In fact, tomorrow, I will be starting up the market season again and will be using a somewhat unique device, an open mesh filter holder, that lets me brew a single cup relatively fast. The problem with brewing coffee this way, is you are trading speed for full-bodied flavor. On the upside, this approach emphasizes the brightness of the coffee, if that is to your taste. I go into more detail in the guide, so I will let that document speak for itself.Manual Drip
Although it is one of the easiest methods to master, the manual drip or pour over also gives you a lot of room to improvise. I recommend starting out with a plastic filter holder. Unlike the porcelain cones, plastic doesn't retain heat and so doesn't need to be warmed up before brewing. That removes one step while you are developing your technique. Eventually, porcelain will be the way to go and generally porcelain cones feature better flow, are easy to clean and offer more heat stability. When shopping for a filter holder, it's preferable to have one with more than one hole and enough internal ribbing to hold the filter away from the sides of the cone. You should also make sure that it fits into the carafe into which you will be brewing the coffee. I recommend a glass-lined vacuum carafe. They are relatively inexpensive, don't react with the coffee (unlike stainless steel) and really hold in heat. Once you have your pour-over cone and carafe picked out, it is time to decide on a filter. The most common types are made from paper, metal, cotton and hemp. Each has its own advantages and disadvantages. I prefer metal because it is both reusable and allows a lot of the coffee flavor oils to pass through. I also frequently use paper because it allows less of the finer grounds to pass through and offers easy clean up. You also need a kettle to heat up your water and a measuring cup to portion it out. As mentioned above, the water should be between 195 and 205 degrees for brewing. You can achieve this by boiling the water and then letting it cool slightly. The time it takes to cool a few degrees really depends on how much water you boiled, the size and how much heat your kettle retains. It can take anywhere from thirty seconds to several minutes. However, if you are using a glass measuring cup, that itself will cool the water by several degrees on contact. If the your coffee taste sour, most likely your water is not hot enough.
Now that you have your equipment in place and water near boil, it's time to grind up your fresh coffee beans. This should be done within a minute or two of when you start brewing. The exception to that rule is if you are using beans that have been roasted within 48 hours. In that case you can grind the beans 5 to 10 minutes before brewing to allow them to off gas a little bit first. As long as you are using relatively fresh beans, ie those that are less than 3 weeks old, you should expect a significant amount of blooming when you begin to pour hot water over the grounds. The sudden heating of the beans releases a small explosion of CO2 gas, which puffs up the grounds in the filter basket. When using an auto-drip machine, you would not see this bloom, but it is one of the main reasons I don't like using such a machine. If you are using fresh beans (and why would you do otherwise) the bloom can cause the grinds to back up into the machine's shower head. I suspect a lot of people compensate by reducing the amount of coffee they use or using too course a setting on the grinder. In fact, one of the most common mistakes people make (besides not using fresh beans) is using too little coffee. The Specialty Coffee Association of America recommends using 10 grams of coffee per cup (6 ounces). For those of you without a gram scale, a one tablespoon coffee scoop measures out, on average 7 grams, of light or medium roasted coffee. A dark roast coffee will be notably lighter due to water loss and bean expansion. An Italian roast, for example, may weigh as little as 5 grams per scoop.
After the bloom has settled, carefully pour the rest of your
water over the grounds so that they wet nice and evenly. The water should drain out of the grinds relatively slowly. Remember this is the pour-over method not the pour through method. If the water is pouring through the grounds, than you may have either used too little coffee or, if you are using a paper filter, it may have broken. However, controlling for those variables, the most likely problem is the grounds are too course. The manual drip method is actually pretty tolerant in terms of grind level, although it can have a substantial impact on the flavors extracted. In my experience, the finer the grind the sweeter and more citrusy the result. In contrast, a courser grind will yield a full bodied, more well rounded cup. The flavor you shoot for is largely a matter of personal preference, but it pays to play around with the grind level a bit depending on the flavors of particular beans.
