#no-bypass — Public Fediverse posts

Let's talk about the brewer graveyard. You know, that cupboard where expensive, well-intentioned coffee gear goes to be forgotten. For some of us, the Espro Bloom is sitting right there in the back.

It was a brewer with a real identity crisis. The paper filters were expensive and hard to find, and brewing without them was a masterclass in frustration. You’d either get a fast, sour cup or a choked, bitter stall. Many of us just gave up. After spending way too much time with this thing for CoffeeGeek, we realized the problem wasn't the brewer, it was us.

The big secret is to stop treating it like a pour-over. It's a unique no-bypass brewer that demands a smaller dose and a coarser grind. Once you work with its fussy design instead of against it, the results are stunningly clean and consistent. It’s so sensitive, in fact, that we now use it as a benchmark for testing new grinders.

We’re putting the finishing touches on a definitive guide that covers the whole story: the history, the step-by-step recipe (with grinder settings), and the deep-dive theory. If you have one of these brewers, get ready to rescue it. The coffee it can make is absolutely worth it.

#Coffee #SpecialtyCoffee #CoffeeBrewing #HowTo #EsproBloom #NoBypass #BrewingGuide

At the SCA trade show this year, there was a little sumthin sumthin towards the back of Hario’s booth that many folks may have missed (Jay Caragay, however, did not miss it!). It is the new variant of the Hario V60, called the Hario V60 Suiren Coffee Dripper.

The Suiren is not available officially yet in North America, but guess what: you can order one, with zero shipping charges (it’s coming from Japan), direct from the US Amazon site, right now for under $24! And you can also order a set of six spare ribs in one of six different colours (eight will eventually be available) to really customize your brewer. I don’t know how long this availability will last, but if you want one, you can order one, today.

What Exactly Is It?

The Hario Suiren is an open-air kinda pour over brewer, based on the same rib structure, and angles that the original V60 has inside all the filter holders in that series. But something’s missing: any surface area between those ribs! Its basically the polar opposite of a no-bypass brewer. 

Now this kind of brewer – one that exposes the main filtering material to full airflow around it – isn’t new. Cloth pourover systems always worked this way, and over the years we’ve been sent various “out in the open” filter holders for Melitta cone filters, flat bottom filter papers, and even aftermarket designs for the V60 filter papers.

What does make this new and interesting is just how beautiful Hario’s execution is of this brewing device. They are selling the Suiren in several variants, including basic black, basic white, and single colours. They are also selling it in “limited edition” mixed colours. And the give even more creativity, you can buy six coloured ribs to really customize your Suiren and make it entirely your own.

The Suiren ships in a flat-pack box, IKEA style, because you have to assemble it when it arrives. Inside the box is the filter holder / carafe rest, the filter’s main hub, and two boxes each containing six removable ribs. Click the ribs into the slots in the circular hub (12 ribs per brewer), and then click the assembled ribs and hub into the filter holder. 

The material is all plastic, and appears at first glance to be a different type of plastic than what Hario is using in their plastic V60s. It seems a bit more pliable, “softer” if that’s a thing. Don’t misconstrue though – the plastics are very high quality and once assembled the brewer is very sturdy.

We bought three brewers and two sets of spare ribs, direct from Hario Japan. One set featured alternating black and white ribs. The second set had three colours, in four ribs: red, white and blue (perfect for the 4th of July!). The third set was just black ribs, and also the cheapest option, costing about $6 less than the multi colour versions. We also bought green and purple rib sets.

That’s another thing that makes this brewer so fantastic: you can modify it visually to really make it your own. Choose the rib colours that suit your mood, your work area, or your kitchen. I firmly believe the more you feel your coffee device is meant specifically for you, the more you’ll get out of it.

