Pour Over Coffee Without a Scale
Brew method · Pour over
Pour Over Coffee Without a Scale
A scale is the cheapest useful thing you can buy for coffee, and you should buy one. Until you do, you can brew a respectable pour over with a tablespoon and a mug. Here are the real numbers, and an honest account of how wrong they are.
Why coffee is sold by weight
Because weight is the only thing that does not move. Volume moves with everything. A bean loses mass and expands as it roasts, so a spoonful of dark roast weighs less than the same spoonful of a light roast from the same estate. Grinding changes it again, because grounds fill the air gaps that whole beans leave between them. A tablespoon is not a unit of coffee. It is a unit of space, and you are guessing at what is inside it.
Expect to be somewhere around 10 to 20 per cent off a weighed dose. That is enough to shift a brew from correct to noticeably thin or noticeably heavy. Work inside that error rather than pretending it is not there.
The spoon numbers
A tablespoon is about 15 ml. Filled level with medium-ground filter coffee, that holds roughly 5 to 6 grams. The same spoon filled with whole beans holds roughly 4.5 to 5.5 grams, because whole beans stack with gaps. Light roasts sit near the top of both ranges and dark roasts near the bottom. The plastic scoop that comes with a drip machine is usually two tablespoons, so 10 to 12 grams of grounds.
Level the spoon with a finger. A heaped tablespoon holds close to half as much again, and heaping is not repeatable.
| Water | Target dose | Level tbsp, ground | Level tbsp, whole bean |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200 ml | 12–13 g | 2¼ | 2½ |
| 250 ml | 15–16 g | 3 | 3 |
| 300 ml | 18–19 g | 3½ | 3¾ |
| 400 ml | 25 g | 4½ | 5 |
| 500 ml | 31 g | 5¾ | 6¼ |
All of that assumes 1:16, which is a sensible middle for filter. Go to 1:15 if you want it stronger, 1:17 if you want it lighter. The coffee to water ratio guide has the numbers for other methods.
The water half is exact, so use it
One millilitre of water weighs one gram, near enough for brewing. Every recipe written in grams of water is also a recipe in millilitres, which means half of your ratio needs no scale at all. A measuring jug, a marked bottle or a kettle with a window gives you the water side to the gram.
Measure your mug once, with a jug, and write the number somewhere. As a rough guide, a small steel tumbler holds 100 to 150 ml, a standard mug 250 to 300 ml, and a large one 350 to 400 ml. Fill it with the water you would actually drink, not to the brim.
This is the whole trick. Nail the water exactly and the only variable left is the dose, and the dose is the one you can correct by taste tomorrow. If the cup is thin, add a quarter spoon. If it is heavy, take one away. Two mornings of that and you have a spoon count that works for your bag and your mug.
The other instruments
Judging the brew without numbers
Judge it by sight
Pour just enough to darken every ground with no dry patches, and stop when the first drops reach the carafe. Fresh coffee will dome and crack as carbon dioxide escapes. Wait until the dome stops rising and begins to settle, which takes about 30 to 45 seconds. A bed that stays flat and never rises is telling you the coffee is old.
Time it anyway
You almost certainly own a phone, and a phone is a timer, so this problem is usually imaginary. If you genuinely have neither, count out loud and slowly — counted seconds run fast when you are concentrating. A single-mug V60 wants roughly 2:30 to 3:00 from the first pour to the last drip.
Calibrate once, keep it
The day the scale arrives, weigh three level spoons from the bag you drink most and take the average. Write it on the grinder or the bag. Repeat for a noticeably darker or lighter roast, because that number will change.
Buy the scale
None of the above is as good as weighing. A 0.1 g scale costs less than a bag of good coffee and lasts years, and it removes the largest source of variation in home brewing in one purchase. Our brew guides are written in grams because grams are the only way to give a recipe that behaves the same in your kitchen as in ours.
Until then, spoon it, measure the water properly, and adjust by taste. That is how coffee was made for a very long time, and it was not all bad.
Questions
Brewing without a scale, answered
How many tablespoons of coffee do I need for one cup?
For a 250 ml mug at 1:16, about three level tablespoons of medium-ground coffee, which is roughly 15 to 16 grams. For a 200 ml cup, a little over two. Level the spoon rather than heaping it, and adjust by a quarter spoon at a time once you have tasted the result.
How much does a tablespoon of coffee weigh?
Roughly 5 to 6 grams for medium-ground filter coffee and roughly 4.5 to 5.5 grams for whole beans, because whole beans pack with air between them. Darker roasts weigh less per spoon than lighter ones, since they have lost more mass and expanded more in the drum. Treat any single figure with suspicion.
Is a coffee scoop the same as a tablespoon?
No. The scoop supplied with drip machines is normally two tablespoons, around 10 to 12 grams of grounds. If a recipe says one scoop and you use one tablespoon, you will brew at roughly half strength.
Do I need a scale for water as well?
No. One millilitre of water weighs one gram at kitchen temperatures, so any measuring jug or marked bottle gives you the water side of the ratio exactly. Measure your usual mug once and write the volume down. That alone removes half the guesswork.
Can pour over be good without a scale?
It can be good. It cannot be consistent, which is a different thing. Volumetric dosing runs about 10 to 20 per cent off, so a cup you like is hard to repeat and a cup you dislike is hard to diagnose. Fresh coffee, a sensible grind and accurate water will get you most of the way there.
Roasted to order in New Delhi