How Long Should a Chemex Pour Over Take? (Solved & Explained!)

Any coffee enthusiast would be ecstatic to get their new Chemex coffeemaker, but how long should your pour-over take?

Your Chemex pour-over should take somewhere between three and a half to four and a half minutes. If you find the pour-over too fast, you may need to use a finer grind or slow down the poor rate. If the pour-over is too slow, you should use a courser grind or a faster pour rate. 

Let’s discover the phases of pour-over coffee so you can perfect your technique and get an amazing-tasting coffee every time. 

What is the Best Pour Over Technique

What qualifies as the best pour-over technique depends on your coffee. Generally speaking, you’ll want to pour in pulses at a boat 100 mL of water at a time. However, understanding how coffee brewing works can help you refine your technique.

Brewing coffee has three main phases: wetting, dissolution, and diffusion. Let’s walk through a little more detail of these phases so that you know what to look for and what you might miss out on.

Phase 1: Wetting

What takes place during the wetting phase is pretty straightforward because the coffee will start drying, and you need to make it wet before you can brew coffee. However, it’s not as simple as it might sound.

One of the critical components of making an excellent pour-over coffee is carbon dioxide gas. Lighter roasted coffees will have carbon dioxide trapped in the cell structure of the coffee beans that leeches out slowly over a matter of weeks.

For dark roast coffee, it involves a process of physically blowing a hole in each cell, so most of the carbon dioxide releases within a few days.

The carbon dioxide is why you see bubbles coming from your coffee once you pour hot water on it. However, the carbon dioxide coming out means that the water isn’t able to get in. this is why the wetting phase is so important because it allows that come day outside to get out before you start to pour the water on for brewing.

The wetting phase should only take about 30 seconds of you waiting for all of the carbon dioxide to escape. The grounds will swell or what professional coffee makers call bloom. The wetting phase also helps the coffee grounds thoroughly saturate so that even the center is soluble, not just the edges.

Phase 2: Dissolution

Dissolution comes from the word dissolve, which is what this phase is about. The water is going to dissolve into the solubles of the coffee grounds.

This phase has a lot to do with the chemistry of coffee making. You can either end up with pleasant organic substances or unpalatable ones. You want to get your timing just right so you dissolve all of the good flavors you wish to include in your cup but stop before the nasty flavors get mixed in.

Phase 3: Diffusion

Diffusion is the phase where the water absorbs into the coffee, and the coffee is starting to filter into the pot. For something like a french press, this is something that happens naturally over time inside the brewing water. However, the Chemex coffee maker, which uses the pour-over style, occurs as you add new water to the filter.

This is why it’s essential to use small bursts while pouring water over your coffee. You want to ensure that you give the water enough time to absorb into the coffee beans and then drip down into the coffee pot below.

How to Pour Over a Chemex

You’re going to be pouring water into your coffee grounds four times. Each time you start in the middle of your coffee grounds, you work in a spiral pattern to the edges almost to the filter. You would then work in a spiral pattern again back to the center of the coffee grounds.

Even though you’re going to be making the spiral pattern, it should only take it for you to pour the water. You will be moving slowly through this pattern but quickly and precisely. It’s best to have your Chemex coffee maker on a scale to measure the amount of water you’re using with each pour-over.

For each pour-over, you will aim for about a hundred grams for your first pour. A timer also helps since it can help you figure out how long you should wait between pouring overs, and aim for about 45 seconds. The subsequent pours should add 200 grams each time or until you reach 700 grams total. 

What is the Best Grind for Chemex?

The coffee grind greatly affects how long your pour-over should take, so picking the right one is an essential skill. The Chemex website suggests that a medium coarse grind is the best since it will allow the best flow rate and extractions. 

If the coffee grounds are too fine, they will clog the filter. If the coffee grounds are too coarse, the water will quickly pass through the coffee instead of diffusing it. 

What is the Best Kettle for Pour Over Coffee?

One f the most important part of making pour-over coffee is having control of the pour-over. How you control how the water infuses with the coffee grinds will depend on the kind of kettle you use. You can use any kettle, but a gooseneck kettle will give you the most control.

There are plenty of different gooseneck kettles, but remember that you can use whatever kill you already own. The only difference is that you’ll have difficulty controlling the speed and amount of water you’re using each time, which means that your coffee will taste different each time you make it.

Conclusion

A Chemex pour over it should take between three and a half to four and a half minutes. However, this does depend on the grind of the coffee beans. A finer grind will cause the pour-over to be faster, whereas a courser grind will cause clogging and slow down the pour-over.