Moccamaster, Half Basket

by Matt KennardPublished September 19, 2026

1:15 for half a pot. A step finer than the full basin.

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1:15. Finer for less coffee: the full basin runs at 5.1 with 80 g, and half the bed drains faster, so 4.8 is the starting point.

Do not leave it on the plate. The hot plate cooks the coffee; a thermal carafe or a mug is better than five minutes of heat.

This is the everyday recipe. The full basin is for a table of people.

Brew process

Dose 600

Fill the reservoir to 600 g.
Dose

Grind 40 g at 4.8, a step finer than the full basin. A smaller bed means less contact time, and the grind has to make it up.
Distribute

Level the bed in the basket so the shower head wets it evenly.
Extract

Run it, and pull the carafe off the hot plate as soon as it finishes.

What you see	Why	What to do
Thin and sour	Under-extracted.	Go finer.
Bitter	Over-extracted, or the carafe sat on the hot plate.	Go coarser, and pull the carafe off the plate as soon as it finishes.
Uneven	The bed was not level.	Level the bed in the basket so the shower head wets it evenly.

Dogspeed Flat Track Coffee Medium-dark · Latin America, varied seasonally — typically Colombia Supremo, Guatemala (Huehuetenango or Marilandia) and Brazil (Vila Boa natural)
Espresso Blue Bottle Coffee Dark · Organic blend, Latin America and Central Africa
Lucem Merit Coffee Medium · Blend, Honduras and Brazil; components shift, and it has also been listed as Peru and Colombia
Power Button Superthing Coffee Medium-dark · Blend, 50% washed Guatemala and 50% washed Ethiopia
Andino Leal Merit Coffee Medium · Huila, Colombia, from a committed group of small-scale producers
Christmas Blend Starbucks Dark · Latin American and Asia-Pacific coffees including aged Sumatra

If your bag is lighter or darker than that

40 g to 600 g is about 1:15. Everything below is relative to this recipe's own numbers.

Temperature: Go hotter. A lighter roast is denser and gives up less at the same temperature — take it to the top of the range, or just off the boil.
Time: Give it longer. Another fifteen to thirty seconds of contact, whether that is a slower pour or a longer steep.
Grind: Grind finer, one step. Light roasts under-extract before they over-extract, and sour is the failure you will meet first.
Dose: Leave the dose alone at first. If it is still thin after the other three, add a gram or two.

Temperature: Go cooler. A dark roast is brittle and gives up everything it has immediately — back off five degrees or let the kettle stand a minute.
Time: Cut it short. Stop the brew at the first sign of it slowing down; the last of the drawdown is where the ash comes from.
Grind: Grind coarser, one step. Bitter and hollow is the failure you will meet first, and coarser is the fix.
Dose: You can use slightly less and lose nothing. A dark roast tastes stronger than it is.

Temperature: The temperature on this recipe is written for exactly this roast. Start there.
Time: The time is the time. Change it only after you have tasted it once as written.
Grind: Grind is still the one thing worth moving. Everything else in the recipe is fixed so that it can be.
Dose: The dose below is what these numbers were dialed at.

More on what the words mean: light, medium and dark roasts.

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