That’s right, a funnel in a pint glass with a big 12-cup coffee filter in it. It’s not a cone filter, or a flat filter. It’s a plain old 12-cup filter folded to fit the funnel.
The holder is a funnel.
How cheap?
I found a pack of around 500 filters at the Goodwill for $3. The coffee is regular Maxwell House from Grocery Outlet, and, yeah, it kind of sucks. It’s good enough for ice coffee with milk or cream. It cost a dollar. A dollar!
I found the funnel, but you can buy one for 1 or 2 bucks at a dollar store. If you ever come across one of these aluminum or stainless steel ones, it’s treasure!
If you don’t want to haunt the thrift store to find the filters, just look on Ebay. There’s “open box” packs. Offices and restaurants go out of business all the time, and they have opened packs of 1,000 filters with several hundreds left. They say to “make an offer”, so offer around 50% of the asking price.
You can also find the big 12 cup filters at Walmart, Amazon, Target, etc.
What grind size should I be using for pour over?
I have no idea. I’m not going to re-grind the coffee. The grind is a little too coarse, so, what do I do?
I take a second cup, and pour the brewed coffee through the grounds again. It comes out a lot darker, more burnt tasting, and a little richer.
What about the kettle? What kind of inexpensive kettle should I buy?
Beats me. I use a saucepan to heat the water. Then, I pour it over slowly. If I need more control, I use a measuring cup with a handle and beak spout as a dripper.
You can also use a big spoon to regulate the dripping.
Pour over vs French press?
Pour over. This is so much easier to clean than a Bodum French press. It’s easier to clean than a Bialetti Moka pot. You just pull out the filter full of coffee and toss it or compost it. It’s just like a regular coffee maker.
What temperature do you use?
The optimal water temperature is 95C.
I don’t boil the water much. When little bubbles form on the bottom of the saucepan, I stop heating it, and then swirl the water around to get it to one temperature.
The bubbles indicate that the water on the bottom is vaporizing – it’s 100C. I assume the water on the top is below 100C.
You can also use a kettle, but the problem there is that you cannot watch the water. You have to let it boil, then take it off the heat, and rest for a minute to get the temperature down.
You can rinse out the filter, but I don’t bother. Yes, it helps. It’s just more work.
How to Pour
Pour over is two steps. The first is to pour in enough to soak the grounds. Some people stir it. The coffee swells up, and starts to foam. If it’s not foaming, it wasn’t hot enough. This is the bloom. You get to this part, and stop pouring for 30 seconds or so.
Then, the second step: you pour in more water slowly, and you usually get a not-very-dark drip coffee.
Sometimes, I’ll taste the brew. I like it kind of bitter. It’s usually pretty weak, so, after the drip is done, I’ll take some coffee and pass it through the grounds, again (into another cup). If that tastes OK, I make more of this double brew, or blend the two together.
What’s the better material for a filter holder? Glass or ceramic? Plastic or steel?
They’re the same. The glaze on the ceramic is glass. The main difference is that a ceramic one has more mass, so it’ll lower the water temperature more.
Plastic and steel won’t lower the water temperature as much, because they have less mass. Plastic really won’t lower it at all.
What is Pour Over Coffee?
It’s like drip coffee, similar to a coffee machine, but one cup at a time, and done by hand.
Pour over is trendy because a barista does it, and you can watch. The equipment for it looks unusual, and is kind of expensive, for what it is.