The coffee world is still reeling from the huge win by George Jinyeng Peng at the 2025 World Brewers Cup in Jakarta. Peng’s win was by a razor thin margin, and the quality of this year’s competition only speaks to the continued importance and excitement around the Brewers Cup format.
In continued coverage from our on-the-ground team in Jakarta, helmed by Sprudge co-founder Zachary Carlsen and Sprudge reporter Tung Nguyen, we thought we’d break down the details of Peng’s award-winning routine. Some parts of what he’s doing might be difficult to recreate at home; for example, Peng competed using a coffee that fetched $3,422.00/kg at auction this year, a 94.5 point natural processed Gesha variety from the award-winning Mount Totumas. The coffee was roasted to exacting specifications using three different roast profiles to bring out different flavor and aromatic elements. You’d probably be hard pressed to duplicate this in your own kitchen.
But for brewing technique and gear, everything Peng did is something you’d be able to do yourself at home with a little practice and intentionality. First, get yourself a Solo Dripper designed by 2024 World Brewers Cup Finalist Jackie Tran, a Melodrip pour over coffee tool, a gooseneck kettle, a digital kitchen scale, and mineral water with a TDS of 40PPM, and a Panama Gesha coffee from an award-winning producer and let’s go!
Water & Coffee:
210ml water (120ml at 205º and 90ml at 176º)
15g coffee ground medium (or, if you want to really replicate Peng’s brew, ground your coffee at 11 clicks on an FM grinder)
Total brewing time: 1 minute, 45 seconds
Step One: Place the dripper upon a glass carafe and gram scale. Set your filter in place and pre-wet and pre-heat the brewer using 80ml of 205º water. Pre-heating “makes a massive impact on flavor,” says Peng.
Step Two: Add the ground coffee.
Step Three/First Phase: Start your timer and slowly add 30ml of water to the coffee. During Peng’s presentation, he poured water in three counter-clockwise circles in a six second pour.
Champ Tip: Before adding water to the dripper, Peng pours water through the kettle to heat up the spout. Kettle spouts are sneaky little heat sinks!
Step Four/Second Phase: After thirty seconds, add 90ml of water in a ten second pour.
Step Five/Third Phase: At 1:10, Peng adds 90ml of 176º water through a Melodrip tool to control turbulence and flow.
Step Six: Once your coffee drips through (1:45) enjoy the aromatics from the carafe.
Step Seven: Serve your coffee in a custom-made hour-glass-shape ceramic vessel preheated to 104ºF and you’ll be drinking coffee like a champion.
And there you have it. You can read more about Peng’s big win in our coverage feature, and explore a decade’s with of Brewers Cup coverage in Sprudge’s heaving archives. Happy brewing.
