# Inside a Brewers Cup champion's approach to brewing

> Simon Gautherin, Australia's 2026 Brewers Cup Champion, keeps his kit simple. It's the recipe and the water that do the real work.

By Joey Krosch. Published 2025-07-14, updated 2026-08-17.

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.

> **Equipment isn't the differentiator at this level:**
> At competition level, everyone has access to good gear. What separates
> results is precision in the details most home brewers skip past: exact
> ratios, consistent grind size and controlled water chemistry.

## 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.