The 4:6 Method in One Sentence
The [Tetsu Kasuya](https://cup-timer.com/en/barista/tetsu-kasuya) 4:6 Method is a V60 recipe that splits the total brew water into two chunks, 40% and 60%, and gives each chunk a different job. The first 40% decides how bright or how sweet the cup tastes. The last 60% decides how strong or how light it feels. Because those two axes are separated, you can adjust one without trashing the other, which is rare for a pour-over recipe that a home brewer can actually memorize.
Tetsu Kasuya won the 2016 World Brewers Cup with a version of this method, and it has since become one of the most taught V60 recipes in the world. It works because it turns abstract flavor feedback ("too sour", "too flat") into a simple question about water volume.
The Core Idea: Two Pours, Two Variables
At its heart, the method only asks you to decide two things before you start:
- How should the first 40% of water be split between the first two pours?
- Into how many pours should the last 60% be divided?
Everything else, like grind size, dose, and total water, stays roughly constant. A common starting point among baristas teaching the method is:
- Ratio: around 1:15 coffee to water (for example, 20 g of coffee and 300 g of water).
- Total time: about 3:30, give or take.
- Grind: a shade coarser than a typical V60 grind, closer to what you might use for a Chemex.
The coarser grind matters. Because the 4:6 Method uses discrete pulses with long pauses, the coffee bed spends a lot of time submerged. A finer grind would over-extract under those conditions in most cases. Tetsu's own demonstrations lean coarse for this reason.
The First 40%: Dialing In Acidity and Sweetness
The first 40% of water (for a 300 g brew, that is 120 g) is poured in two separate pours, and the ratio between those two pours is your flavor dial.
- More water in the first pour than the second: tends to emphasize sweetness.
- More water in the second pour than the first: tends to emphasize acidity and brightness.
- Equal pours (60 g + 60 g): a neutral, balanced target.
"The first two pours control the taste. If you want more sweetness, the first pour is bigger. If you want more acidity, the second pour is bigger." This framing, often paraphrased from Tetsu's own teaching, is the reason the method is so easy to adjust blind.
The logic is intuitive once you sit with it. The very first pour is also the bloom, which is where the coffee releases the most CO2 and where the earliest, most acidic compounds are extracted. Pouring a larger second slug over a rested, degassed bed pulls more of those bright notes into the cup. Pouring a larger first slug, in contrast, gives the bloom more water to work with and lets the later pours behave more like dilution than extraction.
Actionable Tip #1: Adjust by 10 g, Not by Guesswork
If your cup lands too sour, shift 10 g from the second pour into the first on your next brew (so 70 g + 50 g instead of 60 g + 60 g). If it lands flat or too sweet, do the opposite. Ten grams is usually enough to feel the change without rebuilding the recipe from scratch. Most tasters can pick up that shift on the second sip.
The Final 60%: Controlling Strength and Body
Once the first 40% is in, the remaining 60% (180 g for a 300 g brew) is about strength, not taste. Here the rule is almost mechanical:
- Fewer pours, larger pours: a lighter, more tea-like cup.
- More pours, smaller pours: a heavier, stronger cup.
Tetsu typically describes this in terms of a 1-to-3 split, meaning:
- 1 pour of 180 g for a very light body.
- 2 pours of 90 g each for a soft, balanced body.
- 3 pours of 60 g each for the standard strength most people enjoy.
- 4 pours of 45 g each for a noticeably stronger, more concentrated cup.
The reason is agitation and contact time. Each additional pulse re-agitates the bed and extends the total contact window, which pushes extraction up. A single large pour, by contrast, drains faster and extracts less. This is the same principle Scott Rao writes about when he talks about turbulence and bed depth, just applied in a much simpler dial.
Actionable Tip #2: Pick Your Strength Before You Grind
Decide how many pours you want in the second half before you weigh out the coffee, and set your grinder accordingly. If you are going for 5 pours (stronger), go one or two clicks coarser than your baseline V60 setting. If you are going for 2 pours (lighter), stay at your baseline. Changing grind size and pour count in the same brew is the fastest way to confuse yourself.
A Worked Example: 20 g Coffee, 300 g Water
Here is a balanced, neutral version you can use as a default:
- 00:00 — Pour 60 g (first of the 40%, this is also the bloom).
- 00:45 — Pour 60 g to reach 120 g total.
- 01:30 — Pour 60 g to reach 180 g.
- 02:10 — Pour 60 g to reach 240 g.
- 02:40 — Pour 60 g to reach 300 g.
- Drawdown finishes around 3:30.
That is equal pours across the board. From this neutral template, shift the first two pours to dial taste, and change the number of final pours to dial strength. It is the same logic whether you are brewing on a Hario V60, an Origami in a conical setting, or an April dripper. Flat-bed brewers like the Kalita Wave behave a little differently because the bed geometry is not a cone, so the method translates less cleanly there.
Where 4:6 Fits Among Other Methods
Compared to [James Hoffmann](https://cup-timer.com/en/barista/james-hoffmann)'s one-cup V60 routine, the 4:6 Method has fewer continuous swirls and more discrete pulses. Compared to Scott Rao's continuous-pour style, it intentionally gives the bed rest between pours. Neither approach is better, they just optimize for different things. The 4:6 Method optimizes for teachability and adjustment. You do not need a refractometer or a TDS reading to know how to change your next brew, and you do not need to think about EBF targets. You only need to remember which half of the recipe does what.
For most home brewers who want a single V60 recipe they can actually iterate on, that trade is worth making.
Log a few 4:6 brews on CUP-TIMER with the pour splits noted, and the pattern becomes obvious within a week. Sweet and flat tells you to move water into the second pour. Sharp and weak tells you to add a pulse to the back half. The recipe teaches itself, which is probably the reason it keeps spreading.