Hello All! I couldn't find this with a search..

I see many places suggest a bloom with a pour over brewer (i.e. Kalita, Hario, etc...). But recently George Howell posted brew methods and their pour overs do not include a bloom. Only the French Press appeared to include a bloom phase.

What is the logic there? Should Pour Over include a bloom or no?

No one wants to tackle this one huh!?

I think it is all preference, have you tried both ways? I say you try doing your pourover for a week with bloom, then following week without bloom. Stick with the one you like. I personally let my coffee bed bloom for 45 seconds on a Bonivita #4 dripper. There is no right answer to your question because everyone's taste profile is so different.

Personally, I bloom for 30 seconds. I doubt it makes a very noticeable difference honestly. I've seen a few videos in which people seem to do it to lengthen the brew time.

...But recently George Howell posted brew methods and their pour overs do not include a bloom. Only the French Press appeared to include a bloom phase.

What is the logic there? Should Pour Over include a bloom or no?

Not sure what you mean by bloom. His "sixths" in pourovers would count as a bloom to me.
http://www.georgehowellcoffee.com/brew- ... io-v60-02/

I pay attention to the rest time as well as visuals on the response the bean provides me in CO2 release as I pour/bloom

I think it helps to define bloom as well.

bloom as an initial coffee wetting phase to release gas and wet coffee. This could be as simple as dumping in some water and waiti a bit.

Or

Bloom as creating a consistent coffee slurry through wetting with about 2x water to coffee in gm and stirring vigorously to ensure consistent wetting throughout and then waiting about 30s to create a medium to gently pour over (rather than drilling through) with pulses of pouring that ensure the coffee remains at least immersed throughout the process to maintain a level of heat for extraction.

The definition affects results... Otherwise it's comparing a wide variety of "blooms". Th first way I bloomed was usi Howell,s recipe and simple dumping water in as a first pour, then waiting for the next pour. Obviously different in method and results from the definition above which has actually allowed me to grind much coarser.

Boldjava wrote:Not sure what you mean by bloom. His "sixths" in pourovers would count as a bloom to me.
http://www.georgehowellcoffee.com/brew- ... io-v60-02/

I pay attention to the rest time as well as visuals on the response the bean provides me in CO2 release as I pour/bloom

Actually, I hadn't looked at it like that! I always just looked at the bloom as double the grinds weight in water and wait for 30-45. His is 15 seconds and 65 ML water.

There are a zillion ways to do pourover. Don't get locked into 1 way as *the* way to do it. My way is my way, though I know there are others just as effective.