Tetsu Kasuya 4:6 Method: Decoded for English Brewers
Updated May 2026Editorial article. We may earn affiliate commissions on linked products.
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Last updated: May 2026
Editorial article. We may earn affiliate commissions on linked products.
Quick Answer
- Ratio: 20g coffee, 300g water (1:15), water at 92°C, coarse grind.
- Two phases: First 40% (120g) controls sweetness and acidity. Last 60% (180g) controls strength.
- Five pours total, each 45 seconds apart, finishing draw-down at 3:30.
- Tweak the taste, not the recipe: bigger first pour = brighter, smaller first pour = sweeter. Fewer pours in phase two = stronger body.
In 2016, a then-unknown Japanese brewer named Kasuya Tetsu (粕谷 哲) walked onto the World Brewers Cup stage in Dublin and changed how a generation of pour-over drinkers thought about coffee. He didn't bring a new dripper. He didn't bring exotic green beans. He brought a recipe that split brewing into two jobs — taste and strength — and assigned each one a fixed share of the water. Forty percent. Sixty percent. Five pours. One Hario V60.
The recipe took the title. Then it took over the internet.
Nearly a decade on, the 4:6 method is the most-replicated competition recipe in specialty coffee. It is also one of the most misunderstood. English-language articles routinely flatten Kasuya's two-phase logic into a single rigid timing table, missing the point: the 4:6 is a flavor-tuning framework, not a fixed brew. This guide pulls the recipe apart, in grams and seconds, with the cultural and technical context most translations lose.
If you've ever stood over a Hario V60 Review: 02 Plastic vs Glass vs Ceramic with a kettle in one hand and a stopwatch in the other, wondering why your cup tasted thin again — this is for you.
Why the 4:6 Method Matters
Most pour-over recipes ask you to memorize a sequence. Bloom, then pour to X, then wait, then finish. Kasuya's recipe inverts that hierarchy. He treats the brew as two separate problems with two separate solutions, and gives the brewer levers for each.
The first 40% of the water — 120g for a 300g recipe — modulates the brew's taste profile. Sweet versus bright. Round versus sharp. The remaining 60% — 180g — modulates the body. Strong and syrupy versus light and tea-like. Change the first half without touching the second, and you adjust acidity in isolation. Change the second half without touching the first, and you adjust mouthfeel in isolation.
This is closer to how a sound engineer thinks than how a barista usually thinks. EQ the highs. EQ the lows. Don't move the master fader.
In a 2017 interview with Standart Magazine, Kasuya described the recipe's intent in characteristically understated terms: "I wanted a method anyone could use. Not just baristas. People who pour without thinking, at home, in the morning." His ambition wasn't to invent the best recipe. It was to invent the most adjustable one.
That's why the 4:6 has aged better than most competition recipes.
Who Is Tetsu Kasuya?
Kasuya Tetsu was born in 1982. He spent his early career at a Japanese auto-parts firm before pivoting full-time into coffee in his late twenties. He trained at Philocoffea, a roastery and brewer-equipment company based in Funabashi, Chiba — about an hour east of Tokyo — and now operates as both Philocoffea's R&D lead and an independent educator.
In May 2016, at the age of 33, he won the World Brewers Cup at the World of Coffee event in Dublin, Ireland. He was the first Asian competitor to do so. His winning beverage used 20g of a Panamanian Elida Estate geisha, ground coarsely, brewed across five pours over three and a half minutes.
In Japan, he is published widely — books like おうちでカフェ気分 ("Café Mood at Home") and コーヒー若葉マーク ("Coffee Beginner's Mark") have introduced 4:6 to readers who would never set foot in a kissaten (喫茶店, "coffee bar"). In English, his footprint is smaller and noisier. The recipe is everywhere; the framework is rarely explained.
How Does the 4:6 Method Actually Work?
The brewing window is 3:30. The water total is 300g for 20g of coffee — a 1:15 ratio, slightly stronger than a Hoffmann-style 1:16.7 but lighter than a typical Onyx 1:15.5. Coffee is ground coarse, roughly the texture of kosher salt. Water is held at 92°C (197.6°F) for medium-light Ethiopian or Kenyan beans, and dropped to 88-90°C for darker roasts.
Here is the canonical pour schedule.
The Pour Schedule
| Pour # | Time | Water Volume | Cumulative | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0:00 | 60g | 60g | Bloom — wets all grounds, releases CO₂ |
| 2 | 0:45 | 60g | 120g | Completes phase 1 (taste) — 40% mark |
| 3 | 1:30 | 60g | 180g | Phase 2 begins — strength dial |
| 4 | 2:15 | 60g | 240g | Continues percolation, deepens body |
| 5 | 3:00 | 60g | 300g | Final pour — 60% complete, 100% total |
| Drawdown | 3:30 | — | — | Bed clears, dripper lifted |
Each pour is 60g. Each gap is 45 seconds. The geometry is intentional: equal-volume pours mean the variable being controlled is count of pours, not size of pours. Fewer phase-two pours = more contact time per pour = stronger extraction.
Why Center Pours, Not Spirals?
