Grind Colombian coffee for pour-over at a medium-fine setting, roughly the texture of table salt mixed with fine sand. Then adjust by taste: sour and thin means grind finer, bitter and harsh means grind coarser.
A good brew should drain somewhere between about 2:30 and 4:00 total. That timing window is your best signal that the grind is close to right.
The Starting Setting for Colombian Coffee
Colombian beans do not need a special grind just because they are Colombian. What matters most is your roast level, your brewer, and your grinder, not the origin itself.
James Hoffmann, 2007 World Barista Champion, notes that Colombian beans grown above 1,500 meters tend to be dense and dense beans release their flavors more slowly. That is why roast level guides the setting more than the origin does.
Start at medium-fine, roughly 650 to 850 microns as a general starting range used by specialty brewers. Barista Hustle’s grind calibration research describes pour-over targets as largely centered between 600 and 800 microns for conical brewers like the Hario V60.
Use the table below to pick a starting setting for your roast level and brewer type.
| Colombian Coffee Profile | Starting Grind | Texture Reference | Water Temperature Starting Point |
| Light roast, washed micro-lot (V60) | Medium-fine (600 to 700 microns) | Table salt to fine sand | Hot end (about 96°C) |
| Medium roast, Supremo or Excelso (flat-bottom) | Medium (750 to 850 microns) | Coarse sea salt | About 92 to 94°C |
| Dark roast (any brewer) | Medium-coarse (850 to 950 microns) | Coarse sand | Cooler end (88 to 91°C) |
| Chemex, medium roast | Medium-coarse (about 800 to 900 microns) | Coarse salt | About 92 to 94°C |
These micron figures are starting points, not settled standards. Treat them as dial-in targets and confirm by taste.
How Your Brewer Changes the Setting
The shape of your brewer changes how fast water drains, and that changes the grind you need. Conical brewers like the Hario V60 have a fast flow through the center hole, so a slightly finer grind adds the resistance the bed needs.
Flat-bottom brewers like the Kalita Wave drain through small bottom holes, and grinding too fine causes pooling and astringency. The Chemex sits a step coarser because its thick bonded filters slow the water on their own.
Here are the brewers worth having on hand for pour-over:
- Hario V60: cone-shaped, fast drawdown, works best at medium-fine
- Kalita Wave: flat-bottom, needs a true medium grind
- Chemex: thick bonded filters, needs medium-coarse to run clean
If you brew with a dripper that takes standard cone filters, the Hario V60 starter kit is the classic place to begin. A pack of Chemex bonded filters keeps your flow rate predictable if you use that brewer instead.
Dialing In Your Grinder
General dial-in settings for popular hand grinders give you a concrete place to start. A Timemore C2 or C3 commonly lands around 13 to 15 clicks for a light-roast Colombian and 16 to 18 clicks for a medium roast.
On the Comandante C40, many brewers settle near 20 to 23 clicks for light roasts and 24 to 26 clicks for medium. These numbers vary by unit, so treat your first shot at them as a test, not a rule.
The Comandante C40 MK4 is a stepped hand grinder with steel burrs that hold a set grind reliably. The Baratza Encore is an electric option where the 40-step adjustment makes finding medium-fine easy.
Adjust by Taste, Not by Fractions
Once you have a starting grind, the grind itself stays fixed while you adjust by what you taste. Brew a standard recipe, 15 grams of coffee to 250 grams of water (a 1:16.6 ratio), and time the drawdown.
Sour, weak, or hollow coffee that drains under about 2:30 can indicate under-extraction. Move the grind one or two steps finer and brew again.
Bitter, dry, or chalky coffee that stalls well past 4:00 can indicate over-extraction or too many fines. Move one or two steps coarser and agitate less during your pours.
The Specialty Coffee Association’s brewing standards treat total contact time as the dial to tune against grind size, and that is exactly what these adjustments do. Change one thing at a time so you know what caused what you taste.
One thing worth remembering: a sour cup is not fixed by adding more coffee alone. Working the grind finer is what actually raises extraction, because grind size controls how much surface area water can reach.
Why Roast Level Matters So Much
Lightly roasted, dense Colombian beans like Pink Bourbon or Castillo fracture into fewer fines and give up their solubles slowly. A finer grind plus hotter water is what opens up their bright malic acidity.
Dark roasts are more porous and brittle, so they produce more microscopic fines during grinding. Going slightly coarser prevents clogging and keeps the bitterness down.
Temperature is the one variable that interacts with grind here, so let it ride with a single sentence: hotter water extracts faster and cooler water extracts slower, so move both together as you chase the sweet spot.
If your beans are more than a few weeks off roast, their changed solubility will fight your dial-in efforts, and freshness matters before grind does. See our guide to Colombian coffee freshness for pour-over to check that first.
Quick Troubleshooting Reference
Use the table below to diagnose a pour-over that tastes wrong.
| Symptom | Likely Cause | Fix |
| Drains under 2:30, sour and thin | Under-extraction, grind too coarse | Grind 1 to 2 steps finer |
| Stalls past 4:00, bitter and dry | Over-extraction or excess fines | Grind 1 to 2 steps coarser, pour gentler |
| Slow drawdown on dark roast, astringent | Bed clogging or over-fine grind | Go medium-coarse, lower agitation |
| Sharp acidity on light roast | Under-extracted dense beans | Fine grind plus hotter water |
If you also brew pressure methods, the settings differ a lot because espresso needs a much finer particle size. See how to grind Colombian coffee for espresso for that dial-in.
For immersion-style brewing, the grind sits coarser than pour-over and the technique changes too. Our AeroPress grind guide for Colombian coffee covers that method.
Final Setting
Grind your Colombian coffee medium-fine for pour-over in a V60, slightly coarser for a flat-bottom brewer, and adjust from taste. Sour means finer, bitter means coarser, and your drawdown should land around 2:30 to 4:00.
Start with 15 grams of coffee to 250 grams of water, and change only the grind on your next brew. If you want a fuller picture of this origin across brewers, our Colombian coffee grind guide for drip machines extends the same logic to automatic brewers.