How to Brew Coffee in a Chemex – Step by Step Guide to Making Pour Over Coffee in a Chemex

We love our Chemex coffee maker! It’s how we’ve been brewing coffee for the past five years and we have no plans of changing that.

It’s made completely of glass, so there’s never any plastic leaching harmful chemicals into your coffee. It’s also super easy to keep clean (and it’s obvious when it’s not since it’s all glass). Did you know in a 2011 study they found 50% of coffee makers had mold or yeast in their coffee maker reservoir? Yuck!

Here’s a quick step-by-step guide on how to brew coffee in a Chemex.

You will need:

Chemex coffee maker
Chemex filters
A kitchen scale
Coffee
A coffee grinder (if using whole bean coffee; ideally a burr grinder)
A kettle (an electric gooseneck kettle is our favorite)

Step 1: How Many Coffee Beans?

Determine how many grams of coffee beans you will need by multiplying the number of desired cups of coffee by 15.

In this example, we’ll be brewing 2 cups of coffee. So, 2 cups of coffee x 15 = 30 grams of coffee beans.

Step 2: How much water?

Multiply the weight of the coffee beans by 16 to determine how many grams of water you will need.

In this example, 30 grams of coffee beans x 16 = 480 grams of water

Step 3: Heat the Water

Fill a kettle with water and heat to approximately 200 degrees f

An electric gooseneck kettle is ideal for this step.

Step 4: Weigh & Grind Coffee

Weigh out the coffee based on your calculation in step 1. In this example it will be 30 grams of coffee). Grind the coffee to a medium grind (slightly courser than what a pre-ground coffee would be)

A burr grinder is ideal for this process as it produces a more consistent grind than a typical grinder.

Step 5: Set Chemex Filter

Open the Chemex Filter so that one side of the cone has 3 layers, then place that side over top of the Chemex pouring spout.

Once the water has reached 200 degrees f, pour hot water over the Chemex filter in a spiraling motion starting from the center going outward to the edge.

Once the water has drained through the filter, discard the water through the pouring spout by tipping the Chemex, making sure the filter stays in place.

Step 6: Bloom

Transfer the ground coffee beans into the Chemex filter, zero out the scale, and pour approximately the same weight of water as coffee beans (in this example that is 30 grams in a spiraling motion to wet all of the coffee grounds.

Start a timer and wait 30 seconds for the blooming process to complete.

Step 7: Pour

After the 30 second bloom, continue to pour hot water over the coffee grounds until the top portion of the Chemex is about half full.

In this example, it should take 3 or 4 pours to reach approximately 480 grams.

Be careful not to over fill. Also, be careful to keep enough hot water in the top portion so that the coffee grounds remain level during the pour process.

It should take no longer than four minutes from the time the water touches the coffee grounds until you finish pouring, so space out your pours accordingly.

Pouring water into the the chemex filter

Step 8: Enjoy!

When the water is done draining through the filter it’s done! You can discard the filter with the coffee grounds and pour a cup of coffee!

Helpful Tips

Water Temperature

The water should be between 195 and 205 degrees F. It doesn’t need to be perfect. If you don’t have a thermometer or a way to set an exact temperature on your kettle, you can just bring the water to boiling and then wait 2-3 minutes.

Water to Coffee Ratio

We use a ratio of 16 grams of water for every 1 gram of coffee, however you can use anywhere from 1:15 to 1:18 depending on your preference.

Measuring Coffee Without a Scale

Using a kitchen scale is the best method (and you can pick up a kitchen scale pretty affordably) but if you don’t have one and you need to brew coffee you can estimate that 1 level Tablespoon of ground coffee is around 7 grams (but this can really vary a lot depending on the size of the grind and the roast level of the coffee).