This is the detail Western brewers most often miss. Kasuya pours into the center of the bed. He does not spiral. He does not "wash the walls." Each pour is a quick, controlled column of water dropped into the middle of the slurry, and gravity does the rest.
Two consequences follow.
First, you don't need a gooseneck kettle to execute the method correctly. A standard pouring vessel works. This was deliberate — Kasuya wanted the recipe to be reproducible without specialty gear.
Second, the technique is more forgiving on grind size and pour speed than spiral methods. James Hoffmann's V60 recipe, in which the brewer "swirls" the slurry to flatten the bed, is sensitive to wrist control. The 4:6 isn't.
For a side-by-side breakdown of how these two recipes feel in the cup, see Tetsu Kasuya 4:6 vs James Hoffmann V60: Method Comparison.
Phase One: The Taste Dial (First 40%)
The first 120g of water is split across two pours. The ratio between those two pours is your taste dial.
| Phase 1 Configuration | First Pour | Second Pour | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweeter | 50g | 70g | Less acidity, rounder body |
| Balanced (default) | 60g | 60g | Even balance |
| Brighter | 70g | 50g | More acidity, sharper finish |
| Maximum sweetness | 40g | 80g | Heavy chocolate, low brightness |
| Maximum brightness | 80g | 40g | Vivid acidity, citrus-forward |
The mechanism: a smaller first pour means less hydration during the bloom-and-build phase. CO₂ escapes more slowly. The bed compacts later. Late-arriving water extracts more sucrose and Maillard compounds, which read as sweetness.
A larger first pour does the inverse. Aggressive early hydration releases CO₂ quickly, opens the bed, and accelerates extraction of acidic, low-molecular-weight compounds — citric, malic, quinic acids — before the heavier sugars dissolve.
This is why bean origin matters. A Kenyan SL28 with naturally high acidity will sing under the 70/50 split. A natural-process Brazilian Yellow Bourbon, already chocolate-leaning, will glow under the 50/70.
"The first 40% is where the conversation happens between the coffee and the brewer. The 60% is just delivery." — Tetsu Kasuya, Philocoffea brewing seminar, Tokyo, 2019
Phase Two: The Strength Dial (Last 60%)
The remaining 180g controls extraction strength. Default: three equal pours of 60g, separated by 45-second intervals. But you can collapse or expand the count.
| Phase 2 Configuration | Pours | Sizes | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lightest | 2 | 90g + 90g | Tea-like, faster drawdown, lower TDS |
| Default | 3 | 60g + 60g + 60g | Balanced strength |
| Strongest | 4 | 60g + 60g + 30g + 30g | Heavier body, slower flow |
The logic mirrors phase one but inverted. Fewer, larger pours = more agitation per pour but shorter total contact time = lighter cup. More, smaller pours = continuous percolation = longer overall extraction = stronger cup.
Total brew time stretches or contracts accordingly. Two pours might land you at 2:30 drawdown. Four pours can push past 4:00.
Bloom Time and Why It Matters in Pour-Over
What Equipment Does the 4:6 Need?
Kasuya's recipe was designed to be hardware-agnostic. That said, certain choices help.
The Dripper
A Hario V60 — plastic, ceramic, glass, or copper — is the canonical vessel. Plastic is the lightest and retains heat least; ceramic holds temperature better but needs preheating; glass is in between. For 4:6 specifically, the V60's wide cone and large drainage hole are the structural features that matter, not the material.
The Kettle
Any kettle that holds 92°C steady will do. Variable-temperature electric kettles are a quality-of-life upgrade, not a requirement. If your kettle pours with a wide spout, aim slowly into the center of the bed and don't worry about spiraling.
The Grinder
Grind quality matters more than dripper material. Kasuya recommends a coarse grind — coarser than most home brewers default to. Aim for the texture of granulated sugar bordering on kosher salt. A burr grinder, hand or electric, is non-negotiable. Blade grinders produce too much fines and choke the bed.
The Scale
A scale that reads to 0.1g and runs a built-in timer is essential. The 4:6 lives or dies by precise pour weights. Eyeballing 60g vs 65g compounds across five pours and ruins the framework.
The Water
Brewing water composition matters. The Specialty Coffee Association recommends a total dissolved solids (TDS) of 75-250 ppm with a 50-175 ppm hardness range and 40-75 ppm alkalinity. Most municipal tap water is too soft or too hard. A bottled spring water like Volvic, or a remineralized RO water built on the SCA target, will give you the cleanest comparison cups. For a deeper dive on temperature, see Pour-Over Brewing Temperature Decoded: Why Tetsu Kasuya Picks 92°C.
How Does the 4:6 Compare to James Hoffmann's V60?
This is the most-asked question in English-language pour-over forums, and the answer is more interesting than "they're the same with different timings."
James Hoffmann, the British coffee educator and 2007 World Barista Champion, popularized a V60 recipe built on the swirl-and-sweep model: a 60g bloom, two large pours, a swirl at the end to flatten the bed. Total time: roughly 3:30. Ratio: typically 1:16.7 (15g coffee, 250g water).
