The April Brewer: A Pour Over Guide

The April Brewer is the proprietary dripper made by April Coffee Roasters in collaboration with Serax Ceramics. Like the Origami Dripper, the April Brewer started to get some buzz when its prototype was used in the 2019 World Brewers Championship. 

Although this dripper was made to pair with April’s roasts, it does get good results with other coffees. But, with a different way of brewing than how April does it. Read on to find out how use the April brewer with other coffees.

Recipe Guide

• Dose (g): 20
• Total amount (ml): 300
• Ratio: 1:15
• Filter size: Kalita Wave 155 filters
• Grind size: coarse
• Water temperature: 95°C / 203°F
• Pouring pattern (ml): 50 – 150 – 50 – 50
• Pouring intervals (minutes to seconds): 0 to 0:10 – 0:30 to 0:50 – 1:30 to 1:40 – 2:00 to 2:10
• Total time (minutes to seconds): Between 2:30 to 2:45

Dose and Grind Size

Based on our tests, 20 grams is the largest dose that works with the April Brewer, while still keeping a manageable water level per pour. Based on April’s recipes, this brewing device was made with smaller doses (between 11 to 15 grams) in mind. 

We like to dose up a bit with this brewer since it naturally encourages coarser grinds. Since April has a very light roasting style, they can afford coarser grind sizes (similar to a traditional French Press grind size) because those roasts will take a little longer to drain. 

With other types of roasts, it’s a different story. It can be quite difficult to go coarse with a smaller dose. From our experience, what ends up happening is that the brew draws out too quickly and ends up tasting weak. 

On the flip side, going with a finer grind usually extends the brew beyond 3 minutes. And if not careful, can lead to over-extraction. With these in mind, we’ve found that the sweet spot for dosing with a reasonably coarse grind size (again, think French Press consistency) is with 20 grams. 

Ratios

Depending on the coffee, April recommends ratios between 1:15 to 1:17. Again, this works with their coffees specifically because they roast very light. So to extract more flavor they can use longer ratios. 

With coffees not as light as April’s a 1:15 ratio is a good start since it gets a pretty good balance in terms of strength and flavor separation. 

Assuming you’ve got your extraction dialed in, you can increase your ratio if you want more clarity and separation of flavor notes. On the other hand, if you want a stronger brew, use a shorter ratio. 

Temperature

Ceramic isn’t the best in terms of heat retention. You’ll have to use a lot more water to preheat these types of brewers just so they can keep a consistent temperature throughout the brew. 

In case you don’t want to preheat, we recommend using a hotter temperature to compensate for the heat getting lost in the brew. 

When adjusting water temperature, try to consider it along with the quality of the water you’re using and how light/dark your roast is. Even with really light roasts, April uses temperatures between 91°C (196°F) to 94°C (201°F) since the water in Denmark is naturally mineral-heavy and isn’t ideal for pushing the hottest temperatures. In contrast, water in places like Norway is very soft and is more ideal for high-temperature brews. 

Read more about adjusting brew temperature to water composition here

Since water for different places varies, 95°C (203°F) is a good starting point to compensate for the brewer’s heat retention. If you find that your brews are tasting a bit dull or lifeless, decrease the temperature. If it’s a little weak (but not yet under-extracted), increase the temperature. 

Pouring pattern

We use a similar pouring pattern to our Blue Bottle Dripper recipe. To keep things simple, all pours are spiral pours. 

Click here to learn more about different pouring techniques for pour overs

Starting with a standard 30-second bloom, pour 50ml to saturate the coffee grounds. This should be enough water to make sure all the grounds get hit without having to stir or spin. 

Once the coffee degasses, do a heavy 150ml pour (target of 200g on the scale). It’s usually in this stage of the brew where we can extract the gentle acids and sweetness from the coffee. So we pour the most here to get the most extraction from this stage and highlight those aspects. 

Wait a bit for the heavy pour to drain. After which, pour 50ml (target of 250g on the scale) at 1 minute and a half. Pour the last 50ml (target of 300g) by 2 minutes and let everything drain. The brew should end between 2 minutes and a half to 2 minutes and 45 seconds. 

Understanding the April Brewer

As mentioned earlier, the April Brewer made its first large appearance in the 2019 World Brewers Championship as a prototype. The idea behind it was to get a faster flow rate than other flat bottom drippers by having a large hole at the bottom of the brewer.

Oddly enough, the final version scaled back from that and is now relatively slow in terms of flow rate. Since the team at April likes to grind very coarse, we suspect that they adjusted the final version to suit that grind setting better. They also came up with an unconventional pouring style to match these design choices. Bear in mind that this technique is for their coffee specifically and doesn’t work as well as for other coffees.

When dialed in, though, the April brewer is a good brewing device that is quite consistent. Our brews with it have a good body and really emphasize the initial flavors of the coffee. It’s also quite forgiving. Even if you mess up your pouring, you’re still likely to end with a balanced brew. 

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