The Best Way to Brew Coffee with Automatic Drip Machines

Mr. Coffee, Cuisine Art, Hamilton Beach, Black + Decker, Proctor & Silex, Moccamaster, etc.

The list goes on and on of automatic drip coffee makers.

Without doing a study or looking up statistics, I’m quite sure that these are by far the most popular and used coffee machines for many years.

There are at least a few reasons for this.

The convenience, major ease of use, relatively low cost, and ability to make small or large batches of coffee easily are among the top reasons.

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But one thing you may or may not have considered is that these automatic brewers are like glorified, automatic pour overs.

They come (usually) with a cone shape drip and slowly pour and extract coffee from this dripper.

We could basically say they’re like automatic pour over machines.

Anyway, they do make life easier, and in this article, I’m going to give you a generalized step-by-step how to for the best way to brew coffee with automatic drip machines.

Sure, there are different shapes, sizes and styles, but there aren’t really any huge differences when it comes down to how to brew coffee with them.

So with that being said, here’s the best way to brew with them!

Step 1 – Grind The Beans

Since making coffee with an automatic machine is so easy, let’s at least do ourselves the favor of grinding our own beans.

That way they’re as fresh as possible to give us a great cup of coffee.

For the grind size, on a scale from 1 to 10 with 10 being the most coarse, the beans should be ground at approximately 3 to 4.

And for coffee to water ratio, the best to start with is 2 tablespoons of ground coffee to 6 ounces of water.

That means if you make one cup of coffee (6 ounces), use 2 tablespoons of coffee grinds.

To make 2 cups of coffee (12 ounces), use 4 tablespoons of coffee grinds.

If you want to make 4 cups of coffee (24 ounces), use 8 tablespoons of coffee grinds.

And so on.

But as an important note, I recommend making no less than 2 cups of coffee in an automatic drip machine!

This is because of the grind size and how the machines function; it’s quite difficult for the grinds to be fully extracted with such a small amount of water.

Therefore, I suggest even if you’re making coffee only for yourself, make at least 3 cups of coffee (18 ounces).

It’s better to have too much good coffee than just the right amount of weak, under-extracted coffee!

Step 2 – Rinse The Filter And Add The Coffee

Set the filter in the filter basket and rinse it with water, preferably hot water, although temperature isn’t all-important and you can do this with cold water.

This is to clean the filter of any paper fibers that might otherwise come out in the coffee.

Discard the water, and set your coffee grinds into the now wet coffee filter.

Step 3 – Pour The Water Into The Chamber

This is a step that’s insanely simple, but I’ll just make an important note.

With the water that you’ve measured, pour it into the chamber to get it ready to brew.

Since we’re talking about the best way to make coffee with automatic machines, one thing you can do to make this very simple brewing method as good as it can be is to use good quality water.

In other words, preferably not tap water.

I’m not always a stickler about this, but with such a convenient brew method, why not level it up as much as possible?

The best type of water to use is spring water because of the nice balance of minerals.

It doesn’t have too much like tap water, or too little as distilled water does.

Now with your water that you’ve just poured into the chamber, get ready for the next step.

Step 4 – Push The Start Button And Enjoy Your Coffee

That’s about it.

Just run your coffee machine, but shortly after the coffee is finished, turn off the machine.

The reason for this is that even if the coffee maker has an automatic heating surface on the bottom, under where the carafe sits, that heating system doesn’t adequately work to keep coffee heated properly.

Either drink the coffee right away after it’s finished brewing, or turn off the coffee maker and let the coffee cool down eventually, and simply re-heat it later.

In my opinion, you can re-heat coffee up to about 12 hours after brewing.

In Closing

And there you have it, the best way to brew coffee with an automatic drip coffee maker.

It’s a pretty simple process to brew with these kinds of machines, which is again part of the reason why they’re so popular.

But in this tutorial, you may have noticed some things you didn’t know before!

I’ll say again also, this is a general how-to, it’s not necessarily all-encompassing.

Automatic drip machines come in many shapes and sizes, and with many different features.

Some may have other features that make things easier or which can make the brewing process a bit different, but if you follow these guidelines you’re sure to have some great coffee dripping from your machine.

If you have any questions or comments about this process or automatic drip machines, please feel free to let me know in the comments section below and I’ll be happy to hear from you!

Coffee cheers!

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*I receive commissions from purchases made through product links in this post. I sincerely appreciate if you use my links if you decide to buy something and help me in this way! And if not, no problem. To learn more click here. Coffee cheers!*