BKG Brew Guide: How to Make The Perfect Iced Pour Over

Now that it’s officially iced coffee season, are you keeping your cold brew in stock all the time? Nothing is more satisfying than a glass of iced coffee on a hot and humid day. Today, we want to share a quick iced coffee recipe using V60 pour over dripper. This recipe is perfect if you prefer a refreshing iced coffee with more bright notes. It takes roughly the same time as a regular pour over. So it’s also a great recipe for an emergency iced coffee brew.

To make a pourover on ice, you’ll need:

• coffee beans
• burr grinder
• V60 pour over brewer
• V60 filter
• scale
• timer
• gooseneck kettle
• ice
• decanter or glass large enough to hold 16 oz of liquid.

STEP 1: GET THE WATER READY

We are using a total of 250g water, with the temperature between 205°F and 210°F.

STEP 2: SET UP V60

Insert filter and make sure it fits the dripper perfectly. Rinse filter with hot water. Discard rinse water.

Fill decanter or glass with 80g of ice. Anchor dripper securely on top of decanter or glass.

STEP 3: GRIND YOUR COFFEE

Measure 30g of coffee. We are using a medium-fine grind size for this recipe.

STEP 4: BLOOM

Gently pour 60g of water over the coffee ground. Make sure water saturates the coffee evenly. You can do so by swirling the dripper or by carefully dipping a spoon in the slurry to encourage water penetration.

Let coffee “bloom” for 45 seconds or up to 1’30”. The bloom time in this recipe is significantly longer to compensate for a higher dilution rate over ice.

STEP 5: PULSE POUR

Without raising the slurry too high, pulse pour 190g of water until the end weight reads 250g.

The finished coffee ground should look relatively flat with very little raised coffee ground on the side of the filter.

Total brew time should fall between 2’15” to 3”00”.

STEP 6: ADD ICE

Remove the dripper once the slurry finishes dripping. Give finished coffee a stir to incorporate melted ice and coffee. The temperature at this point is slightly warmer than room temperature. Add ice to flash chill finished coffee and serve!

HOW TO DIAL IN YOUR COFFEE

This quick iced coffee recipe tends to produce a refreshing and lighter cup. Since we are brewing hot coffee directly on top of ice to flash chill the hot liquid, it’s easy to end up with an under extracted cup because of the dilution.

Therefore, it’s important to use a medium-fine grind size, and extend the bloom time.

If your coffee tastes too sour and thin, try using a finer grind or extend bloom time even further. You can also introduce physical agitation during pulse pours to encourage further extraction.

If your coffee starts to taste bitter and medicinal, this means the coffee is over extracted. Using a coarse grind should address this issue, however it is still important that the slurry is evenly extracted, and the brew time is within 3’00”.

BONUS PRO TIPS

For this recipe, a steady and slow pour can help increase extraction. When you pour, try to start at the center and slowly circle outward until the water is about ¼ inch from the top of the filter. Stop pouring without circling back. Wait until the water recedes and repeat until you reach the desired end weight.

Check out our previous posts on pour over for tips that can help you gain better control of your gooseneck kettle.

Different origins of coffee may give you a drastically different cup. For instance, Colombian and Kenyan coffees might give you a more herbal cup. We find that most Central American coffees work very well with this method, such as our Nicaragua and Costa Rica. 

Use the filter of your choice as long as it fits the dripper. Generally speaking, bleached filters impart less of the “papery” flavor from the wood pulp. Nowadays, coffee filters are mostly “bleached” via the oxygen-bleaching methods, which is safe for brewing coffee as well as much more eco-friendly than chemical bleaching.

HAPPY BREWING

The best thing about this recipe is that a glass of a refreshing iced coffee is only less than 5 minutes away. The higher brewing temperature also results in a cup that has more fruit notes, which also makes this a great recipe for exploring a lighter, more delicate roast on ice.

Please give this recipe a try and let us know: do you like how it turns out? What coffee do you end up using? Have you tried it with milk, or feeling adventurous, some tonic water?