How to Brew Coffee in a Chemex

Tips for brewing the best coffee using a Chemex

Course Drinks

Cuisine American

Keyword chemex, coffee

Prep Time 1

Cook Time 5

Total Time 6

The Preparation. Weigh out your coffee (42g) and start heating your water. We are using a brew ratio of 1:15 grams (i.e., 1 gram of coffee to 15 grams of water), so you will need 630 grams of water for brewing and allow for 300 grams to rinse and preheat your vessels.
The Filter. Open the filter and place it in the Chemex with the layered side toward the spout. Rinse the filter with brew-temperature water.
Now, add your coffee to the rinsed filter. This will help the filter to hold its shape as you remove it to pour out the rinse water. Once finished, place the filter back in the Chemex.
The bloom. Wet the grounds with 80-100 grams of water (about twice as much water as coffee grounds) and wait 45 to 60 seconds (depending on the age of your coffee).
You should see some bubbles emerge from the grounds. This is trapped gas escaping the coffee, which will allow for a more even extraction. If you don’t see any, this might indicate that your coffee is old.
The Pour. You will now pour the remaining water (for a total of 630 grams of water) in a circular motion in the center of the grounds.
Try to constrain your pour to the area of a half dollar. Avoid pouring water toward the edges, as the water will run down the outside of the Chemex wall without extracting the coffee properly.
The Finish. Once the stream of coffee exiting the filter slows to a drip, you can remove the filter, grounds and all, and dispose of it (we recommend tossing on your compost pile).

Chemex is our favorite multi-cup brew method. Chemex filters are 20-30% heavier (more absorbent) to remove undesirable sediment particles and oils, producing a cleaner, sweeter cup of coffee.
The main drawback of using a Chemex is that it is not great for making a single cup of coffee unless you buy the single serving (3-cup) size Chemex.
Chemex requires an overall brew time of approximately 6 minutes. Coffee should be ground medium-fine. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being the finest and 10 being the most coarse, this grind would be a 7 or 8.