Why V60 brew tool is most popular in the world?

Q&A
1

What’s your question? Is it original?
IMPORTANT: Please search the site for an existing conversation. Duplicates are boring, and wasteful.

While I am studying about V60 brew tool, I have found out some of distinctions of the tool. Hario talks about Cone shape, Spiral ribs and Large sing holes. Spiral ribs give us spaces where coffee can expand; it helps coffee be degased. and also spiral pattern encourages fast flow of water. They, however, have not explained why the con-shape is good as a brew tool and single large hole allows fast extraction. No one explains why it is good and no one compare those distinctions to other tools.
First question is why they are good and how it affect to taste of coffee.
I was thinking two type of tools: think depth and deep depth tools

1
1.png1178×600 30.1 KB

Left side the deep depth brew tool would give us uneven extraction. Top of grinds will meet hot water first and while the water goes through grinds, the liquid contains a lot of coffee solubles. So, the liquid just go through middle and bottom grinds but, it may not extract coffee soluble but it makes them wet. I do not think extraction of grinds between top and bottom are even.
Right side the think depth brew tool would give us even extraction. as the layer is thin they can be wetted in the same time and have enough space to expand too. probably its extraction time will be fast. we may change filter which disrupt flow of water or level of pouring power(more slowly) so that, we can control extraction time.
The second question, My idea is thin layer of coffee will give us more even extraction during we brew coffee. What do you think about it?

2

Not sure the V60 is the most popular brewer in the world, I don’t think it’s been around that long, Melitta has been around 100yrs give or take.

I think you may be attributing too much difference to the various known good brewers (truncated cone, V cone & flat bottom). Generally speaking for small manual drip brews, they all work. They can make tasty brews. They can make similar sized brews, at similar extractions, in similar time at the same grind.

The grounds & water are a slurry, until the bed drains out, it doesn’t all sit there in a predetermined order, it all swirls about when you pour & there is standing water over the bed. More sedentary if pouring small pulses that drain out each time.

Grind fineness is more likely a driver of high & even extraction.

Controlling extraction time is less important that controlling grind size. Brews at a constant grind setting & a fixed recipe, but varying times, will vary less by extraction than those at a constant time. Different roasts & origins will brew up similarly, extraction-wise, at different times - this is normal.

As the grinds at the top are extracted, the brew water turns into coffee, the grinds get progressively harder to extract. So the coffee hitting the lower grounds gets weaker/replaced with cleaner water. In a typical drip brew, the water in the bed is replaced around 7 times, enough opportunity for all grounds to get extracted somewhat. Unevenly? If it tastes good, how uneven can it be?

1 Like
3

I reckon recently, in specialty coffee shop and world competition, V60 is one of most popular tool. You are saying a shape of tools are not important and grind fineness is more important. the point of the first question is not how much the shape of tools are important but how the shape of tools affect the taste of coffee. and also I do not think even extract always yum. However, as a dimension of constant extraction, we always need to seek even extractions. Anyway, the second question asked your opinion about how depth of coffee layer in brew tool affects to taste of coffee.

4

The second question isn’t really relevant. It would only be relevant if a shallower bed always scored a higher preference. Whilst it might occasionally make really good brews, if it is more finicky re. extraction, or from silt being flushed through the paper/agitation, then it is moot.

The coffee itself is the biggest variable regarding taste, then how efficiently you brew it. You can change the taste by changing the coffee or water used, without changing anything else.

I have logged many sets of brews with similar grinders, same water, doses from 12-14.5g at 58-61g/L BR with different flat bed, truncated cone & V-cone brewers, steel, plastic, ceramic. When I dial them in & my brews are consistent (<0.9%EY StDev over 10 brews, each with different coffee), I cannot clearly determine a preference across a range of coffees with different brewers.

How are you determining extractions are even, or otherwise? What are the objective, rather than subjective, ways of identifying a little uneven/even/very even brews? The brews I have tasted that were obviously uneven were usually low end of normal to low extractions (16-20%?). In these cases, unevenness seems to be a byproduct of poor grind setting, either very fine with parts of the bed failing to contribute (too much brew water passing through easier to access areas) at the low end, or very coarse with woody bitterness that can be eradicated simply by grinding finer.

If the coffee tastes great, extracts consistently over a normal target range, then we can be confident that the extraction is at least adequately even. If you can’t get in the 18-22% range then it is more likely something you are doing, not the brewer (if a known good model like V60, Kalita Wave, Melitta & similar 2/3 hole designs). If you want the most even extraction, take a coffee and extract it to 29%EY. It’ll be even, but disgusting. :slight_smile:

1 Like
5

Thanks for sharing your opinion!!

6

As to depth of the brew bed, if normal extractioni rates are acheived, the depth does not matter much.

You propose that the very deep bed will not extract evenly. Reality is that the desired fractions of the available solubles in ground coffee are SO soluble there will be little difference realised by even radical differences in bed depth. As clean water hits the upper strata of the bed, it quickly extracts what is most soluble, and carries it downstream as it falls. Since it quickly reaches whatever concentration it does, as it reaches lower levels of unextracted coffee grains, the osmotic pressure to drive the solubles into the already
“full” water is reduced. Further up, as new water comes into contact with the already extraced upper parts of the bed, there is little highly soluble material available, as they are already downstream. What IS available, however, are the heavier fractions, the ones that tend toward bitterness, woodiness, etc. The undesirable farctions. Some of these may easily come out, already having been wetted. But in the overall scheme of things, as new water hits grains still “full” of the readily extractable fractions, they WILL be transferred into the water.

Most folks use immersion techniques even for pourovers, at which point bed depth is relatively insigificant. As mentioined above, grind particle size and size distribution, water temp, contact time, and dose are all far more signficant factors.