Brewing with the Suiren

We’ve experimented a lot with open air filter designs in the past, and something always seemed to happen that went against expectations and assumptions: you think the coffee would brew faster with more flow through, but that isn’t the case; if anything, the brews slow down a tad compared to normal, enclosed (and ribbed) filter holders. It took me a long time to figure out why this was happening. Eventually I figured it out via experiments we did in the CoffeeGeek Lab back in 2011.

But it was time to see if the Suiren did the same thing.

And sure enough, the brew times with the Suiren, head to head with a standard V60 brew, were just a tad slower to finish. Magic? Naw. There’s a cause. But first, here’s what I did for both brews.

I set up my first brews with the Suiren side by side with #2 V60 ceramic brewer. Same coffee, same dose, same grind. Same filter paper. Same prewet procedure. Both on the scale, both geting a bloom pour of 2x the coffee volume (21g brewed, 42g bloom pour). Pause 30 seconds. Then pour water at around 2-3g a second to 150g total water weight. Pause 30 seconds. Finish to 300g water weight. 

Both pours were completed at around 3:10 mark. The standard V60 finished brewing by 4:10. The Suiren? 4:15. Weird, right?

Temperature is the cause. The open air concept of the Suiren does something a closed porcelain or plastic V60 does less of: it allows heat to escape the brewing slurry faster. Things cool down quicker in the slurry. The finished brew temperature in the cup is lower, with the Suiren. That’s what can slow down the brew and extraction: the hotter the water is, the more efficient it’s going to travel through ground coffee.

You can see this visually with the Suiren: moisture collects on the ribs, showing the dissipation of heat from the filter paper and brewing slurry.

Measuring both brews after with a DiFluid R2 refractometer, they were almost identical, at around 1.32-1.34%

Regardless of all this, the Suiren was producing cups that seemed a bit more “mellow” than the standard V60; a bit softer, but by no means sour or lacking in body or depth. If I had to come up with one word, it would be “less sharp” (I guess that’s two words). And for my palate, that’s a good thing. 

Basically, if you are a fan of super bright coffees, you might not like this brewer. Also, I was able to visualize the bypass happening out of the sides of the paper filter (though it proved impossible to photograph); you definitely want to use a 14:1 ratio with this brewer to get a properly extracted cup. If your pursuit is getting 300ml of brew from 15g of ground coffee, this brewer ain’t gonna do it. Go no-bypass. 

Sure is Pretty

Look: I appreciate beautiful design engineering in coffee (to the point where I’m pretty critical of “engineer-designed UI”) and wow, did Hario ever hit a home run here. For $23 or less, this is a strikingly beautiful brewer. And you can completely customize it! 

My partner in life is pretty blasé about all things coffee and espresso, given our house is full of the stuff. But she loves the look of the Hario Suiren so much, she actually posted a photo to her own Instagram account, which is saying something: I think the last time she posted something coffee related was half a decade ago!

Honestly, for $23 or less, this is a no brainer. Who knows how much it will be once the middlemen and importers start stocking it over here in Canada and the USA. I’d probably pay as much as $35 or more for this, given its unique look and ability to deliver a more mellow, less sharp cup of coffee. 

But for now, you can buy this via Amazon in the US, with it being shipped direct from Japan. There’s only one colour choice available at the moment (black), but you can also order sets of the ribs to customize your own.

And if you made it this far, here’s a gallery of some other photos I took of this pretty brewer.

https://coffeegeek.com/blog/new-products/hario-suiren-first-look-review/

#hario #harioSuiren #noBypass #pourover #suiren

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

Necessary Tools

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.

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.

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More 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.

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.

Support CoffeeGeek

If you enjoy and learn from this resource, please consider making a one time or recurring donation to help support our work and fund purchases for future reviews.

https://coffeegeek.com/guides/howtos/hario-mugen-switch-brewer-hack-how-to/

#hario #HarioMugen #HarioSwitch #howTo #immersionBrewer #noBypass

New updated content at CoffeeGeek: our updated Snapshot Review of the #Hario Mugen Dripper. At under $15 (and currently $10 USD) it's a must buy if you're into pour over coffee (and especially want to experiment with no-bypass brewing).

