we’ll touch on later.

Filter paper

This is one of the often-forgotten topics of filter coffee, but it has a huge impact on the final cup. Having a paper with a greater surface area makes it more difficult for the fines to block the pores of the paper and stall your brews (making them run for 4 minutes or more). Faster papers give you more flexibility when it comes to extracting your coffees and make the process a little more forgiving. Although it’s possible to buy very expensive, fast-flow filter papers to help with this, we personally find it difficult to recommend them because of the cost. The best value for money we’ve found, balancing price and performance, is Cafec t-90 papers (available from our website soon).

Coffee Resting

This is a very important side note before brewing coffee.

We recommend resting our coffees for at least 2 weeks before brewing (or 1 week in an absolute pinch), but the real sweet spot is 3–5 weeks. Ideally, brew them before 3 months have passed. The coffee will still taste great after this point, but will have lost some of its aromatic compounds and will have a little less flavour to give. Resting is important because carbon dioxide (CO2) gets trapped within the coffee beans during the roasting process. It is very difficult to extract the tasty soluble compounds from the coffee if it’s too preoccupied with releasing all of its CO2. Waiting a couple of weeks massively reduces this and allows the coffee to open up and share its flavours more easily. It also makes it way more predictable and easier to dial in, as it’s not all gassy and bubbly! We love how our coffees open up and are expressed differently at different resting points.

Brew Guides

Classic 5-pour

For washed coffees and low-fines-producing grinders, or when you want to emphasise acidity and body.

15g coffee to 250ml water.

Coarse grind size: 5–5.5 on the 1zPresso Zp6.

Creates crisp, high clarity and juicy cups.

1. Bring water up to temperature (92°C).
2. Pre-wet the filter paper in a V60 dripper (if it’s plastic, don’t worry about preheating) and place it on a carafe or cup.
3. Weigh coffee (15g) and grind at a coarse grind size (5.5 on Zp6 or 10 on the Timemore Sculptor 078).
4. Bloom the coffee: Add about 50g of water and give it a gentle swirl, making sure all the coffee has been wetted — this allows the rest of the CO2 to be released to unlock more flavours. Let it bloom for 45 seconds.

For these next pours, we recommend a flow rate of 6–8 ml/s in concentric circles about the size of a £1 coin.

1. At 45 seconds, add another 50g of water (100g total)
2. At 1:05, add another 50g of water (150g total)
3. At 1:25, add another 50g of water (200g total)
4. At 1:45, add your final 50g of water (250g total)
5. Total drawdown should be around 2:30.
6. Serve and enjoy — give it a mix before you do so, as the coffee at the bottom will be a little more concentrated than the coffee at the top. This gives you a more consistent and delicious cup.

If the drawdown is taking 3:30 or longer, the grinder may produce too many fines for this recipe (but still taste it — it might taste great!). If this is the case, experiment with a different grind size, lower agitation or faster-flowing filter papers (Sibarist or KillBean Lyocell — these cost more but may be worth it in this case). If the brews are still taking too long and tasting over-extracted, we would recommend the recipe below.

Lance Hedrick 121 Recipe

For higher-fines-producing grinders and/or more heavily processed coffees, or when we want to emphasise clarity and sweetness.

For this, we still recommend a relatively coarse grind size, but a little finer than the recipe above.

1. Bring water up to temperature (92°C).
2. Pre-wet the filter paper in a V60 dripper (if it’s plastic, don’t worry about preheating) and place it on a carafe or cup.
3. Weigh coffee (15g) and grind at a coarse grind size (5 on Zp6 or 9 on the Timemore Sculptor 078).
4. Bloom the coffee: Add about 50g of water and give it a gentle swirl, making sure all the coffee has been wetted — this allows the rest of the CO2 to be released to unlock more flavours. Let it bloom for 2 whole minutes.

45 seconds is the point of diminishing returns for CO2 release, but benefits can still be gained by waiting the full 2 minutes. Do whichever you prefer (2 minutes recommended).

For the next pour, we recommend a flow rate of 6–8 ml/s in concentric circles about the size of a £1 coin.

1. At 45 seconds, add the rest of the water up to the total water weight (250g).
2. Total drawdown should be around 3:30.
3. Serve and enjoy — give it a mix before you do so, as the coffee at the bottom will be a little more concentrated than the coffee at the top. This gives you a more consistent and delicious cup.

The 3-pour

The happy in-between.

If you feel like you’d like more agitation and pours, but nothing as extreme as 5, then this is the recipe for you! This offers a nice balance of clarity and sweetness while still having a lovely body.

1. Bring water up to temperature (92°C).
2. Pre-wet the filter paper in a V60 dripper (if it’s plastic, don’t worry about preheating) and place it on a carafe or cup.
3. Weigh coffee (15g) and grind at a coarse grind size (5 on Zp6 or 10 on the Timemore Sculptor 078).
4. Bloom the coffee: Add about 50g of water and give it a gentle swirl, making sure all the coffee has been wetted — this allows the rest of the CO2 to be released to unlock more flavours. Let it bloom for 45 seconds.

For these next pours, we recommend a flow rate of 6–8 ml/s in concentric circles about the size of a £1 coin.

1. At 45 seconds, add 100g of water (150g total)
2. At 1:30, add another 100g of water (250g total)
3. Total drawdown should be around 2:30.
4. Serve and enjoy — give it a mix before you do so, as the coffee at the bottom will be a little more concentrated than the coffee at the top. This gives you a more consistent and delicious cup.

The Cafetière

This is the recipe we would recommend for anyone who has a grinder producing enough fines to clog filter papers and give very long drawdown times, regardless of the recipe used. It’s also a great option if you want something with a little more body or very big batches of coffee. This is much more similar to how the coffee will be expressed in a cupping, which gives a nice insight into the coffee itself rather than how the brewing method is directing its flavour.

A newer approach, part 2

In the past, it’s been recommended to use very coarse grounds for a cafetière. This made a lot of sense when coffee was roasted a lot darker; however, with modern, lightly roasted specialty coffee, it makes less sense. For our style of coffee, we recommend grinding a little finer to encourage a slightly higher extraction. The coffee needs a little extra help, as there isn’t any new water (fresh solvent) being added, which would also add agitation and encourage extraction. The finer grind and mixing help with this.

1. Bring water up to temperature (94°C).
2. Weigh coffee (15g) and grind at a medium grind size (3.5 on Zp6 or 6 on the Timemore Sculptor 078).
3. Add the grounds to the container.
4. Add water (225g) — don’t worry about turbulence or agitation here.
5. Give it a mix (5–10 seconds).
6. Wait 4 minutes.
7. Very gently place the plunger and lid onto the beaker.
8. Very gently push the plunger down (1 minute).

It’s very important to go slowly here, as going too fast can disturb the bed, giving you grounds in your final cup.

1. Serve and enjoy — if you would like a cleaner French press, please feel free to filter it through a filter paper, but this is not at all necessary to enjoy the coffee.

Important Final Note

Watch out for the GAS — and no, I am not referring to the fibre in coffee. I’m talking about gear acquisition syndrome: when you feel like you need a specific grinder, water chemistry or piece of equipment to enjoy specialty coffee. While all of those things do make your life easier and more predictable when it comes to extracting coffee, none of them is a requirement for brewing delicious coffee. You likely have everything you need sitting about at home already to brew delicious coffee. I hope that, regardless of the equipment you have, you find one of the recipes above useful and tasty.

• Please note that there are no affiliations with any of the links provided; they are there just as examples.