Lab notebook · home brewing, measured

The pour-over lab

An independent, measurement-first reference for brewing coffee at home. Every number on this site — ratios, temperatures, grind descriptions, competition recipes — links back to the standard, study or official page it came from.

Good home coffee is mostly a handful of controllable variables: how much coffee, how much water, how fine the grind, how hot the water, and how long the two stay in contact. Professional bodies such as the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) publish targets for exactly these variables, and university researchers have spent the last few years re-testing them. This lab collects those numbers in one place, explains what each one does in the cup, and gives you simple tools to apply them with nothing more than a kitchen scale and a timer.

Signature dial: grams of water per gram of coffee.

Start with the ratio

If you change only one habit, weigh your coffee and water. The SCA's brewing best practices recommend 55 g of coffee per liter of water (±10%) — roughly a 1:18 ratio — and many brewers work anywhere from about 1:15 to 1:18. The coffee-to-water ratio guide explains where those numbers come from (including the 1950s brewing control chart) and includes a calculator that shows its formula.

The lab's core references

ToolCoffee-to-water ratio calculatorGrams in, grams out, with the SCA 55 g/L reference and French press, pour-over and moka ratios. ToolPrintable coffee ratio chartCups to grams of coffee and water at 1:15–1:18 and 55 g/L, for 8 fl oz and 5 fl oz coffeemaker cups. ReferenceHow much coffee per cupGrams and level tablespoons per cup, which “cup” your coffeemaker means, and how NCA, SCA and maker rules compare. ToolEspresso ratio + yield calculatorDose, yield and shot time explained; ristretto 1:1, normale 1:2, lungo; SCAA, Italian and WBC definitions. ToolExtraction yield calculatorEY% from TDS, dose and beverage weight, with the full-immersion formula from UC Davis research and the 18–22% reference box. ReferenceBrewing control chart explainedLockhart’s 1957 TDS-vs-extraction chart, its nine zones, and the new UC Davis sensory and consumer chart. ReferenceGrind size chartGrind by brew method, plus how contact time and grind size trade off. TechniquePour-over: bloom, pulses, drippersV60 vs. Kalita Wave vs. Chemex vs. Melitta-style, compared in one table. ReferenceWater temperature & chemistryThe 200°F ± 5° target, what the UC Davis research found, altitude, hardness and alkalinity. GuideChemex recipe + historyMaker, roaster and SCA recipes compared, grams for 3- to 10-cup brewers, filter folding, and the 1941 patent to MoMA. GuideMoka pot guideHow the stovetop pot works at 1–2 bar, and how to avoid a bitter finish. GuideFrench press guide30 g per 500 ml, coarse grind, a 4-minute steep, a slow plunge — and what studies say about cafestol. GuideCold brew guide1:5 concentrate vs 1:10 ready-to-drink, 8–24 h steeps, and what food-safety research says about storage. GuideAeroPress recipesThe official method and World AeroPress Championship winning recipes in a table. ExplainerCoffee scales explainedWhat a scale actually measures, flow rate, timers — and a note on the PourX Oura. RecipesPour-over recipesMeasured starting recipes, including the 4:6 method from the 2016 World Brewers Cup.

How this lab works

Measure, then taste. Weights in grams, temperatures in °F and °C, times in minutes and seconds. Volume scoops are mentioned only when a source uses them.
Sourced, not tested. We do not run taste panels or review products. Figures come from standards bodies (SCA), peer-reviewed research (UC Davis Coffee Center), competition organizers and encyclopedic references, and every page lists them.
Nothing for sale. No shop, no affiliate links, no ads. Brands appear only where history or a cited recipe requires it.

Why the old name?

This domain previously belonged to PourX, a Taiwanese company whose Oura scale used lights to guide pour-over brewing. Links from older coffee articles still point here, so the coffee scales explainer includes a short, sourced history note on that scale, and the recipes page continues the theme readers expected. The lab itself is a new, unrelated project — see About and Hello.

New to measured brewing? Read in this order: ratio → grind → water → your brewer's guide. Change one variable per brew and write it down — that is the whole lab method.