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Coffee brewing gets easier once you separate three things that often get mixed together: the drink size you want to serve, the total water you need to pour, and the strength you want in the cup. This planner starts with the beverage size, then works backward so you can see how much coffee to grind, how much water to heat, how long the brew should run, and how the pours should be spaced.
That matters because brewed coffee is never a simple one-to-one swap between water in and liquid out. The grounds keep some water back, so a 360 mL target cup usually needs more than 360 g of brew water. The planner makes that retention visible instead of leaving it as a hidden guess, which helps when you are trying to repeat a recipe from one morning to the next.
The built-in starting profiles cover seven common styles: pour-over, Chemex, espresso, French press, AeroPress, cold brew concentrate, and moka pot. Each one loads a different ratio, brew time, water temperature, grind cue, retained-water assumption, and strength range. That is why a cold brew plan can start around a 5:1 ratio while a pour-over profile begins near 15.5:1, and why the tool treats a moka pot or espresso as much denser drinks than a filter brew.
The result surface is built for execution rather than theory alone. The summary gives coffee dose, total water, ratio, brew time, temperature, grind cue, estimated TDS, extraction label, and any warnings. The tabs then break that plan into a timed recipe table, a cumulative pour timeline, a ratio-versus-strength map, and a JSON payload you can copy or download.
It is still a planning model, not a promise about taste. Grind distribution, roast development, roast age, filter material, agitation, and water chemistry all affect the cup. The most reliable way to use this planner is to treat the first brew as a measured baseline, then use taste and actual yield to decide what to change next.
Coffee professionals usually discuss brew strength through the relationship between brew ratio, total dissolved solids (TDS), and extraction yield. The Specialty Coffee Association's brewing-control-chart guidance uses that same trio: brew ratio tells you how much water you used per gram of coffee, TDS describes how concentrated the beverage is, and extraction yield describes how much soluble material moved out of the grounds and into the cup. This planner does not measure those values in a lab, but it uses the same logic to estimate strength and to place your recipe on the brew map.
The core calculation begins with the beverage size you want to drink. From there, the planner solves for the coffee dose that will leave the requested amount of liquid after the grounds hold some water back. That is the reason the tool asks for coffee retention directly. It is not a cosmetic setting. It changes the dose, the total water requirement, and the yield warning behavior.
Here, R is the water-to-coffee ratio and A is the retained-water setting in grams of water per gram of dry coffee. E is the extraction target you choose. Because the tool uses TDS = extraction / ratio, changing extraction affects the strength estimate without changing the water schedule, while changing ratio affects both the strength estimate and the dose math.
| Method preset | Default yield | Ratio | Brew time | Water temp | Target TDS band |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pour-over | 360 mL | 15.5:1 | 210 sec | 94 °C | 1.25% to 1.45% |
| Chemex | 600 mL | 16:1 | 270 sec | 93 °C | 1.25% to 1.40% |
| Espresso | 36 mL | 2:1 | 28 sec | 93 °C | 8.00% to 12.00% |
| French press | 480 mL | 15:1 | 240 sec | 95 °C | 1.20% to 1.50% |
| AeroPress classic | 230 mL | 13:1 | 120 sec | 90 °C | 1.30% to 1.60% |
| Cold brew concentrate | 1000 mL | 5:1 | 43200 sec | 20 °C | 3.00% to 5.00% |
| Moka pot | 180 mL | 7:1 | 320 sec | 92 °C | 3.00% to 5.00% |
Those presets are starting profiles inside this tool, not universal rules. External brewing guidance helps explain why they differ. The SCA certified-brewer program centers hot brewing around roughly 55 g of coffee per liter, 92 to 96 °C water at the coffee bed, 4 to 8 minutes for full brewer contact time, and a Gold Cup beverage zone near 1.15% to 1.45% TDS and 18% to 22% extraction. NCA brewing guides place manual pour-over around 1:13 to 1:16, about 93 ± 3 °C, and roughly 2 to 4 minutes, while French press lands near 4 minutes, espresso around 20 to 30 seconds, and cold brew concentrate near 1:4 to 1:5 over about 12 hours. The preset choices fit that general landscape, but the planner intentionally keeps them adjustable.
Schedule generation is straightforward after the dose math is settled. The planner reserves a bloom share from total water, subtracts the bloom duration from the total brew time, then divides the remaining water across the chosen number of pours. If bloom is set to zero, the schedule starts immediately with the main pour. If ratio is less than or equal to retention, the model cannot produce liquid coffee, so the result surface clears and the warning tells you to increase ratio or reduce retention.
The best first pass is usually the least ambitious one. Pick the method that matches your brewer, keep the default ratio and retention, and enter only the beverage size you actually want to serve. That gives you a baseline recipe with believable water and dose numbers before you start fine-tuning taste.
From there, change one kind of variable at a time. Ratio is the fastest way to move the cup lighter or heavier because it changes both dose and strength. Brew time and bloom choices shape how the schedule unfolds. Extraction target changes the estimated TDS label without changing the amount of water you need to pour. Retention is best used as a calibration knob after a real brew if your final beverage weight keeps missing the target.
The advanced controls are most useful when you already know what went wrong in a previous brew. If your bloom seems too small for fresh coffee, increase the bloom share or bloom duration. If you consistently serve less liquid than planned, raise the retention value so the next recipe budgets more water. If the cup tastes thin even though the drawdown behaved well, lower the ratio or increase the extraction target rather than randomly changing every field.
