Why Does Pour Over Coffee Taste Burnt and Bitter? 4 Common Brewing Mistakes Beginners Make

 Beginners often say that brewing coffee feels like pure guesswork—that whether it tastes good or not is all about luck. But in my view, once you understand the logic and patterns behind brewing, you’ll realize it’s not complicated at all. It really comes down to identifying a few key variables and using hot water to properly extract the coffee grounds. Do that right, and you’ll end up with a genuinely good cup of coffee.

These days, the internet is flooded with brewing tutorials. And yet, many beginners still run into an “unexpected” problem: the coffee they brew tastes harsh, burnt, and unpleasantly bitter. Today, I want to walk you through a process of elimination to help you pinpoint the cause.

Reason 1: The Coffee Beans Are Dark Roasted

Whether coffee tastes acidic or bitter is largely determined by the roast level. Light roasts tend to emphasize acidity, dark roasts highlight bitterness, and medium roasts sit somewhere in between.

For people who enjoy dark-roasted coffee, these beans offer aromas like caramel, nuts, chocolate, toasted bread, and similar flavors. The mouthfeel is usually heavier, richer, and more rounded, with a long-lasting aftertaste that lingers pleasantly.

However, if you’re not naturally drawn to bold, intense flavors, this style of coffee can feel overwhelming. Because dark roasts are dominated by roast-derived aromas, many people describe them as tasting burnt and bitter—some even compare them to traditional herbal teas.

Avoiding this is actually quite simple. Just look at the flavor notes on the coffee bag. For example, beans labeled with flavors like chocolate, nuts, toasted bread, spices, pine, or caramel—such as Brazil Cerrado, Colombia Huila, or Indonesia Mandheling—are clearly roast-driven profiles. These are typically bitter-forward coffees produced through longer roasting.

Reason 2: The Beans Are Too Old and Have Lost Their Aroma

Beyond roast level, bitterness is also closely tied to freshness.

After roasting, coffee beans release a large amount of carbon dioxide in the first few days. They then enter a “golden window” when aromas peak and flavors are at their best. As time goes on, those flavor compounds gradually fade, the aroma weakens, and the cup becomes flatter and duller.

My general recommendation is this: if the beans are kept whole, try to finish them within six weeks of roasting. Once they’re ground, it’s best to use them within three weeks.

If your beans are dark-roasted, fresh beans will smell strongly of roasted aromas—what many people simply call “that coffee smell.” But once they pass their prime, not only does that aroma disappear, you may start to notice off-notes like woodiness, oiliness, or smokiness. When brewed, these beans often produce a cup with an inherent burnt bitterness.

If you’ve ruled out the beans themselves, then the bitterness is most likely coming from your brewing parameters.

Reason 3: The Grind Is Too Fine, or There’s Too Much Fine Powder

From what I’ve observed, most cases of burnt or bitter coffee among beginners are related to grind size. This usually shows up in two ways.

The first is grinding too fine. When the grind is too fine, water struggles to flow through the bed, leading to excessive contact time and over-extraction—resulting in bitterness.

The second is having too many fines. These tiny particles clog the pores of the filter paper, slowing the flow and causing channeling or blockage, which also leads to over-extraction.

If your water flow is steady but overall very slow—for example, 15 grams of coffee at a 1:15 ratio taking longer than 2 minutes and 20 seconds—and the cup tastes burnt and bitter, your grind is likely too fine. Adjust it coarser.

If the water flows normally at the beginning but slows down significantly toward the end, and the coffee bed looks muddy and waterlogged after brewing, that’s a sign of too many fines. In this case, you can sift out some of the fines or consider upgrading to a better-quality grinder to reduce their presence.

Reason 4: The Water Temperature Is Too High

When it comes to water temperature, I rarely recommend a single fixed number. Instead, I suggest a general range based on roast level:

• Light to light-medium roasts: 91–93°C (196–199°F)

• Medium roasts: 89–91°C (192–196°F)

• Dark roasts: 86–88°C (187–190°F)

That said, even within these ranges, small differences matter. The flavor extracted at the upper end of the range can be noticeably different from the lower end. Sometimes, a burnt bitterness comes down to just a 1–2°C difference.

I remember brewing Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 with 88°C water and noticing a slightly burnt, bitter finish. Keeping all other variables the same, I lowered the water temperature to 86°C. The result was an immediate improvement—the cup became cleaner, more balanced, and far more pleasant.

If your coffee tastes burnt and bitter, and you’ve already ruled out roast level, freshness, and grind size, it’s worth considering whether your water temperature might simply be too high.

Understanding these variables—and adjusting them one by one—will take the guesswork out of brewing and bring you much closer to consistently great coffee.