Dial in dose, brew water, and cup weight for pour over, batch brew, French press, AeroPress, and espresso. Keep recipes repeatable across shifts and see how each brew lines up with your target ratio.
Balanced hand-brew starting point with clear flavor separation.
Recipe weights
Ground coffee on the scale before you brew.
Total water you add during the brew (input weight).
This estimate subtracts water held in the coffee bed using the retention slider below. It does not account for evaporation or liquid left in your dripper, server, or cups. Turn off if you weighed the drink in the cup.
Most filter brews land near 1.8–2.2 g water per g coffee. Espresso pucks are usually lower. This slider only models retention in the bed—not evaporation or gear residue.
Use this as your dial-in target, then compare the live recipe against it.
Use weight, not volume. Brew ratio is much more stable when coffee and water are both measured on a scale.
Choose a coffee dose that fits your brewer size (e.g., 15-20g for a single cup, 60-80g for a large batch). This is your "anchor"—the variable you’ll change least often when perfecting a brew.
For pour over or batch brew, total brew water is the most standard way to define a recipe. For espresso, use the beverage yield (e.g., 1:2 ratio) as your primary metric because it correlates more closely with taste and texture in the cup.
Pay attention to how much "beverage out" actually lands in your server or cup. This is your "Liquid Yield" and tells you how much water was lost to retention (absorption by grounds) or residue.
If the cup is sharp or sour, move to a tighter ratio (more coffee/less water). If it’s bitter or dry, move to a more open ratio (less coffee/more water).
| What you taste | The Likely Culprit | The Fix (Ratio) | The Fix (Grind) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sour, acidic, salty | Under-extracted | Increase water (open ratio) | Grind Finer |
| Bitter, dry, astringent | Over-extracted | Decrease water (tighten ratio) | Grind Coarser |
| Weak, watery, thin | Low strength (TDS) | Tighten ratio (more coffee) | Finer (to increase extraction) |
| Strong, intense, muddy | High strength (TDS) | Open ratio (less coffee) | Coarser (to clarity flavors) |
Balanced hand-brew starting point with clear flavor separation.
Slightly tighter ratios keep immersion brews full without getting muddy.
Dial with dose and yield in the cup. Shot water below is mainly for comparing input ratio and for retention math if you use the estimate.
A broader brew ratio window helps match roast development and grinder style.
Works well for concentrated or bypass brews; start near the middle and taste.
Brew ratio is the single fastest way to make a coffee recipe repeatable. Once the ratio is locked, baristas can speak a shared language: how much coffee went in, how much water was used, and how much beverage landed in the cup.
Strength (TDS): This is the concentration of coffee solids in the water. Ratio is your main dial for strength—tighter ratios are stronger.
Extraction Yield: This is how much of the coffee bean’s weight you dissolved into the water. Grind and time are your main dials here—finer grinds extract more.
"Brew ratio simply gives you a stable baseline so your next adjustment is deliberate instead of random. It won't replace your palate, but it will help you find the sweet spot faster."