Once the plan looks believable, the rest of the interface helps you carry it into actual brewing. The recipe table is easiest for brew-day execution, the timeline shows whether the pours are front-loaded or evenly spaced, the brew map shows how far you moved from the preset strength zone, and the CSV, DOCX, chart, and JSON exports make it easy to keep a brewing log.
The summary figures answer different questions, so it helps to read them in order. Coffee dose and total water tell you what to weigh. Yield tells you whether the retention assumption makes sense for the cup size you asked for. Estimated TDS and the light-bodied or heavy-bodied badge tell you how the selected ratio and extraction target compare with the preset's strength window.
The brew map is a comparison tool, not a universal judgment of quality. On the horizontal axis it compares your current water-to-coffee ratio with the preset ratio. On the vertical axis it compares your estimated TDS with the preset strength band. A recipe can land outside the preset zone on purpose if you want a lighter, stronger, or more concentrated cup than the default profile.
| Result cue | What triggers it | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Concentrated | Current ratio is more than 0.5 below the preset ratio | You are using less water per gram of coffee than the starting profile, so the brew is moving denser. |
| On ratio | Current ratio stays within about 0.5 of the preset ratio | Your water-to-coffee balance is still close to the selected profile. |
| Diluted | Current ratio is more than 0.5 above the preset ratio | You are using more water per gram of coffee than the starting profile, so the brew is moving lighter. |
| Weak strength | Estimated TDS falls below the preset band | The cup is projected to be lighter than that method's default strength zone. |
| Target strength | Estimated TDS stays inside the preset band | The recipe is still within the method profile's expected strength range. |
| Heavy strength | Estimated TDS rises above the preset band | The cup is projected to be heavier and more concentrated than the preset target. |
| Message | When it appears | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| Increase the ratio or reduce retention | Ratio is less than or equal to retained water per gram of coffee | Raise the ratio above retention or lower retention to a realistic value so the brew can yield liquid coffee. |
| Expect a different beverage yield than the target size | Final yield differs from target by more than about 5% | Adjust retention after a real brew if the served volume keeps missing the cup goal. |
| Stronger than preset or lighter than preset | Ratio differs from the preset by about 1 or more | Use it as a reminder that you changed the recipe style, not just the batch size. |
| Light-bodied or heavy-bodied | Estimated TDS falls below or above the preset band | Treat it as a strength cue; the cup still needs real tasting to confirm whether that direction is desirable. |
The most common mistake is to treat estimated TDS as a measured truth. It is only as accurate as the extraction target and ratio you entered. If you want to calibrate the model, brew once, weigh the actual beverage, note the real drawdown time, and compare the taste with the map position. Then decide whether the next change should happen in ratio, extraction target, or retention.
Start with the default pour-over profile and a 360 mL target beverage. The planner calculates about 27.1 g of coffee and 419.6 g of total water at a 15.5:1 ratio. With the default 16% bloom share, about 67.1 g of that water is reserved for bloom, and the remaining water is split into three pours over the remaining brew time.
Because the extraction target is 20%, the estimated TDS lands near 1.29%, which sits comfortably inside the pour-over preset band. This is the kind of recipe that makes a strong first house brew because the yield, map position, and schedule all agree with one another.
Now switch to the cold brew concentrate preset and keep the default 1000 mL target. The planner uses a 5:1 ratio, so the dose jumps to about 357.1 g of coffee and the total water requirement rises to about 1785.7 g. With the default retention setting, that still yields roughly 1000 mL of concentrate after extraction.
The estimated TDS is 4.00%, which is much higher than a hot filter brew but appropriate for a concentrate-style recipe. That matches common cold brew guidance better than a filter-style ratio would. If you intend to dilute before drinking, remember that the tool is planning the concentrate itself, not the later water or milk addition.
Suppose you keep coffee retention at 2.2 g/g but lower the ratio to 2.0:1. The model breaks immediately because every gram of coffee is now expected to hold back more water than the brew is allowed to use. In that state there is no way to produce the requested beverage yield, so the summary clears and the warning tells you to increase ratio or reduce retention.
The fix is not to change brew time or temperature. The fix is to restore the math by making the ratio larger than retention. Once the ratio moves above 2.2:1, the planner can calculate a dose, rebuild the schedule, and place the brew on the map again.
Because the size field is the beverage you want to serve, not the total water you pour. The planner adds enough water to cover both the final drink and the water the grounds are expected to retain.
No. Brew time changes the schedule and timeline, but the dose math still comes from beverage size, ratio, and retention. If you want a different coffee dose, change the target cup size, ratio, or retention value.
That happens when the ratio is less than or equal to the retained-water setting. In simple terms, the model predicts that the grounds would keep all the water back. Raise the ratio above retention or lower retention to a more realistic figure for that brew style.
No. The planner estimates TDS from the extraction target and brew ratio. It is useful for planning and comparison, but it is not a direct measurement from the brewed liquid.
Use it carefully. The preset is built for concentrate-style strength, which is why the ratio is much tighter and the TDS band is much higher than the hot filter methods. If you want a ready-to-drink cold brew, you may need a weaker ratio or a later dilution step.
No dedicated brew-planning backend is used here. The dose math, schedule, charts, and export payloads are generated in the browser after the page loads.