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Chemex Recipe: The iCoffee House Brew

Bright and tea-like, with clarity from Chemex's thick paper filter. 30g coffee, 510ml water at 93°C, 1:17 ratio, medium-coarse grind. About 7 minutes.

A Chemex hourglass carafe with a wooden collar and leather tie, filled with the finished brew, standing on a wooden surface against a soft gray wall

A finished Chemex brew in the carafe, after the thick paper trapped the fines and oils that would have muddied the cup. · Photo by Zarak Khan on Unsplash

TL;DR

The Chemex brews cleaner than any other pour over because its filter is 20-30% thicker than standard paper. We brew 30g (1.06oz) of medium-coarse coffee with 510ml (17.2 fl oz) of water at 93°C (199°F), a 1:17 ratio, poured in pulses of 50-80 g. The thick paper traps fines and oils a V60 lets through, which is why the cup lands brighter and more tea-like. The whole brew takes about seven minutes, including setup.

Ratio
1:17
Coffee
30g (1.06oz)
Water
510ml (17.2 fl oz)
Temperature
93°C (199°F)
Grind
Medium-Coarse
Total time
7 min
Yield
450ml (15.2 fl oz)
Difficulty
Easy

What you need

Equipment

  • Chemex (6-cup or 8-cup)
  • Chemex bonded filters (the thick ones, not generic cone filters)
  • Gooseneck kettle
  • Kitchen scale with 0.1g precision

Ingredients

  • 30g (1.06oz) freshly ground coffee (medium-coarse grind, 14 days post-roast)
  • 510ml (17.2 fl oz) filtered water (brought to 93°C)

The recipe

1
at 0:00, ~30s

Place the filter in the Chemex with the three-fold side against the spout. Rinse thoroughly with hot water, then pour the rinse water out.

Rinse removes paper taste and preheats the vessel.
2
at 0:30, ~15s

Add 30g (1.06oz) of medium-coarse coffee and level the bed.

Even bed for even flow.
3
at 0:45, ~30s

Pour 60ml (2 fl oz) of water in a slow spiral to bloom. Wait 30 seconds.

Promotes degassing for more even extraction.
4
at 1:15, ~3:00

Continue pouring in pulses of 50-80 g until you reach 510ml (17.2 fl oz) total. Keep the water level mid-filter, never letting it run dry.

Pulse in 50–80 g bursts with brief rests between for even saturation.
5
at 4:15, ~1:00

Let the bed drain fully, lift out the filter, and serve.

Total time around 4 to 4.5 minutes depending on grind.

Why this recipe works

The Chemex is a pour over with a thicker filter. That extra thickness is the whole story: it holds back fines and oils a thinner cone passes straight into the cup, which keeps the cup brighter and lighter-bodied. Every parameter is built around that.

Ratio. 1:17 sits one notch lighter than V60's 1:16 on purpose. The Chemex filter holds back more solubles, so pushing more water through the same dose extracts enough to keep the cup from feeling thin without losing the clarity Chemex paper produces.

Temperature. 93°C (199°F). The thick filter stretches contact time. At that pace, hotter water would extract bitterness. Cooler than V60's 96°C, by design.

Grind. Medium-coarse, coarser than V60. The thick filter chokes on finer grinds and the brew stalls past 5 minutes, dragging bitterness into the cup.

Pulse pours. Single big pours overload the bed and channel; continuous slow pours don't agitate enough. Pulses of 50-80 g sit in the middle: enough turbulence to mix the slurry, paced so the bed never floods.

What makes this ours

Most Chemex recipes either treat it like a slow V60 or run the grind too coarse and end up with sour, thin water. Medium-coarse plus pulse pours is what makes it work: fine enough that the thick filter still extracts, coarse enough that the brew doesn't stall past 5 minutes and turn bitter.

What to adjust

If your cup tastes too bitter: your grind is too fine for the thick filter. Step one click coarser and check that the total brew time stays under 5 minutes.

If your cup tastes too sour or thin: your grind is too coarse or your pulses are too small to saturate the whole bed evenly. Step one click finer and pour in 70-80 g pulses.

If your cup tastes papery: you didn't rinse the filter long enough. Chemex filters need a longer hot-water rinse than V60 paper before any coffee touches them.

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