How Much Coffee for a Pour Over Coffee Maker: The Exact Ratio That Works

You bought a nice V60 or Chemex, dialed in your grinder, and heated the water. Then you stood there with a scoop, wondering: how much coffee do I actually put in this thing? That moment of hesitation is where most pour overs go sideways. Too little coffee and you get a weak, sour cup. Too much and you’re choking down something bitter and over-extracted.

The good news is that pour over brewing isn’t a mystery. It’s a ratio problem. Once you know the right grams of coffee to grams of water for your specific dripper and taste preference, you can reproduce a great cup every single time. This article walks you through the exact numbers, the math you need to do in your head, and the hidden variables like water hardness and dripper material that quietly ruin your ratio.

You’ll leave with a working formula, not just a chart.

Before we get into the numbers, a quick note on gear. Getting the dose right is nearly impossible without a scale that reads to 0.1 grams. A regular kitchen scale rounds to the nearest gram, which can throw off your ratio by 5% or more. The Maestri House S2 Espresso Coffee Scale is a compact option we’ve used on both espresso machines and small pour over stands. It measures 0.1g precisely, has a built-in timer, and the auto-timer mode starts when water hits the coffee — handy for tracking bloom time without fumbling for a separate stopwatch.