What Water Temperature for Pour Over Coffee?
Water temperature is one of the easiest ways to change how a pour over tastes. Here's where to start and how to adjust.
The usual range
Most pour over recipes use water between about 195 and 205°F (90 to 96°C). That's a little below boiling.
- Too cool and the coffee can taste sour, thin and under-extracted.
- Too hot, especially with dark roasts, and it can taste harsh and bitter.
Adjust for the roast
- Light roasts: the hotter end, around 200 to 205°F. Light-roasted beans are denser and need more heat to extract.
- Medium roasts: around 198 to 202°F.
- Dark roasts: the cooler end, around 195 to 198°F. They extract easily and can turn bitter at high temperatures.
These are starting points. Taste and adjust a few degrees at a time.
With a temperature-control kettle
Set the temperature and wait. Kettles like the Fellow Stagg EKG Pro set it to the degree and hold it while you grind and rinse your filter.
Without one
- Boil the water, then wait. Off the boil, water cools quickly at first. Waiting about 30 seconds to a minute usually brings it into the brewing range.
- Use a thermometer if you want to be sure.
- Pour into a gooseneck kettle after boiling, which also cools it a little.
Altitude
Water boils at a lower temperature at high altitude. If you live high up, your "boiling" water may already be in, or below, the brewing range. Some kettles, like the Stagg EKG Pro, have an altitude setting.
Keep everything else the same
When you change temperature, keep the grind, dose and pour the same, so you can taste the difference. For grind size, see our pour over grind size guide.
For five gooseneck kettles compared, see our gooseneck kettle for pour over comparison.