Most pour-over advice optimises for ceremony, not extraction. Three changes fix ninety percent of thin, sour cups.
1. Grind finer than feels right
If your cup is sour or watery, your grind is too coarse. Go one or two steps finer until the brew finishes around 2:45–3:15 for a 15 g / 250 g recipe.
2. Bloom properly
Pour about 45 g of water (3× the coffee weight), swirl, and wait 40 seconds. You're letting CO₂ escape so the water can actually extract.
3. Pour slower, in fewer pours
Two or three steady pulses instead of a dozen dribbles. Keep the bed flat; a gentle swirl at the end evens extraction.
The KX recipe
- 15 g coffee · 250 g water at 94°C
- Medium-fine grind
- Bloom 45 g / 40 s → pour to 150 g by 1:00 → pour to 250 g by 1:45
- Drawdown finished around 2:45
Water does the work. You just keep it moving.