- Home
- Cooking Timers
- French Press Timer
French Press Timer
Choose a method and press Start as you pour the water onto the grounds. The timer beeps at each step.
Step 1 / 2
Bloom 0:30, stir, add the rest of the water, steep 3:30. Press slowly at 4:00 and pour it all out.
Steep 4:00, break the crust and skim, then wait 5:00 while the grounds sink. Press only to the surface.
French press brew time, step by step
| Clock | Classic (4:00 total) | Long steep (9:00 total) |
|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | Pour on enough water to wet all the grounds | Pour in all the water and leave it alone |
| 0:30 | Stir, add the rest of the water, rest the lid on top | Keep steeping |
| 4:00 | Press slowly and pour everything out | Break the crust with a spoon and skim off the foam |
| 9:00 | Done | Press only to the surface and pour gently |
For coarse-ground coffee at 1:15 to 1:17 by weight, for example 30 g of coffee to 500 g of water, with water a little off the boil. Treat the times as a starting recipe and adjust the grind to taste.
How to use it
- Weigh coarse-ground coffee into the press: about 30 g for 500 g of water, or roughly 60 g per liter. Boil the kettle and let it stand for half a minute.
- Choose the classic or the long method and press Start as you begin to pour.
- Classic: wet the grounds, and when the timer beeps at 0:30, stir, add the rest of the water and rest the lid on with the plunger up. Press slowly at the final beep.
- Long steep: pour in all the water and wait. At the 4:00 beep, break the crust with a spoon and skim off the foam and floating grounds, then leave the press for the 5-minute settle.
- Pour all of the coffee out as soon as you have pressed, into cups or a jug, so it stops brewing.
Why four minutes and a coarse grind
A French press is an immersion brewer: all the coffee sits in all the water for the whole brew, and a metal mesh does the filtering. Coarse grounds give up their flavor slowly, so they need about four minutes in hot water to produce a full cup. Grind finer and four minutes is too long, the coffee turns bitter, and the small particles slip through the mesh or clog it so the plunger is hard to push down.
The 30-second bloom in the classic method is there for fresh coffee, which releases gas when hot water hits it. That gas lifts the grounds into a dry raft on the surface. Wetting them first and stirring at 0:30 gets every particle into the water, so the remaining 3:30 extracts evenly.
What the extra five minutes do
A mesh filter lets fine particles through, which is why French press coffee has more body than paper-filtered coffee and a layer of sludge at the bottom of the cup. The long method deals with that by letting gravity do the filtering. After 4 minutes you break the crust and most of the grounds sink. Skimming removes the foam and the bits that still float. Over the next 5 minutes the fine particles settle to the bottom.
Then you press only as far as the surface of the coffee, using the mesh as a strainer, not a piston, and pour gently so the bed at the bottom stays where it is. The cup is cleaner and has cooled to a temperature you can drink. Extraction slows a great deal once the grounds have sunk, so the longer time does not make the coffee harsh.
Common mistakes
- Using a fine, espresso-style grind. It over-extracts in four minutes and fills the cup with silt.
- Forcing the plunger down fast. It stirs the settled grounds back up, pushes fines through the mesh and can send hot coffee over the rim.
- Leaving coffee in the press to keep warm. It carries on extracting; pour it into a jug or flask instead.
- Skipping the stir in the classic method. Dry grounds floating on top add nothing to the cup.
- Pouring the last drops in the long method. The final half inch holds the sediment you waited five minutes to leave behind.
Questions people ask
How long should you steep French press coffee?
Four minutes in total is the standard: a 30-second bloom, then 3 minutes 30 seconds with the lid on. The long method steeps for 4 minutes, then waits 5 more after skimming so the grounds settle.
What is the French press ratio of coffee to water?
Between 1:15 and 1:17 by weight. That is 30 g of coffee to 500 g of water, or about 60 g per liter. Use a little more coffee for a stronger cup instead of steeping for longer.
What grind should I use for a French press?
Coarse, with particles about the size of coarse sea salt. If the plunger is very hard to push or the cup is muddy and bitter, grind coarser. If the coffee is thin and sour, grind a little finer.
How hot should the water be?
A little off the boil, about 195–205°F (90–96°C). Letting a boiled kettle stand for about half a minute gets you there.
Does this work as a cafetière timer?
Yes. A cafetière is the same brewer under the name used in Britain and France, and the steps, grind and times are identical.
Why is there sludge at the bottom of my cup?
The metal mesh lets fine particles through. A coarser, more even grind, a slow press and leaving the last sip in the cup all help, and the long steep method is designed to reduce it.