Your V60 just brewed in under two minutes and the coffee tastes all wrong – thin, sour and basically hollow. You need to figure out what went wrong.
V60 is one of the best pour over coffee maker out there. The good news is that this is one of the easiest problems to fix – the bad news is that you’ll probably have to adjust your grinder.
How Fast is “Too Fast” for My V60?
Most V60 brews should take between 2:30 and 3:30 to drain completely, depending on how much coffee you’ve put in. A 15g single cup might finish in 2:30, whereas a bigger 30g brew will probably take closer to 3:30.
If you’re consistently finishing in under two minutes, you’re essentially under-extracting – the water is zipping through the coffee too fast to pull out the good stuff, and you’re left with sour, weak and watery coffee that’s lacking body and sweetness.
But here’s the thing: brew time doesn’t tell the whole story. Some fantastic V60 brews finish in 2:15 and others drag on to 4 minutes – what really matters is the taste. If your coffee tastes balanced and sweet, your brew time is probably fine. But if it tastes sour and thin, keep on reading.
The Likely Culprit: Your Grind Size
About 80% of the time, fast draining is due to one thing: your grind is too coarse.
Larger coffee particles leave big gaps between them, and water just rushes through with hardly any resistance – think of pouring water through gravel compared to sand – the gravel goes through fast, the sand takes its time.
For V60, you want a medium-fine grind – somewhere between table salt and fine sand. When you rub it between your fingers, it should feel slightly gritty but not powdery.
Here are some starting points for adjusting your grind on different grinders, but remember these are just a starting point and you may need to adjust them a bit:
- Comandante C40: start at 20-26 clicks
- Timemore C2: start at 16-20 clicks
- Baratza Encore: start at 10-15 clicks
- 1Zpresso JX: start at 2.5-3 rotations
Remember to adjust in small increments – you don’t want to go too fine too quickly.
It’s Not Just the Grind – Your Pouring Technique Matters Too
While grind size is the most important factor, your technique can also make a difference.
Pour rate. Don’t go pouring water too fast – it’ll just force the water through the coffee bed too quickly, leaving you with under-extracted coffee. Try pouring around 5 grams per second – this gives the water time to interact with the grounds. If you don’t have a gooseneck kettle, consider getting one – it makes pouring a whole lot easier.
Pour pattern. Pouring just in the centre of the V60 creates a crater that channels the water straight through while leaving the edges dry – those dry grounds contribute nothing to your cup. Instead, pour in slow spirals from the centre outwards, stopping before you hit the bare filter paper on the sides.
The swirl. After you’ve finished pouring, give the V60 a gentle swirl to level the coffee bed and collapse any channels that have formed – this helps ensure even extraction through the rest of the drawdown. Some people call this move the ‘Rao Spin’, after coffee expert Scott Rao.
Other Things to Check
If you’ve adjusted your grind and sorted out your technique but you’re still experiencing fast draining, it might be worth checking these:
Coffee dose. If your coffee bed is too shallow, the water can actually flow around it rather than through it. Try using at least 15-18g for a V60-01, or 20-25g for a V60-02.
Filter paper. Not all best V60 filters behave the same – Hario’s tabbed filters drain slightly differently to their tabless versions, and third-party filters can vary even more. If you’ve switched to a new filter and noticed faster draining, that might be your culprit.
Roast level. Light roasts are denser and harder to extract, while dark roasts are more porous and give up their flavour quickly. If you switched from a dark roast to a light one without adjusting your grind, you might experience faster draining and sour flavours.
Stale coffee. Fresh coffee contains CO2 that slows water flow during brewing. Old, degassed coffee offers less resistance – if your beans are more than 3-4 weeks past roast, they may drain faster than fresh ones would.
Quick Troubleshooting Guide: What You’re Experiencing… Turned Out to Be
Likely CulpritWhat to Give a GoYour brew finishes in under 2 mins with a sour tasteGrind too roughTry making it a bit finer – 2-3 clicks down should do the trickThin body, weak flavourNot getting enough out of your beansTry a finer grind & slower pourSour & bitterFlavour a bit driven off in every direction? Give it a swirl after pouring to see if your pour pattern is to blameFast drain, switched to new beans recentlyRoast level mismatch? Tweak your grind for the new beansFast drain after changing filtersFilter paper is a bit of an odd one – try adjusting your grind to compensate
Getting to That Perfect Cup
V60 brewing is all about paying attention to the little details – but it’s not brain surgery. One key variable that makes a huge difference: grind size. Crank that up or down and see if it doesn’t make all the difference.
Take it step by step. Make one change at a time. Brew, taste, adjust – repeat this a few times and you’ll be drinking coffee that really hits the spot.
And don’t get too hung up on the exact brew time – its really about making coffee that tastes good to YOU.