I switched to the Mugen after finding the V60 too inconsistent and I have zero regrets. It almost always makes good to amazing coffee with the original recipe. The consistency is incredible. I have to agree that sometimes the original recipe is too strong and you lose some subtlety/clarity, so I'm excited to try this modified April recipe. But overall I love the single-pour Mugen approach, cause it means I enjoy delicious coffee virtually all the time. Some maybe don't mind brewing 2, 3, 4, 5 cups to dial in a recipe, but not me. I find it a shame to brew a cup and not have is tasting right. I want that enjoyment of a good cup first and foremost, and any technique that gets me there quickly is ideal.
Your comment is 4 months old now, and I'd be interested in hearing how you are liking the Mugen now with a little more time on it? What sort of recipe are you using?
@@BravoMikeRoger I'm back after a year and one key thing for me is to pour the water slower. I found if I poured all my water within 15 seconds I got a lot of stalling. In another April video they also mentioned that this can be an issue with an aggressive center pour. I pour slower now, and in circles, which decreased the stalling a lot and gets me a cleaner flavor. For my preference, where I LOVE acidic and fruity coffees, the standard V60 pulls out those flavors better, but the Mugen is much more consistent. The Mugen is also, naturally, better for coffees that drain very quickly.
I enjoy the single pour aspect of brewing, I also do multi pours. I have an Ethiopian right now that need to have more heat retention and a slower brew, but has a med fine grind to get proper extraction. I used the Mugen for this and it worked out great. Using a non tabbed box filter and multiple pours to maintain water pressure in the brewer, as well as heat retention, produced a clean cup with all of the flavors and aromas shining through. There is much more the Mugen can do, it almost is like having a mini Cemex.
That’s really interesting what you said about flat beds, coffee on the walls etc. I get a decent amount of coffee stuck on the walls of my April brewer and the bed is rarely totally flat. But the coffee always turns out really tasty and pretty consistent too.
It's a really interesting idea that blooming isn't necessary. I haven't heard this before from any of the other coffee people I follow so I will definitely try this!
If your beans are fresh all you have to do is after grinding let your grounds reset for 10 minutes the co2 will release. But I will say a bloom is still necessary not to release co2 but to swell the grounds to create less channeling and to create more even extraction by decreasing the amount of of channeling created. A good swirl as the water flows down during the bloom really eliminates channeling which is what I do plus the agitation of the initial bloom by swirling helps bring out the sweetness more.
I have used mine on top of the Switch for either long immersions on coffees where I want to get more temperature in the slurry than with the glass cone, or in two phase steeps. I think this design has less bypass than the regular V60 and the latter method can give some very intense tasting cups. I don't have a refractometer but I would imagine you can get some very high extractions that way. It hasn't tasted great on every coffee but when I want to emphasize pure sweetness it can be nice.
Also another thing to keep in mind is that there’s a ceramic version of the Hario Mugen, while observing a lot of video and online post about it, I found that their general brew time is drastically different with the ceramic version consistently brew longer at aroun 5-6 min while the plastic 3 ish min. My thought about why this happened is due to the fact that the slurry temperature is different on both versions which led to different brewtime overall. I cannot verify the flavour profile that both version created, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a slight difference much like when you were designing different materials for the April Brewer.
Most, if not, all Kasuya techniques are actually meant for dark roasts like Vienna and Osaka when coffees are harder to get acidic. However, you could technically adjust them for light roasts. I actually tried Kasuya single pour recipe with the Stagg and it made best dark roast coffee. Is it better on Raven? Maybe, I dont have a normal kettle. I actually love the single pour technique but when I do it the way Kasuya does, I would only do it on dark roasts. There are better single pours for increasing their TDS in lighter roasts. Maybe this works for April style coffees but it doesn't work with people who wants to increase their TDS in their pour overs.
I feel like April's own coffee is quite light compared to anything out of Japan. Kasuya himself doesn't use particularly dark coffees compared to what can be found in Asia either, though his coffees are definitely darker than April's by quite a bit. I think the April's acceptance of this particular balance of variables is down to his taste preference (and coffee). My impression of April and a lot of Asian brewing is that there really isn't a push for increasing TDS. April videos tend to brew coffees of only 1.2-1.3 TDS. Having done some testing with April coffee, I kind of agree with this target; their coffees can get too astringent past 1.4.
I tried it and it turned out great. I really appreciate the extra commentary on bloom and coffee bed/walls. If I do half-recipe, so 150g of water, do I just do 10g of coffee or do I need to adjust something else?
