Hario Switch Pour Over Recipe | Same Great Clarity, More Sweetness
The Hario Switch took the coffee world by storm upon its release — impressive, considering the Hario V60 is one of the most classic and long lived brewers on the market. The genius of the brewer is that it found a way to add one simple design element that opened up wide new worlds for home brewing enthusiasts.
Consider us among the hordes of people that found themselves gravitating to the Hario Switch because of its flexibility and quality. After hundreds of brews and many trials, we've landed on the below recipe as one that gives you a couple qualities that we love:
High clarity
Enhanced sweetness
Great consistency
WHAT IS THE HARIO SWITCH
We'll keep this short - it's your standard V60 02 (most models) atop a base that allows the user to completely stop the flow out of the brewer. This is all done via a simple "switch" mechanism, hence the name!
WHY WE THINK THIS HARIO SWITCH RECIPE WORKS
Much has been discovered in recent years about the best methods for consistent, well-extracted cups. We've taken some of those ideas and applied it to our Hario Switch recipe, which in turn gave us the flexibility and methodology for applying these techniques due to its unique design.
See more brew tips and guides on our Home Brewing page.
FULL IMMERSION BLOOM
Getting your coffee bed as hot as possible, as quickly as possible, and as evenly as possible is important for even extraction. The locking mechanism of the Switch gives the coffee bed ample time to soak up the water without any leaving the brewer. This method also improves heat up front.
HEAVY AGITATION UP FRONT
We like to make double-sure our coffee bed is nice and evenly mixed, so we hit the bed early with a heavy pour.
EASY AGITATION AT THE END
The Switch gives us unrivaled ability to get everything even at the front of the brew, so we like to keep it easy in the back half and just let gravity and the coffee bed do their thing. We notice increased clarity as a result.
The true advantage of the Hario Switch is its ability to give a pronounced boost in the perception of sweetness via its locking mechanism. Here, we are using that to our advantage while still maintaining the traditional V60's uncanny ability to give great clarity. The technique we're using to achieve this is the full immersion bloom.
What's a full immersion bloom? In a traditional pour over, almost all of the water poured during the bloom phase exits the coffee bed. With the Hario Switch, we are locking that water in, thereby keeping all coffee and all water in contact with each other. We think this is the key to the extra sweetness we experience with the below recipe.
For this recipe, we are using a 1:16 ratio. Specifically:
16 grams of coffee
256 mL of water
But this can be expanded up to 35 grams of coffee.
Author:
Kaldi’s Coffee
Ingredients
Hario Switch Brewer, 02 Model
16 grams ground coffee, medium-fine
256mL fresh, filtered water at 205-212 Fahrenheit (1:16 ratio)
A stir stick, chop stick, or something long and skinny that can stir stuff
Weigh out 16 grams of coffee (freshly ground is best). The grind should be medium-fine as a starting point. Your goal is to find a grind size that allows for a long, steady pour with a slight pool of water on the top of the coffee grounds.
For light to medium roasts: Heat water to 205-212°F or 96-100°C (can also be achieved by boiling water and waiting about 30 seconds). For darker roasts, 195-200°F
Place your filter in the Hario Switch and pour in 50 to 100mL of water to rinse the filter and preheat. We like to leave it locked for a bit here to get the Switch extra hot. Discard water.
Pour your coffee grounds into the brewer. Gently shake the Switch a bit to level out the grounds.
Using your finger or, better yet, a chopstick / long stick, gently prepare a fairly deep divot in the center of the bed.
Prepare your timer and grab your water. Ensure the Switch is locked, i.e. that the ball that blocks flow is at the bottom.
Start your bloom by pouring directly into the middle of the divot. Once this is saturated, move to the outside grounds in a circular motion.
The bloom should be about 3x the weight of the bed. With a 16g dose, this is 48mL of water.
Once pouring is done, quickly pick up the brewer and carefully swirl it. This is done to help distribute the water through the bed even better.
(Optional) Immediately after swirling, grab your stirring device and push it through the coffee bed. We like to make zig zags.
Wait until 1 minute, 30 seconds have passed total and then unlock the brewer, letting all the trapped water flow out of the brewer.
Once 1 minute, 30 seconds have passed, grab your kettle again and start by pouring very hard, full tilt on your kettle, directly in the middle. Continue pouring hard and swirl out to the edge of the brewer. You want to hit the coffee with about 75mL in this stage, getting you up to about 115 mL total.
Stop pouring and give another gentle swirl to your coffee bed. This flattens the bed for the last stage.
Start pouring very gently in the center of the coffee bed. Your goal from here on is to maintain the level of water in the brewer. We do very small circles with the kettle.
Pour gently, very gently, until you reach 256mL. Many times, the water above the coffee becomes completely clear.
When done pouring, give one more slight swirl to flatten the bed for the rest of the drain down.
Wait until the water is completely drained. Total brew time can be anywhere from 3:00 to 4:00.
Decant and enjoy! If the water flowed too fast, grind finer. If the brew stalled or reached the tippy top of the brewer, grind coarser.