Denis VenturaWeb, AI & analyticsHuancayo, PE GMT-5ES

Filter coffee recipes

Recipes from well-known baristas, plus my own, adjusted to your altitude. I brew in Huancayo, where water boils at 89 °C and the usual recipes fall flat. Pick yours, set your grams and follow the timer.

Brewers

Brewing at altitude

Water boils lower

Up high the air pressure drops, and water boils at a lower temperature: about one degree less every 300 metres. In Huancayo, at 3,259 m, it boils at 89 °C and no kettle gets it hotter.

Cooler water extracts less

Most recipes, the famous ones included, are written for 92 to 96 °C. With cooler water the coffee gives up less, and the cup comes out sour or thin. Adding more coffee doesn’t fix it.

What the calculator does

Tell it your altitude and it works out how hot you can actually pour, then gives you a base recipe: longer times, a finer grind and a bigger bloom, starting from what works for me in Huancayo. It’s a starting point to experiment from, plus what baristas and specialists recommend: tighten the ratio, swirl and mind your water.

Sources: Sean Elvidge, brewing at altitude ↗ · Perfect Daily Grind, elevation and brew temperature ↗ · Coffee ad Astra, extraction dynamics ↗

Dialling in the cup

Sour or thin
Grind a bit finer, or give it more time. With cooler water, extraction drops.
Bitter or dry
Grind a bit coarser, or shorten the brew. Also check the water isn’t boiling hard.
Too strong
Use more water for the same coffee: from 1:15 to 1:16 or 1:17.
Weak or watery
Use less water: from 1:16 to 1:15. If it’s also sour, grind finer first.
The drain stalls
Grind coarser and pour more gently. Too many fines clog the filter.