I understand that it is perhaps different from the initial intended design, but I’ve been having many success achieving my target extraction by dividing my pour into two. Of course, I am aware that I’m using different coffee with different roast degree so that has to be taken into account. But funnily enough, if I use a similar parameter and just do a single pour with my gooseneck kettle, I did achieve a target TDS of 1.2 -1.3, altho it doesn’t quite suit the coffee I’m brewing and my taste profile. But alas, the Mugen is almost an antithesis to the Hario Switch. They try to reach the same destination, while approaching it from a very different angle. But yeah, just some food for thought.
My Mugen arrived today. I tried the April recipe with a grind of 600 microns as specified, with a medium dark roast Indian natural. It was spectacular! However, everything was finished in 1 min 30 seconds. Not sure why it was half the time you say. I'm also not sure why you say that the original recipe would finish at 2 minutes, while your modified recipe with a coarser grind size and a lower dose would take longer at 3 minutes. I suspect I'm missing something! Anyway, no matter how long or short the draw-down, it produced a beautiful, sweet, complex cup.
Timing is always a mystery from April. What you've said makes sense to me as well. Coarser grind size with lesser coffee, but 1 minute longer brew time is bullsh**. I use April new plastic brewer + c40 26 clicks + April filter + April coffee beans + April brewing method. Never reach 3 minutes no matter what roast level of coffee I use. They would say every c40 may have different settings, but I need to change my c40 to about 15 clicks to reach 3 minutes, which is obviously not a grind size for pour-over, in my opinion.
You and Tetsu inspire me. I found the Mugen kit in Montreal with the little kettle and it's really neat. Here are my notes. This thing is best with medium-roasted coffee like Counter Culture. As Patrick mentioned, it's bright and sweet but not complex or thick. This "Touchy" brand coffee from Troy, NY is roasted over a month ago but still very alive in the Mugen. I did not find the the flavors too compact at the 1:12 ratio, although I tend to stick to 15:1. I tried the Kasuya 2016 recipe in it, and the dwell time is slightly faster. The closest thing to this, I think, is that Yama cone brewer. Mine came w/ a Hario Air kettle. I had to dose the water into this pointy plastic cup straight off the boil and pour it out within a minute, or it cooled too much for brewing. I will take it camping. Finally, the notion that Hario has trotted out these cheap pieces of plastic, the sort you'd find crammed into a shelf at a Daiso dollar store, like they are the next frontier in coffee science? It's a gloriously common maneuver!
Don't you find that it's an uneven extraction with so much grounds stuck on the sides? The grounds at the bottom of the cone are clearly getting more exposure time than the grounds up top.
@coffeewithapril true. However, when you have grounds stuck several inches up the wall, those stop extracting immediately. It looks like it's a pretty thick layer, too. It seems like Hario realized that, too, which is probably why their recommended recipe uses 50% more coffee than the SCA recommended ratio.
Since I have no means of measuring my grindsize, I´m curious to ask if you have any idea of approximately what click this recipe would use on a commandante? Really interesting recipe that I´m for sure going to be trying with the april coffees I have! Thanks in advance.
@H C what works best will depend on a lot of factors. The beans, the roast, the water, the temperature, etc. But like I said, I get good results with 3-4 pours on the April Brewer. But I like variety in coffee so sometimes I give the single pour a shot
I just recently switched to a one-pour method after doing more standard multi-pour methods for the past 13 years. I stick to Tetsu's method shown in a previous April video, but for the past month, I've been consistently making the best coffee I've ever made.
Thank you so much for actually stating the microns you ground to, instead of saying medium fine.
Thank you for watching. We will continue to do that for our future videos.
I switched to the Mugen after finding the V60 too inconsistent and I have zero regrets. It almost always makes good to amazing coffee with the original recipe. The consistency is incredible. I have to agree that sometimes the original recipe is too strong and you lose some subtlety/clarity, so I'm excited to try this modified April recipe.
But overall I love the single-pour Mugen approach, cause it means I enjoy delicious coffee virtually all the time. Some maybe don't mind brewing 2, 3, 4, 5 cups to dial in a recipe, but not me. I find it a shame to brew a cup and not have is tasting right. I want that enjoyment of a good cup first and foremost, and any technique that gets me there quickly is ideal.
Your comment is 4 months old now, and I'd be interested in hearing how you are liking the Mugen now with a little more time on it? What sort of recipe are you using?
