The Hario V60 is one of the pour-over techniques used in the coffee world. The ease of use is one of the best parts of the brewer. Also, you will be able to make just one cup of coffee at a time using the Hario V60.
It’s such a great a unique design and produces amazing pour-over coffee that is sweet and balanced.
In this article, I will tell you all you need to know about the Hario V60. Grab yourself a nice cup of coffee, read along and learn all about the Hario V60.
What is a Hario V60?
The Hario V60 is a kind of clever dripper, where many more exist off. The Hario V60 is a little bit different from all the other clever drippers out there because of its small neck.
The coffee filter used for Hario V60 is slightly different because of this, but I will get into this a bit further down in the article.
So, Hario V60 is just a brand name for a clever dripper; what’s so great about it, though? Hario V60 is an awesome piece of equipment to have at home. It makes the best coffees for a single cup, or a bit more when you’ve got some people coming over.
I use the Hario V60 for the brewing of one cup of joe at a time. Using the Hario V60 over the French press or AeroPress eliminates the need to clean a lot of equipment.
Just throw out the filter and clean the dripper for its next use. Read along to learn about the easiest ways of cleaning your dripper.
Which coffee beans should you use?
The coffee beans you use in making your cup of joe at home is the most important choice you have to make when thinking about great coffee.
Using the right coffee bean for your taste will depend on a few factors I will explain down here; this way, you will find out which coffee bean is right for you.
There are a few coffee roasts you can use for this technique of coffee brewing. There is the light roast, medium roast, and dark roast. You will be able to find a medium-dark roast and the roast in between these as well.
For the brewing of my pour-over coffee, made with the Hario V60 I like to use medium roasted coffee. If at all possible from Costa Rica, which is my favorite country to get my coffee beans from.
The medium roasted coffee beans really shine when brewing with the V60, it’s just the right amount of strong flavors added in with just a little flowery note as well.
I have made pour-over coffee with dark roasted coffee beans once, and for me, it will be the last time. The dark roasted coffee beans leave such an intense flavor profile behind, which I just can’t wrap my head around.
The dark roasted coffee beans are just a bit too much for the use of pour-over coffee, if you ask me. I used a very dark roasted coffee bean, which I also like to use when making cold brew coffee and cold brew espresso.
So the comparison might not be the best out there flavor-wise for the pour-over technique, but will work great in espresso and cold brew coffees.
To sum up, do you like to drink your coffee on the brighter side with hints of freshness and sweetness? Then go for a lighter roast or a medium roast.
Do you like the taste of an espresso, and would you like to taste the same flavors in the pour-over coffee you just made with the Hario V60? Go for a darker roast, preferably not too dark roasted, so you will still keep a few fresh notes in your cup of joe.
Did you know that taste of your coffee beans is affected by the altitude at which the coffee beans grow? You can check out this article, where I tell you all about your coffee beans.
What is the right grind size for the Hario V60?
The best grind size for the Hario V60 is a medium grind size. You should grind the coffee to achieve the same coarseness as sand. The coffee should look pretty fine, but feel like there is lots of texture in there.
If you want to learn even more about the difference in grind sizes of coffee, you can check out this article. It’s beneficial if you want to produce amazing coffee every day.
You can check out this photo, where I show off the coffee grind I use to make my pour-over coffees at home:
As you can see, the coffee grind looks pretty fine. But once you start rubbing the ground coffee between your fingers, you will notice that there is still a lot of texture there.
If you grind the coffee too fine, the coffee will be over-extracted. The water will drip through the coffee, sucking out all the flavor from the coffee beans.
The finer the grind, the faster the flavors get extracted. Over extracted coffee will leave behind a bitterness, which you should avoid at all times.
Grinding your coffee too coarse will under extract your coffee and leave behind a sour-tasting cup of joe. Sure, most coffees pack a bit of sour and bitter notes in them. But over-or under extracting your coffee isn’t what you want.
The flavors will be too overpowering. The grinding of your own coffee beans is pretty hard to learn. For me, the first few times grinding coffee for my homebrew wasn’t good, haha.
The best way to learn which grind size is perfect for your brewing technique is to ask your coffee roaster to grind a small number of coffee beans for pour-over coffee and the French press, for example.
This way, you can copy this grind size and learn which grind setting works best for your hand grinder at home; no more struggling with the settings.
What is the right extraction time of this pour-over coffee?
The extraction time all depends on the amount of coffee made with your Hario V60. Are you going to make one cup of joe or four at a time?
When flying solo and making a cup of joe for you alone, you want to aim for three minutes tops. Once the three minutes have passed and the water has run through all the coffee beans, you will know the coffee will taste great.
If the brewing takes longer than three minutes for a cup, you might have ground your coffee beans too fine. The water struggles running through the ground coffee, over extracting the coffee.
Don’t panic when the brewing takes ten seconds longer or so. You will still have made a great cup of joe. Just don’t make it a five-minute brew for just one cup of coffee.
