Coffee Brew Ratio & Yield
Turn dose or yield into water and brew ratio
Coffee brew ratios, dose, yield and strength FAQ
What is a coffee “brew ratio” in plain language?
Brew ratio is simply the relationship between coffee and water. For most methods it is written as 1:15 or 1:16, meaning one part coffee to 15–16 parts water by weight. Espresso is usually written as a ratio of coffee in to beverage out, for example 1:2: twice as much liquid espresso as dry coffee grounds.
What brew ratios does this calculator use?
Each method uses a typical “balanced” starting ratio:
- Pour-over / drip: around 1:16 coffee to water.
- French press: around 1:15 coffee to water.
- Espresso: around 1:2 coffee in to liquid out.
- Cold brew concentrate: around 1:5 coffee to water.
- Cold brew ready-to-drink: around 1:15 coffee to water.
Real recipes will nudge these numbers up or down, but they are solid baselines for most coffees.
Should I start from dose or from yield?
Baristas often think in terms of dose (how much coffee they like in the basket), while many home brewers think in terms of yield (how big a mug they want). The calculator works either way: choose the mode that matches how you already plan your brews and let the tool do the rest.
Why do you recommend weighing water instead of using scoops?
Water volume is easiest to repeat if you treat it like a weight on the scale. One gram of water is almost exactly one millilitre, and one US fluid ounce is about 29.6 mL. Once you know your favourite dose and brew ratio, weighing both coffee and water means your recipe will taste much more consistent day to day.
How does this handle espresso compared with filter coffee?
For espresso, the calculator assumes a brew ratio of about 1:2, where dose is dry coffee in the basket and yield is the liquid espresso in the cup. For pour-over, press and cold brew, the ratio is coffee to brew water, and expected beverage yield is a little lower to account for the water the grounds hold onto.
Why is expected beverage yield lower than brew water for some methods?
When coffee grounds get wet they absorb and hold onto water. Immersion and filter brews typically keep around 1.8–2.3 g of water in the grounds for every gram of coffee. The calculator subtracts this absorbed water to give you a realistic “what ends up in the cup or server” number.
Do I need to change brew time when I change ratios?
Small ratio tweaks usually only need small brew-time adjustments. The more important levers are grind size and pour pattern. The method notes in the summary card give a typical brew-time window (like 2½–4 minutes for pour-over or 25–35 seconds for espresso) so you can keep time, grind and ratio in a sensible range together.
What if I prefer stronger or lighter coffee than “balanced”?
Treat the suggested ratio as a middle point. For stronger coffee, use a little more coffee or a bit less water; for lighter brews, do the opposite. Change one thing at a time, take a quick note and move slowly so you can tell which changes actually taste better instead of just different.
How to use this coffee brew ratio & yield calculator
This tool is built to make your coffee brewing repeatable. Instead of eyeballing scoops and water lines, you pick a method, choose whether you want to think in terms of dose or yield, and let the calculator turn that into water weight and a clear brew ratio. Once you like the taste, you can repeat it exactly tomorrow.
1. Pick units and your brew method
First choose whether you want to work in US ounces or metric grams and millilitres. The US option shows coffee in ounces and water in fluid ounces; metric shows everything in grams and mL. Then select your brew method: pour-over, French press, espresso or one of the cold brew options.
2. Decide if you plan from dose or yield
Use the planning mode that fits how you already think:
- Start from coffee dose if you know how much coffee you like to load, e.g. “15 g in my V60”.
- Start from beverage yield if you mostly think “I want a 300 mL mug” or “a 12 fl oz travel cup”.
The tool will fill in the missing side for you based on the chosen method’s typical ratio.
3. Enter your dose or target yield
In dose mode, type the amount of dry coffee you plan to use. In yield mode, type the amount of finished drink you’d like in the cup, not counting any extra left in the brewer. For cold brew concentrate, the target yield is the concentrate before you dilute it to drink.
4. Read off water amount, yield and brew ratio
The left side of the summary card shows:
- Your coffee dose in both units for easy note-taking.
- How much brew water to add for that method and ratio.
- An expected beverage yield after grounds absorb some water (for immersion and filter brews).
- The headline brew ratio, e.g. 1:16 or 1:2, so you can compare recipes easily.
5. Use method notes to keep time and feel in range
The right column shows a quick method profile: the ratio band that most people consider balanced for that style, and a typical brew-time window. Use those numbers alongside grind size and taste: if coffee tastes weak, coarsen or tighten ratio; if it’s harsh and bitter, try a slightly lower dose or shorter contact time.
Over a few brews, the calculator becomes your brew log helper. Save your favourite combination of method, dose, water and time as a short note. Next time you can plug the same numbers back in or gently scale the recipe up and down for a different mug size, without losing the flavour you dialled in.
How the coffee brew ratio & yield math works
Under the hood, the calculator keeps everything in weights. That makes the numbers line up neatly with your scale, whether you like to think in grams or ounces, and matches how most professional brew recipes are written.
1. Converting between US and metric units
Whatever unit you choose, the tool converts to a simple internal set:
- Dry coffee is tracked in grams, even if you entered ounces.
- Water and beverage are tracked in grams / millilitres.
That way a brew ratio like 1:16 always means “1 gram of coffee to 16 grams of water”, no matter how you entered the numbers.
2. Using method-specific brew ratios
For pour-over, French press and cold brew, the calculator uses a typical coffee-to-water ratio by weight. For example, if the method ratio is 1:16 and you enter 20 g of coffee, the water target is:
Water = 20 × 16 = 320 g
For espresso, the ratio is defined as coffee in to liquid out. With an 18 g dose and a 1:2 ratio, the target beverage is:
Yield = 18 × 2 = 36 g
3. Solving from dose or from yield
In dose mode the maths is straightforward: start from coffee, multiply by the method’s ratio to find water (or beverage for espresso), then estimate yield. In yield mode, the tool works backwards. For immersion and filter brews it rearranges a simple pair of equations that relate coffee, water and absorbed water so it can calculate the dose needed to hit your target in the cup.
4. Estimating beverage yield for immersion and filter brews
To estimate how much coffee ends up in the server or mug, the calculator assumes the grounds hold onto a fixed amount of water per gram of coffee. For immersion brews like French press and cold brew that number is slightly higher than for drip, but in both cases it boils down to:
Beverage ≈ Brew water − (Absorption × Coffee dose)
This is why a “500 mL recipe” doesn’t quite give you a full 500 mL in the cup once the grounds have soaked up their share.
5. Keeping the model simple on purpose
The calculator does not try to predict extraction percentage or TDS. Instead, it gives you clean, easy-to-read numbers for dose, water, yield and ratio, plus sensible time windows. You can then add your own tasting notes and grinder settings to complete the picture and gradually build your own house recipes.
Because all of the maths flows from basic weights and ratios, you can sanity-check any result with pen and paper, tweak the assumptions to suit your gear, and still keep every brew built on the same clear foundation.
References and further reading on coffee brew ratios
Pair this brew ratio tool with deeper guides on coffee recipes and extraction:
- Specialty Coffee Association — Brewing standards and resources — background on “Golden Cup” style brew strength and extraction ranges.
- Methodical Coffee — Coffee-to-water ratio guide — clear explanations of common ratios for drip, French press, pour-over, espresso and cold brew.
- Barista Hustle — Brew ratio and control chart articles — more technical deep dives into how ratio, extraction and strength interact.
- Video guides on brew ratios — step-by-step brewing videos from a range of educators using scales and ratios in real time.
As you experiment, keep a simple log of dose, water, yield, time and taste notes. Combined with this calculator, that log quickly becomes your own personalised brew book for every method you use.