@@BravoMikeRoger I'm back after a year and one key thing for me is to pour the water slower. I found if I poured all my water within 15 seconds I got a lot of stalling. In another April video they also mentioned that this can be an issue with an aggressive center pour. I pour slower now, and in circles, which decreased the stalling a lot and gets me a cleaner flavor. For my preference, where I LOVE acidic and fruity coffees, the standard V60 pulls out those flavors better, but the Mugen is much more consistent. The Mugen is also, naturally, better for coffees that drain very quickly.
I enjoy the single pour aspect of brewing, I also do multi pours. I have an Ethiopian right now that need to have more heat retention and a slower brew, but has a med fine grind to get proper extraction. I used the Mugen for this and it worked out great. Using a non tabbed box filter and multiple pours to maintain water pressure in the brewer, as well as heat retention, produced a clean cup with all of the flavors and aromas shining through. There is much more the Mugen can do, it almost is like having a mini Cemex.
That’s really interesting what you said about flat beds, coffee on the walls etc. I get a decent amount of coffee stuck on the walls of my April brewer and the bed is rarely totally flat. But the coffee always turns out really tasty and pretty consistent too.
It's a really interesting idea that blooming isn't necessary. I haven't heard this before from any of the other coffee people I follow so I will definitely try this!
Thank you for watching. Let us know how it works out.
If your beans are fresh all you have to do is after grinding let your grounds reset for 10 minutes the co2 will release. But I will say a bloom is still necessary not to release co2 but to swell the grounds to create less channeling and to create more even extraction by decreasing the amount of of channeling created. A good swirl as the water flows down during the bloom really eliminates channeling which is what I do plus the agitation of the initial bloom by swirling helps bring out the sweetness more.
Really appreciate that they mentioned grind size they aimed for in microns.
I have used mine on top of the Switch for either long immersions on coffees where I want to get more temperature in the slurry than with the glass cone, or in two phase steeps. I think this design has less bypass than the regular V60 and the latter method can give some very intense tasting cups. I don't have a refractometer but I would imagine you can get some very high extractions that way. It hasn't tasted great on every coffee but when I want to emphasize pure sweetness it can be nice.
ha, i use the same method as you,since i broken the glass cup of the swtich.
Also another thing to keep in mind is that there’s a ceramic version of the Hario Mugen, while observing a lot of video and online post about it, I found that their general brew time is drastically different with the ceramic version consistently brew longer at aroun 5-6 min while the plastic 3 ish min. My thought about why this happened is due to the fact that the slurry temperature is different on both versions which led to different brewtime overall. I cannot verify the flavour profile that both version created, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a slight difference much like when you were designing different materials for the April Brewer.
Most, if not, all Kasuya techniques are actually meant for dark roasts like Vienna and Osaka when coffees are harder to get acidic. However, you could technically adjust them for light roasts.
I actually tried Kasuya single pour recipe with the Stagg and it made best dark roast coffee. Is it better on Raven? Maybe, I dont have a normal kettle.
I actually love the single pour technique but when I do it the way Kasuya does, I would only do it on dark roasts. There are better single pours for increasing their TDS in lighter roasts. Maybe this works for April style coffees but it doesn't work with people who wants to increase their TDS in their pour overs.
I feel like April's own coffee is quite light compared to anything out of Japan. Kasuya himself doesn't use particularly dark coffees compared to what can be found in Asia either, though his coffees are definitely darker than April's by quite a bit.
I think the April's acceptance of this particular balance of variables is down to his taste preference (and coffee). My impression of April and a lot of Asian brewing is that there really isn't a push for increasing TDS. April videos tend to brew coffees of only 1.2-1.3 TDS. Having done some testing with April coffee, I kind of agree with this target; their coffees can get too astringent past 1.4.
@@pithyginger6371 I am usually looking for 1.5-1.6% TDS. Unless, its incompatible, Id use april coffee technique
Thanks❤️
I tried it and it turned out great. I really appreciate the extra commentary on bloom and coffee bed/walls. If I do half-recipe, so 150g of water, do I just do 10g of coffee or do I need to adjust something else?
Thank you for watching. We are glad you liked the recipe.
I cracked my clear plastic V60. A Ceramic Mugen seems like a perfect "upgrade"
One question is it normal That the April Brewer is very slow at the end .
