Simon Gautherin won Australia's 2026 Brewers Cup Championship, and went on to a runner-up finish at the World Brewers Cup in Brussels. What's notable about his approach isn't a complicated setup, it's a deliberately minimal one, built around a precise recipe and close attention to water.
A minimalist travel kit
Gautherin's competition setup is simple by design: a quality hand grinder paired with a manual pour-over dripper. Rather than chasing more equipment, his focus stays on getting the fundamentals, grind consistency, water quality and technique, genuinely right.
Why water gets so much attention
Gautherin has a professional focus on water mineral content, co- founding a mineral concentrate company built around exactly this problem. Water composition genuinely affects extraction, minerals interact with coffee compounds during brewing, which is why competition-level brewers treat water as a variable to control rather than an afterthought. General guidance for filter brewing sits around 50 to 80 ppm calcium hardness and 120 to 150 ppm total dissolved solids, though the right numbers vary by coffee and method.
A championship-style recipe
His competition brewing parameters give a useful reference point for anyone wanting to dial in a more precise filter brew:
- Ratio: roughly 1:14, coffee to water
- Grind size: coarser than standard filter, closer to a 1000-micron target if you have a way to measure it
- Water temperature: 92 to 96°C
- Extraction target: 18 to 22%, in line with the standard Golden Cup range
Choosing origins
Gautherin has spoken about the terroir and processing diversity of origins like Colombia, Panama, Kenya and China, competition entries have included naturally and washed processed Geisha, a variety prized for its distinct floral and tea-like character.
The takeaway
A champion-level brewing approach isn't about owning more equipment, it's about controlling the variables that actually matter: a precise ratio, a consistent grind, attention to water quality and an extraction target grounded in real brewing science. Those fundamentals are available to any home brewer willing to measure rather than guess.
