Dialing in a V60 without a scale-shaped headache

I spent about six weeks treating every morning coffee like a lab experiment, changing three variables at once and then wondering why nothing improved. Classic. This is the recipe I landed on and, more usefully, the note-to-self about what I was doing wrong.

The three numbers

• Ratio 1:16 — 15 g coffee to 240 g water. Easy to scale, easy to remember.
• Grind: medium, a touch finer than table salt. On my hand grinder that’s a specific click count I’ve now scratched onto the lid with a knife so I stop guessing.
• Total brew time ~2:45. If it runs long, the grind’s too fine; if it gushes through in 1:30, too coarse.

The mistake I kept making

I was pouring too aggressively at the start and drowning the bloom. The fix was almost embarrassingly simple: wet the grounds with roughly twice their weight in water, wait 35–40 seconds, and then pour slowly in concentric circles. The difference between “fine” and “oh, that’s nice” was entirely in that first 45 seconds.

Bloom, wait, pour slow. Everything else was noise.

Rough method, for next time I forget

1. Rinse the paper filter with hot water, dump the rinse water.
2. 15 g coffee, medium grind, gentle shake to level the bed.
3. Pour ~30 g to bloom. Start the timer. Wait ~35 s.
4. Slow spirals up to 150 g by 1:15.
5. Top up to 240 g by around 1:45, aiming to finish the drawdown near 2:45.

Water just off the boil, maybe 92–94 °C. I stopped measuring that too — kettle off, count to twenty, pour.