Brew Ratio Calculator: Espresso and Filter, Dose to Yield

A brew ratio is the weight of liquid coffee out divided by the weight of dry coffee in. An 18 g dose yielding 36 g is 1:2. Set the ratio below, enter what you have, and the target appears. Everything is in grams, because volume in a cup is mostly crema and crema is gas.

Choose a ratio

1:1.5ristretto 1:2normale 1:2.5lungo 1:3long shot 1:15strong filter 1:16filter 1:17light filter 1:12cold brew conc.

Or set it exactly (1 to x)

Dose in, grams

− +

Weigh the dry coffee before grinding.

Yield out, grams

− +

Weigh the liquid in the cup, not the volume.

Ratio

1:2.00

Normale, the conventional double.

Target yield

36.0 g

Target dose

18.0 g

Shot timer

0.0

sec

Start Reset

Target window for a 1:2 double: 25 to 30 seconds from first drip.

Guidance only. Espresso machines run mains electricity, pressurised water and steam above boiling point, so follow your manufacturer manual.

How does the brew ratio calculator work?

It divides yield by dose. That is the whole arithmetic, and it is worth saying plainly because brew ratio gets discussed as though it were mysterious. Change the dose and the target yield moves; change the yield and the target dose moves; pick a preset and both recalculate against it. The shot timer is there because the ratio only means something alongside a time.

Everything is by weight in grams. Not millilitres, not ounces, not lines on a shot glass. The reason is crema: it is a foam of carbon dioxide released by the coffee, it can be a third of the visible volume in the cup, and it weighs almost nothing. Two shots filling the cup to the same line can differ by six grams of actual liquid, which is enough to move a shot from balanced to noticeably sour.

What brew ratio should you use?

Ratio decides the style of drink. It does not decide whether the drink is extracted properly, which is what grind does. Pick a ratio from the table below, hold it fixed, and adjust grind until the time lands in the window.

The full lookup across every dose from 14 g to 22 g is on the brew ratio chart, which is worth bookmarking separately if you change dose often.

Why is ratio not the same as strength?

This is the distinction that causes the most confusion, so here is the plain version. Brew ratio controls concentration: how much water is carrying the dissolved coffee. Extraction yield controls how much of the coffee dissolved at all, and that is set by grind size, temperature, time and puck evenness.

A 1:1 ristretto is more concentrated than a 1:3 lungo, so it tastes stronger. But it may be less extracted, because the water left the puck before it had finished dissolving the later, sweeter compounds. That is why a very tight ristretto pulled on a coarse grind tastes both intense and sour at the same time, which sounds contradictory and is not.

The conventional target for extraction yield is 18 to 22% of the dry coffee mass dissolved into the drink. Below that a shot reads sour and thin, above it bitter, drying and ashy. You cannot measure that at home without a refractometer, which is why taste and time are the practical proxies, and why the troubleshooting chart maps each symptom to a single change.

How do you use this while a shot is actually running?

Set the ratio and the dose before you start. The target yield is then a single number to watch for on the scale, and the timer tells you whether you got there too fast or too slow. That is the entire workflow, and it is why this page is built for one hand on a phone propped against the machine.

1. Weigh the dry dose into the basket and enter it above.
2. Pick the ratio. If you are unsure, use 1:2.
3. Tare the scale with the cup on it.
4. Start the shot and the timer together.
5. Stop when the scale reaches the target yield, and note the time.

If the target yield arrived before the time window, grind finer. If the time window passed before the yield arrived, grind coarser. Change grind and nothing else, then repeat. The full sequence, including how many shots to expect to spend, is in how to dial in espresso.

What does the timer window mean?

Time is not a target in itself. It is a proxy for flow rate through the puck, and flow rate is a proxy for grind size. A 1:2 double landing in 25 to 30 seconds is the conventional window because that is where a correctly ground bed usually sits, not because 27 seconds is inherently better than 24.

Start the timer when you start the pump, not at first drip, and be consistent about which you choose. Pre-infusion machines will show several seconds of nothing before the first drop, which is normal and is why two people quoting shot times can differ by four or five seconds while doing the same thing.

Some perfectly good recipes sit outside the window on purpose. Turbo shots use a coarser grind and a wider ratio to finish in under 22 seconds, and lungo recipes for light roasts often run past 35. Both are fine, and both are decisions rather than faults.

Does the same calculator work for filter coffee?

Yes, and that is the point of having one tool rather than two. Filter ratios sit between 1:15 and 1:17, which is 60 to 67 grams of coffee per litre of water, and the arithmetic is identical. A V60 at 1:16 with a 25 g dose wants 400 g of water, and the calculator will tell you so.

Two practical differences. In filter brewing the yield you enter is the water you pour, not the liquid that lands in the server, because the bed retains roughly two grams of water per gram of coffee. And grind size sits far coarser: 400 to 800 microns for pourover against 200 to 400 for espresso, which the grind size chart lays out by method.

If you are working across both, the pourover setup guide covers the kit, and the cost per cup calculator will tell you what each method actually costs you per drink once beans and equipment are accounted for.