Pour Over Grind Size: How to Dial In Without Wasting Beans
Every pour over recipe gives a grind size like "medium" or "like coarse sand". Neither tells you which number to turn your grinder to, because every grinder's numbers are different. Here is a way to find your setting in three or four brews.
Start in the middle
On a grinder with a numbered dial, start in the middle third of the range. On a 40-step grinder like the Baratza Encore, that means somewhere around the middle, not at either end. On a hand grinder, count clicks from fully closed and start around the maker's suggested filter range.
Grind 15 grams for a single cup, brew with 250 grams of water, and time how long it takes from the first pour to the last drip.
Read the drain time
For a single-cup V60 or similar cone, most recipes land somewhere between about two and a half and three and a half minutes total.
- Drains fast and tastes sour or thin: the grind is too coarse. Go one or two steps finer.
- Drains slowly, stalls, or tastes bitter and dry: too fine. Go one or two steps coarser.
- Drains in range and tastes sweet with a clean finish: stop. Write the number down.
Change only the grind between brews. Keep the dose, water and pour the same, or you will not know what fixed it.
Why small steps matter
This is where the grinder's design shows. On a 40-step dial, one click is a small move and the cup changes a little; you can walk toward the right setting. On a grinder with 15 or 16 settings, one click can jump from under-extracted to over-extracted, and the best cup is between two numbers you cannot reach. Micro-adjustments between numbers help, but they are harder to repeat tomorrow.
Keep notes
Different beans want different settings: a light roast usually needs to be finer than a dark roast. A line in a notebook or a phone note, "Ethiopian light roast, setting 18, 2:50", saves you the whole process next bag.
When the number stops working
If a setting that was perfect starts producing slow, bitter brews, the burrs probably need cleaning. Fines and oils build up over a few weeks. Brush the burrs out, or run a grinder cleaning tablet through, before you start turning the dial again.