Hario Mugen Swap Brewer Hack

The primary time I ever heard of Lance Hedrick, an more and more common Youtube content material producer on specialty espresso, was when somebody shared a hyperlink to his Percolative Immersion Brewing Methodology video.

This was considered one of Hedrick’s first (of a number of) “viral” movies, one which received individuals eager about how brewing works and the way we are able to hack issues up with some easy gadgets. Hedrick’s enthusiasm for the method, his apparent love for good espresso, and the way he digs the “sciencey” nature of espresso all come by the video.

Hedrick additionally quite enthusiastically claims this methodology delivers extra physique, extra acidity, extra sweetness by combining the concept of no-bypass with full immersion brewing, over a ten minute brew interval. It was intriguing. Right here is that video.

I favored. I subscribed.

However I additionally bear in mind questioning… why isn’t Lance utilizing Hario’s Mugen brewer as an alternative of the Tricolate gadget he selected? The Mugen is an ‘unintended’ no-bypass brewer from Hario (I’m certain Hario didn’t intend the design to be that, however it’s), and since the underside of it’s round exit aperture is equivalent to V60 glass cone filter holders, it could match simply superb within the Hario Swap, a stream management gadget from Hario that makes use of a V60 glass filter holder. The opposite bonus is you don’t run into the problems Hedrick identified in his Tricolate / Swap hack: there’s no fear a few small pool of under-extracted espresso liquid caught between the filter holder and the Swap’s exit gap, or a fear about emptying out all of the final remnants of brewed espresso.

(Sidenote, a few 12 months in the past, I requested Hedrick why he didn’t use the Mugen. He mentioned it was easy: he didn’t personal one)

I did personal each a Swap and a Mugen, and we’ve even reviewed the Mugen right here (although not the Swap). So I popped out the glass V60 filter holder, put in the Mugen, they usually’ve by no means been aside since. It has change into considered one of my favorite “pour over” brewers, together with the NextLevel Pulsar, which mockingly, brewers in nearly the very same approach, albeit with a extra flat backside profile twist. (we coated the NextLevel Pulsar just lately).

Right here’s how one can do the hack, and get a brewer the place the sum is larger than the elements. I’m additionally going to current the recipe I settled on, which is sort of totally different from the one Hedrick utilized in his video. My objective with this brew is a reasonably quick brew utilizing much less espresso to get extra style, benefiting from the short extraction charges you get from full immersion brewing. I wish to come out on the regular 1.3-1.4% extraction yield, however utilizing much less espresso than I usually would.

Hedrick was chasing one thing else. He begins with a reasonably heavy dose (25g / 350ml), does two full immersion brews, 175ml every part, 4 minutes for every brew, for a complete brew time of round 10 minutes. He additionally claims the grind is round 400um, which is extra like moka pot territory than pour over grinds. His objective is to start out heavy, and finish heavy, at a 2% or larger TDS. He states it delivers extra physique, extra acidity and extra sweetness. You might definitely translate his recipe to this Mugen / Swap hack in the event you like.

Our recipe for this how one can is: begin with a 1:20 ratio; that’s 1g of espresso for each 20g of brewing water. We’ll be brewing with 300ml whole, so meaning 15g beginning weight of espresso. The espresso is floor to the identical degree I do all my pourover grinds when utilizing paper: round 600-650um grind measurement.