#nobypass #pourover #hariomugen

cc @coffee

https://coffeegeek.com/reviews/snapshot/hario-mugen-dripper-review/

So I thought the #Cuptimo was a bit of a joke, really. I mean a blood pressure style pump, attached to a pourover #coffee maker?

While it is a bit "hacky", it actually works really, really well. One of the things I dislike about #nobypass coffee brewing is the dwell / draw time. Some devices take up to 10 minutes.

This creates a vacuum in the vessel below, when you choose to create that vacuum. Said vacuum completes the brew quickly.

They're onto something here.

cc @coffee

Interesting little #nobypass brewer arrived on Friday for us to put through some paces. It's kind of a hybrid of a pourover, no-bypass brewer, and a siphon coffee maker.

Yup, that's a squeeze bellows. It actuall creates suction and a vacuum in the vessel you're brewing into (kind of like how a siphon coffee maker creates a vacuum after you remove the heat source).

It's the Cuptimo coffee brewer, out of Germany.

#pourover #siphoncoffee

Ceado, the grinder maker, is going all in on demonstrating the new Ceado Hoop at the Milan HOSTS expo (one of the biggest trade shows for specialty coffee in the world).

Check out their big custom booth for the #nobypass #pourover coffee maker. Pretty impressive.

The #NextLevel Pulsar #nobypass coffee brewer with flow control is rapidly becoming my favourite non-espresso brewer for 2023. It's incredibly versatile, easy to use (no complex pours), and produces a stellar cup with slightly less coffee than a comparable #V60 brew.

Review coming soon on CoffeeGeek. If you want to buy one now, google NextLevel Pulsar (and tell them to get on Mastodon!)

We are also testing the #CeadoHoop #nobypass, passive radial #coffee brewer; it can be incredibly easy (15g coffee, pour 250g in the outer ring, walk away, come back in 6 minutes to brewed coffee).

It can also be frustrating: if you stir to fully saturate the bloom, the draw down is a lot longer. And if you use 20g or more, it might even stall.

But the cups are friggin' excellent!

Speaking of Barista Magazine... they recently tested an "intriguing" no-bypass brewer that I'm also currently testing and will have a published review on soon. Its grinder manufacturer Ceado's jump into the single serve coffee brewing world.

It's a review for the #CeadoHoop. Check it out!

#nobypass #pourover #singleservecoffee

https://www.baristamagazine.com/test-drive-hoop-coffee-brewer/

A new feature article is up at CoffeeGeek:

No-bypass coffee brewing as a method is hot right now, and new techniques and products are being introduced daily. Let's dive deep into this brewing method and the tools used to apply it.

#nobypass #pourover #coffee #coffeemethods

https://www.coffeegeek.com/opinions/no-bypass-coffee-brewing-method-trends/

Working on our introduction article for the new Ceado Hoop, an SCA Best of Show prize winner and the newest entry into the #nobypass coffee field. Should be up this evening on CoffeeGeek.com.

Do you know what #nobypass #coffee brewing is? It's a popular new trend for something old (is new again) in coffee, and new brewers are coming out to match the method. Like the Hoop from Ceado. Check out this water distribution pattern in the Hoop!

Posted earlier today:
An introduction to two new no-bypass coffee brewers that take different approaches to this hot and trendy brewing method., both from NextLevel Brewing Company.

#nobypasscoffee #nobypass #pourover

https://www.coffeegeek.com/new-products/theres-no-bypassing-the-nextlevel-brewers/

Spending the weekend getting familiar with these brewing devices from Next Level, who make no-bypass coffee brewers. Trying to avoid any previous review / info on them, using them from scratch, reading the manufacturers' instructions only and watching their demo videos.

#nobypasscoffee #nobypass #coffee