#immersionbrewer — Public Fediverse posts
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Hario Mugen / Switch Brewer Hack
This guide will show you how to hack a Hario Switch together with the Mugen dripper (dead simple!) and then present a recipe for getting the most out of it. Of course this is not the only kind of recipe for this hacked device – experiment like crazy!
For reference, we’re using 15g of coffee ground to a standard press pot grind, will brew with 300ml of water, and take about 4 minutes for the full brew, resulting in a stronger cup than the 1:20 ratio of coffee to water would suggest.
Time Needed: 5 minutes
Equipment Cost $ 75
Necessary Supplies
Fresh Roasted Coffee Filtered Water Hario V60 Paper FiltersNecessary Tools
Hario Switch Brewer ($25) Hario Mugen Dripper ($15) Coffee Scale ($15) Pour Over Kettle (stovetop: $20) A Good Grinder (price not included)Hack and Recipe Steps
Disassemble the Switch Brewer
Once you get both brewing devices, pop the glass V60 filter holder out of the Switch body by wiggling it back and forth as you pull it out. It’s in tight, but should be easy to remove.
Disassemble the Mugen Brewer
Remove the Mugen Dripper (it comes in both plastic and ceramic versions, but the holder it sits in is plastic) from its holder. If you like pop the V60 into that hand held flat wedge the Mugen used to sit in, and use that as your V60 brewer going forward.
Build the Hack
Insert the Mugen Dripper into the Switch base; it should soft-click into place. You’ve just built your new brewer!
Saturate the Paper
Whenever brewing with a “no-bypass” device like the Mugen, it is vitally important to fully saturate the hario #2 paper filters you place in the Mugen, and make sure it is entirely adhering to the side walls with no real air gaps.
We want this to be a full no-bypass brewer once you flip the Switch’s… er, switch to start the flow of brewed coffee.
Once this is done and drained, close the Switch’s toggle.
Measure Your Coffee
Our recipe is a 1:20 ratio, so 15g of coffee for 300ml of water being used. Measure it out, then pop it into your quality grinder. If you’re using a hand grinder, like the 1Zpresso X-Ultra, set it to 1+5 on the dial. It will only take about 20 seconds to grind.
Add Coffee To Filter
Add the ground coffee to the Mugen / Switch brewer, settling it into a nice level surface, or in our case here, with a slight dimple in the middle.
Do Initial Pour
Add your initial half volume of your total brewing water you plan to use. In our case it’s 150ml. Pour quickly, but evenly to fully saturate the grounds.
Stir it Up
Now for some agitation: give the slurry a good but gentle stir for about 3 or 4 seconds. Enough to really saturate everything, and accelerate the extraction process.
Wait 60 Seconds
Wait 60 seconds to let the coffee fully saturate and immerse then open the Switch’s flow valve.
Begin Next Pour
Begin the next 150ml pour of brewing water, swirling and saturating the entire surface. Go slow, about 5g of water per second. This will get you up to around 3:15-3:30 in the total brewing time.
Let the Brew Complete
Now all that is left to do is to wait for the brew to complete. If you hit the right grind, this method should take around 4 minutes, start to finish. The final draw down can take longer or shorter times depending on your grind.
Measure or Taste the Results
Because we have to, the TDS was measured once the brew was complete: our 1:20 ratio of coffee to water delivers the same TDS levels that a normal 1:15 ratio brew would, in a traditional pour over. And the taste is excellent!
Of course, this is just one recipe. I encourage you to really experiment with this brewer, and you’ll find some further suggestions below.
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want to reach a global specialty coffee audience? advertise with us.Further ThoughtsHario Mugen Switch Hack
Several things are at play with this hack, all open to experimentation. I’m also not going to tell you what is worse or better tasting; I will leave that up to your tastebuds.
As I stated in the preamble, the brew recipe prescribed above is quite different from Hedrick’s 10 minute brew in the original video. That shows the range of experimentation you can dive into. Just in case you didn’t click the link above to his video, here it is, in its entirety.
Full / PartialImmersion Brew
The Mugen, with 15-18g of ground coffee in it, can accommodate up to 300ml of coffee without any flow through. But be warned, that is literally right to the edge of the top of the filter holder. If you decide to brew this way, filling it up right to the rim, and waiting before opening the flow valve, you will have a full immersion brew with one pass through.
I’ve tried a variety of immersion levels:
- full 300ml (stirring briefly midway) then a pause before opening the valve;
- doing a “thirds” brew (valve closed for 100ml, open for the second 100ml, pause, then pour the final 100ml);
- working on half and half (150 in, slight stir, open valve, let drain, close valve, second 150ml in, let steep, then open valve); and
- the method described above in the step by step.