Kasuya's 4:6 sits at 1:15, uses five pours instead of three, and never swirls. Three structural differences flow from there.
One: percolation versus immersion. Hoffmann's two-pour structure leans toward immersion — water sits in contact with the bed for longer between agitations. Kasuya's five-pour structure leans toward percolation — water flows through more continuously, with shorter contact at each step.
Two: the swirl. Hoffmann's final swirl flattens the bed and ensures even extraction. Kasuya's center-pour technique trusts gravity to do the same job over five evenly spaced additions. Both work. They just resolve the bed differently.
Three: adjustability. Hoffmann's recipe is opinionated and rigid — he tunes for the bean, not the cup. Kasuya's recipe is parametric — you tune the cup, then re-tune for the bean. This is why the 4:6 became a teaching tool, not just a recipe.
"The 4:6 method gives you flavor levers. The Hoffmann method gives you a strong default. They're different tools for different problems." — Tim Wendelboe, three-time World Barista Championship finalist, in a 2022 interview with Sprudge
For a head-to-head video comparison, European Coffee Trip ran a side-by-side test in 2021 that remains one of the cleaner empirical breakdowns online.
Pour-Over vs AeroPress: Which for Beginners
Common Mistakes English Brewers Make
The 4:6 is simple to describe and harder to execute. Five recurring failures show up in home setups.
One: spiraling the pours. Center-pour only. Spiraling agitates the bed differently and changes extraction unpredictably.
Two: using a fine grind. Most home brewers grind for the V60 the way they'd grind for a Chemex — too fine. The 4:6 expects coarse. Fines clog the bed and stretch drawdown past 4:00, over-extracting and producing astringency.
Three: pouring too fast. Each 60g pour should take 8-10 seconds, not 3. A controlled, low-flow pour into the center keeps the bed agitation gentle.
Four: ignoring water temperature. 92°C is the default. Dropping to 88°C for darker roasts is fine. Brewing at boiling (100°C) will scorch a light-roast Ethiopian and pull bitter compounds you don't want.
Five: skipping the rinse. Pre-rinse your filter with hot water before brewing. This removes paper taste and preheats the dripper. It's a 15-second step that meaningfully cleans up the cup.
Tasting Notes: What a Well-Brewed 4:6 Should Taste Like
A correctly executed 4:6 with a washed Ethiopian Yirgacheffe at the 60/60 default split should arrive in the cup with this approximate profile:
- Aroma: bergamot, white peach, jasmine
- First sip: bright citric acidity, controlled but present
- Mid-palate: brown sugar sweetness, light tea-like body
- Finish: clean, slightly drying, with a return of stone fruit
- TDS (measured on a refractometer): typically 1.30-1.45%
- Extraction yield: 19.5-21.5%
If your cup reads sour and thin, increase first-pour size or grind finer. If your cup reads dull and astringent, decrease first-pour size or grind coarser. If your cup reads weak overall, collapse phase two from three pours to two.
The 4:6 is a feedback loop, not a script.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the 4:6 method better than the James Hoffmann V60?
Neither is "better." The 4:6 is more parametric — it gives you flavor and strength levers you can move independently. Hoffmann's recipe is more deterministic — it produces a consistent cup with less brewer input. Use 4:6 if you like to dial in. Use Hoffmann if you want a solid default.
Can I scale the 4:6 method up or down?
Yes. The ratios scale linearly. For a 15g brew, use 225g water (60g + 30g splits won't work cleanly — round to the nearest 5g). For a 30g brew, use 450g water with 90g pours. The 1:15 ratio and 45-second intervals stay constant. Be aware that very small brews (under 15g) struggle with bed dynamics on a standard V60.
Why 92°C and not 96°C?
92°C is Kasuya's default for medium-light specialty roasts. It's hot enough to extract sweetness and aromatics without pulling the harsh, astringent compounds that emerge above 95°C. For darker roasts, drop to 88-90°C. For very light Nordic-style roasts, push to 94°C.
Do I need a Hario V60 specifically?
No, but a 60-degree cone with a single large drainage hole is structurally important. Other cones — Kalita Wave, Origami, Cafec Flower — change the bed geometry and percolation behavior. The 4:6 was designed around the V60 and is most predictable on it.
How long should the total brew take?
3:30 is the canonical drawdown time. Shorter than 3:00 means your grind is too coarse or your pours are too fast. Longer than 4:00 means your grind is too fine or your bed is clogged. Adjust grind first, technique second.
Sources
- The 4-6 method by 2016 Brewers Cup champ, Tetsu Kasuya — Long & Short
- How to Make Coffee Using the 4:6 Brewing Method — Philocoffea
- Winning recipe of 2016 World Brewers Cup Champion Tetsu Kasuya — Kurasu Kyoto
- 3 Essential Hario V60 Recipes: Hoffmann, Kasuya, Osmotic Flow — European Coffee Trip
- Tetsu Kasuya 4:6 Method Recipe — Honest Coffee Guide
- Standart Magazine
- Specialty Coffee Association — Water Quality Standards
— The Japanese Coffee Gear Team
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