Drip Coffee Grind Size: Medium, and Settings for Your Grinder

An automatic drip coffee maker wants a medium grind. Breville's Sage site describes it as resembling sand, and Moccamaster, which makes drip brewers, puts it slightly coarser: "medium-coarse, like sea salt or rough sand."

On most electric burr grinders that lands in the middle of the dial. BrewMark's settings pages put drip a step or more coarser than the V60 row on the same grinder. The rest of this post covers why drip sits there, how the shape of your basket changes it, why pre-ground "drip" coffee is a compromise, and where to start on the grinder you own.

Why drip coffee needs a medium grind

A drip machine showers hot water over a bed of grounds and lets it drain through a paper filter by gravity. Two things happen at once: the water pulls flavor out of the coffee, and it has to get through the bed and the filter in time.

Grind size controls both. Moccamaster's guide spells out the two ways it goes wrong:

• Too fine: the coffee over-extracts and tastes "overly bitter and sometimes even burned." Water also moves slowly through the dense bed, which can make the brew basket overflow.
• Too coarse: the flavor isn't fully released, so the coffee is under-extracted and tastes weak. Water may also run through too fast and miss part of the bed.

A medium grind gives the water enough surface to extract in the few minutes a machine takes, without choking the filter. Sage calls medium "ideal for most drip coffee makers and pour-over methods," and the go-to for filter coffee generally.

What drip grind looks like

Like sand or coarse sea salt: separate grains you can see, gritty between your fingers, no powder and no chunks. If it looks like flour or table salt, it's too fine for a machine. If it looks like raw sugar, you're in French press or cold brew territory.

For a number, drip grounds have a median particle size of about 750–900 µm (how we source micron figures). You can see drip next to every other method on one scale on the grind size chart.

Flat-bottom vs cone baskets

Drip machines come with one of two basket shapes. The SCA's home brewer standard (310-2021) recognizes both: "a conical brew basket or a flat-bottom brew basket."

The shape changes the grind a little. When the SCA tests a brewer, it adjusts the grind to a set particle spread that depends on the basket. Conical baskets are tested with a somewhat finer grind than flat-bottom ones. Both sit in the medium range; the cone just sits toward its finer side.

A cone funnels the water to one narrow outlet, while a flat basket spreads the coffee into a wider bed. In practice, following the SCA's lead:

• Cone basket: start at your grinder's drip setting, or a step finer.
• Flat-bottom basket: start at the drip setting, or a step coarser.

Then let taste decide. The coffee maker buying guide has the SCA's exact test grinds for each shape, if you want the detail.

Why pre-ground "drip" coffee is a compromise

Supermarket bags labeled for drip or "auto drip" are ground once, at the factory, for every machine at once. That's the first compromise: one grind for cone and flat baskets, small and large batches, and every brand.

Moccamaster goes further. It says most pre-ground supermarket coffee "is ground too finely" for its brewers, and that coffee which tasted fine on another machine will often over-extract on a Moccamaster. Its advice is to grind your own at the "pour-over" setting, or to have a roaster or café grind it for you. That's the finer end of the drip range; the table below starts a little coarser.

If you're stuck with pre-ground for now, Moccamaster's fix is to use less coffee. That's a workaround, not a cure, because you can't make ground coffee coarser.

The second compromise is that you can't adjust it. When a pot tastes bitter or weak, grind is the first thing to change, and pre-ground takes that lever away. For keeping whole beans fresh once you switch, see how to store coffee beans.

What the SCA certified home brewer standard says

The Specialty Coffee Association runs a Certified Home Brewer program. Its current standard, SCA 310-2021, covers electric filter brewers for home use. Pour-over cones, French presses, espresso machines and pod brewers are excluded. To pass, a brewer has to:

• Get the slurry (the mix of grounds and water in the basket) to 90 to 96°C by the time a third of the water has been sprayed on, and keep it there for the rest of the brew.
• Make coffee at 1.15 to 1.55% dissolved solids, tested at 55 g of coffee per kilogram of water.
• Extract evenly across the bed, with a uniformity rating of 60 or more out of 100.
• Hold a basket big enough for a full carafe at that ratio without overflowing.
• If the carafe is heated, keep the coffee at 80 to 85°C for the first 30 minutes, never hotter.

Two parts matter for grind. First, the lab adjusts the grind until each brewer hits the target strength, so a certified machine is proven to work at a medium grind. Second, the standard requires the manual to state a recommended grind, a 55 g/kg ratio, and the filter to use. If you own a certified brewer, its manual is the first place to look.

The SCA keeps a list of certified home brewers on its site, including several Moccamaster models and the GE Café Specialty Drip Coffee Maker.

Dose and ratio for drip

The SCA's 55 g of coffee per kilogram of water works out to about 1 part coffee to 18 parts water. It's a sensible place to start for a full pot. For a 1 liter batch, that's 55 g of coffee.

Change one thing at a time. Keep the dose fixed while you adjust grind, then fine-tune strength with dose once the grind tastes right. The coffee to water ratio guide explains the trade-offs, and the brew calculator scales any ratio to your carafe.

Starting settings on popular grinders

These are the drip / batch brew rows from each grinder's BrewMark settings page. Every row below comes from the maker's own chart.

Starting points from BrewMark's settings pages, which take them from each maker's own chart where one exists (rows marked * are estimated on the same dial). Every grinder drifts; adjust by taste.

The same number on two grinders is not the same grind. To carry a setting from one grinder to another, use the grind converter. To see drip next to every other method, use the master grind size chart.

If you're shopping, drip is the easiest job you can give a burr grinder: any electric model that holds a steady medium grind will do it. The grinder finder, set to drip, filters to the ones that suit it.

Troubleshooting drip coffee by grind

It tastes bitter or burnt. The grind is likely too fine. Moccamaster ties bitterness to over-extraction from a fine grind. Go one or two steps coarser. Our bitter coffee guide covers the other causes.

It tastes weak, thin or sour. The grind is likely too coarse and the water is running through too fast. Go one or two steps finer. If finer doesn't help, check your dose against the ratio above. The sour coffee guide has more.

The basket overflows. Moccamaster's first suspect is a grind that's too fine, which slows the water through the bed. Go coarser. Too much coffee for the basket does the same thing; the SCA standard requires certified baskets to hold a full carafe's worth at 55 g/kg, so a heavier dose than that is asking for trouble.

The bed has dry patches or a crater. Water ran through part of the bed and missed the rest. Moccamaster says that happens with grounds that are too coarse. Go finer.

It tastes both bitter and weak. That's an uneven grind. Moccamaster notes that an inconsistent grind can cause under-extraction, and it sends readers who ask which grinder to use to its burr-versus-blade guide. See how to upgrade from a blade grinder.

It got slower over months on the same grind. Suspect mineral scale in the machine before the grinder. Descale the coffee maker, then judge the grind again.

Next steps

• Find your grinder's full chart in the grinder settings hub, or compare every method on the grind size chart.
• Choosing a machine? Read how to choose a coffee maker for your grinder.
• Want the hand-poured version of a flat-bottom drip brew? Try the Onyx Kalita Wave guide.
• New grinder? Start with how to dial in a new grinder.
• Read what drip coffee means and how it differs from pour-over.