I’ve even done 600ml brews using the half and half method, but starting with 30g coffee and letting the Mugen fill to the rim before letting the coffee flow through for each half stage.
For me, the method prescribed in our step by step works best for my taste likes, and the amount of patience I have for how long a brew takes.
If you do go full immersion, keep in mind it is pretty easy to over extract and get excessive bitters and astringency in the cup. Hedrick did not report these things in his brewing recipe, but he was really controlling the flow and gentle stirs applied.
I find the flow through halvies method in our step by step above cuts this down, but on the other hand, a few full 300ml immersion brews I did were spectacular and notable.
The Finished Brew The finished brew has a similar final TDS to a traditional 1:14 ratio pour over (around 1.25-1.30), but used less coffee. The taste is still as full and complete and balanced as ever, with no real astrigency, even though the extraction rate is higher. coffeegeek advertisers make this website possible.
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Donate donate via PaypalMore onNo-Bypass Brewing
No-Bypass is a trendy, popular thing right now. In fact, one of my favourite “out of the box” non espresso brewers at the moment is a no-bypass brewer called the NextLevel Pulsar. Ironically, that brewer is basically Lance Hedrick’s “Percolative Immersion” brewer brought to life as a complete brewer, no hack required.
The Pulsar, Hedrick’s hack of the Tricolate and Switch, and our Mugen Switch hack all provide the ability to do a full immersion brew, but they also provide a no-bypass brewer, which maximizes the extraction ratios for your brewed coffee. The Mugen Switch works differently than the Pulsar and Tricolate because in those, the bed of coffee is a flat disk with a relatively wide surface area; in the Mugen, it is cone shaped.
This does have different extraction properties, and the Mugen Switch hack gives you some additional options to play and experiment with. For instance: if you’re finding astringency is a problem because of the extended contact time and early swirling and stirring done in the brewer, change things up: don’t stir at all in the first stages. Only apply a gentle stir once the flow through is ongoing, after you’ve poured all your brewing water. This will have the double effect of a) increasing the drain rate at the end, and b) increases the extraction a bit less because your brewing water isn’t as hot as it was at the start of the brew.
Again, it’s all about experimenting.
Switch, Pulsar and Mugen The Hario Switch, NextLevel Pulsar, and Hario Mugen, side by side. The right two are no-bypass, the left two are full immersion brewers.Which HackIs Better?
Honestly, that’s not for me to decide for you. If you have a Switch and a Tricolate, do Hedrick’s hack, and enjoy it!
If you don’t want to “hack” and just have a brewer that presents these opportunities to do immersion and no-bypass brewing, get yourself a Pulsar. But keep in mind: the Pulsar isn’t cheap: it is priced around $65 or higher, and the Hario Mugen / Switch Hack can cost you as little as $40, and you get two complete brewers out of it (the no-bypass Mugen Switch hacked brewer, and a usable V60 brewer).
For my own opinion, I think the Mugen Switch hack is just a bit more elegant than Hedrick’s Tricolate / Switch hack. He freely admits getting the two devices to marry together well is a bit rough, and it requires a bit of a toss and turn to get the last bit of coffee to pour out. I also think you need to be careful about the Tricolate and Switch base accidentally separating (and hot coffee spilling everywhere). The Mugen fits perfectly into the Switch’s holder base, by comparison.
Second, there’s no wash of under-extracted coffee sitting between the filter holder and the Switch’s interior. If you’re doing light brews, small brews, this can really play a factor. Hedrick brewed with a lot of coffee (25g to 350ml, or a 1:14 ratio) which provided a very high finished extraction ratio (2%!!) so that bit of dilution in the base may not matter much in his recipe; but if you are looking to extract more from less coffee (like the method above), that dilution could disrupt the brew taste.
There’s another thing to consider: the different profiles based on the shape of the bed of coffee the brewing water passes through. The Pulsar and the Tricolate / Switch hack both have a flat “disk” of ground coffee to pass through, over a wide area. The Mugen / Switch hack presents an inverted cone of ground coffee, large diameter at the top, narrowing down to a near point at the bottom.
I’ve tried both brewers hundreds of times, and I think I prefer the cone no-bypass over the flat disc no bypass. But that’s just me and my tastes. You may find you like the Pulsar’s profile a lot more.
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#hario #HarioMugen #HarioSwitch #howTo #immersionBrewer #noBypass