The brewing time will be longer when making more cups of coffee at once. You will need to pour water over the ground coffee more than once, wait till the water level is lower and keep pouring in circular motions until you have reached the amount of water needed.
Making three cups of coffee, for example, will take about five minutes for the total brewing time.
How much coffee can you make with the Hario V60?
The amount of coffee that can be made using the Hario V60 differs from how many people you’ve got coming over. The Hario V60 can make up to 4 cups of coffee at a time, with some water pouring every half minute or so.
But, most people will use the Hario V60 to make coffee for just one cup of joe. I am one of those people. The amount of work that goes into making Chemex for one person is just not worth the trouble, and I would rather make French press coffee for that reason.
Until I bought the Hario V60, this is where it all changed. I have been using this dripper for some time now, and it’s the best pour-over technique for a single cup of coffee.
You just need to grind a few coffee beans or even buy them pre-ground; to make it even easier.
For me, when brewing a cup of coffee using the Hario V60, I make a big cup of coffee. I will use 20 grams of coffee, making 250 ml of coffee, just for me. But my portion of coffee can serve two people when serving a smaller cup of joe.
Which are the right filters for the Clever dripper?
The right filter for the brewing of your Hario V60 is a must.
The white filter in the middle of the pictures is the correct sized filter, especially for the Hario V60. The difference is the pointy end of the filter; this way, the filter will seal the edges of your coffee dripper and create a perfect brew.
Too small 
Correct filter 
Too big
The wrong filters, which I have bought; because I thought it was the right one for the Hario V60, don’t fit at all. This is because of the flat bottom on both of the wrong filters.
The small filter doesn’t fit inside the Hario V60, and the filter that is too big just sticks out. You can use these filters in a clever dripper, which isn’t a Hario V60. This is what makes the difference between a Hario V60 and a clever dripper of any other brand.
If you’ve struggled to find the right coffee filter, too, don’t worry; I’ve got you covered. I found the best filters made for the Hario V60 on Amazon, which is surprisingly very cheap. If you want, you can check them out by clicking here:
How to brew coffee with the Hario V60
Now comes the brewing of your coffee, using the Hario V60. You now know the grind size, the correct filter, and the extraction time to get a perfect V60 coffee.
I have made a beginner’s guide to brewing coffee with the Hario V60. In this guide, I will go over everything you need to know to brew this coffee at home!
You can check out the complete guide to the brewing of Hario V60 by clicking here.
Best ways to clean your Hario V60
After brewing your coffee with the Hario V60, the worst part of brewing your own coffee has arrived; the cleaning of your equipment.
Luckily, the Hario V60 or any other clever dripper, for that reason, is the easiest brewer to clean. It’s fast to clean as well.
If you clean your Hario V60 after brewing your coffee, you will make sure to get rid of the coffee stains that like to get into your brewer as fast as possible.
Now, there are multiple ways of cleaning your dripper. Most of the time, I like to rinse the dripper thoroughly using the kitchen water tap. Make sure to use hot water, as this will eliminate the oily consistency coffee beans tend to disperse.
Once a week, use a little soap when cleaning your dripper as well. This will clean your dripper even better than just rinsing it. Just make sure you rinse the soap off as much as possible. You don’t want to taste the soap when brewing your next cup of joe.
You can also use your dishwasher to clean your Hario V60, although, after a while, the dripper will get down in quality because of the heat that your dishwasher can produce.
I suggest always hand washing your coffee equipment to make sure you can use it for a very long time to come!
If you want to know even more about cleaning your Hario V60, I’ve written an article about 5 ways to clean your Hario V60 with different techniques. If you’re interested in learning more about it, you can check it out here.
What are the differences between Chemex and Hario V60
So, what is the difference between the two pour-over techniques? For the most part, the two brewers are the same in every way.
The Chemex has a smooth inside, and the Hario V60 uses a ribbed texture on the inside of the brewer to guide the water through the filter equally. The grind size for both brewers is the same as well.
The only difference is that the Hario V60 will produce a faster cup of coffee, the filter of the Chemex is a bit bigger and thicker, which is why the Chemex will take a bit longer for it to produce a cup of joe.
I do like to use a bit more ground coffee for the brewing of my Hario V60 coffee. But you can change this up to your liking, which is the best part about brewing your coffee at home!
Conclusion
Wow, this was a fun article to write. The Hario V60 is one of my favorite single cup coffee brewers, which is also easy to use.
With all this information, you will be able to make the best Hario V60 coffee at home, using the correct coffee grind, filter, and the right extraction time in mind.
If you want to learn more about the brewing of various coffees, using different techniques, you can check out the articles listed below. I’ve written beginners guides to brewing coffee at home.
Have you made coffee with the Hario V60 before? Let me know by leaving a comment down below. If you have any other questions regarding coffee, you can also contact me directly by pressing the “Contact Me” button at the top!