I understand that it is perhaps different from the initial intended design, but I’ve been having many success achieving my target extraction by dividing my pour into two. Of course, I am aware that I’m using different coffee with different roast degree so that has to be taken into account. But funnily enough, if I use a similar parameter and just do a single pour with my gooseneck kettle, I did achieve a target TDS of 1.2 -1.3, altho it doesn’t quite suit the coffee I’m brewing and my taste profile.
But alas, the Mugen is almost an antithesis to the Hario Switch. They try to reach the same destination, while approaching it from a very different angle. But yeah, just some food for thought.
Could you please review the difference of blooming times? 30s, 45s, 1min, 1.5min & 2min
Thanks ;)
Not sure they'd be interested in this. As Patrik said, they don't really work with blooms at all
How does it compare to the Kono Meimon?
My Mugen arrived today. I tried the April recipe with a grind of 600 microns as specified, with a medium dark roast Indian natural. It was spectacular! However, everything was finished in 1 min 30 seconds. Not sure why it was half the time you say. I'm also not sure why you say that the original recipe would finish at 2 minutes, while your modified recipe with a coarser grind size and a lower dose would take longer at 3 minutes. I suspect I'm missing something! Anyway, no matter how long or short the draw-down, it produced a beautiful, sweet, complex cup.
Timing is always a mystery from April. What you've said makes sense to me as well. Coarser grind size with lesser coffee, but 1 minute longer brew time is bullsh**. I use April new plastic brewer + c40 26 clicks + April filter + April coffee beans + April brewing method. Never reach 3 minutes no matter what roast level of coffee I use. They would say every c40 may have different settings, but I need to change my c40 to about 15 clicks to reach 3 minutes, which is obviously not a grind size for pour-over, in my opinion.
I agree his timing is BS
You and Tetsu inspire me. I found the Mugen kit in Montreal with the little kettle and it's really neat.
Here are my notes. This thing is best with medium-roasted coffee like Counter Culture. As Patrick mentioned, it's bright and sweet but not complex or thick. This "Touchy" brand coffee from Troy, NY is roasted over a month ago but still very alive in the Mugen.
I did not find the the flavors too compact at the 1:12 ratio, although I tend to stick to 15:1. I tried the Kasuya 2016 recipe in it, and the dwell time is slightly faster. The closest thing to this, I think, is that Yama cone brewer.
Mine came w/ a Hario Air kettle. I had to dose the water into this pointy plastic cup straight off the boil and pour it out within a minute, or it cooled too much for brewing. I will take it camping.
Finally, the notion that Hario has trotted out these cheap pieces of plastic, the sort you'd find crammed into a shelf at a Daiso dollar store, like they are the next frontier in coffee science? It's a gloriously common maneuver!
What is the recommended grind setting for April brewer in microns ?
Don't you find that it's an uneven extraction with so much grounds stuck on the sides? The grounds at the bottom of the cone are clearly getting more exposure time than the grounds up top.
All extractions are inherently uneven. The more suitable question is "does it taste good?" And no that question we would say yes.
@coffeewithapril true. However, when you have grounds stuck several inches up the wall, those stop extracting immediately. It looks like it's a pretty thick layer, too. It seems like Hario realized that, too, which is probably why their recommended recipe uses 50% more coffee than the SCA recommended ratio.
Thats great! Can you use it for brewing in the insulted server 03, which is 750 ml?
Your video is great you should try Blue Bottle Coffee Dripper for your channel 👍
Any ideas on how to get one?
@@coffeewithapril I’d happily ship you one from my local store if you swap with your coffee😀
@@Co_cotter Let's do it. Shoot us an email at patrikrolf@aprilcoffeeroastery.com
@@coffeewithaprilI think you should try buy on Ebay
Since I have no means of measuring my grindsize, I´m curious to ask if you have any idea of approximately what click this recipe would use on a commandante? Really interesting recipe that I´m for sure going to be trying with the april coffees I have! Thanks in advance.
Thank you for watching. You can divide the number of microns by 30 and that will give you the correct "standard clicks." (not red click)
@@coffeewithapril Wow! Thanks a lot for this information - will for sure prove to be very handy in the future as well
@@coffeewithapril Do you have any similar reference for the 1zpresso K-Plus as well?
@@bassamahmed132 search coffee chronicler grind size chart
Have you tried going finer and doing a single pour in your april brewer?
It's not designed for it. Based on our taste preference we find that a 2 pour method is the most suitable.
@@coffeewithapril thanks!
@H C if you go quite fine it produces a nice cup. I actually get best results on my setup with the old four pour method
@H C what works best will depend on a lot of factors. The beans, the roast, the water, the temperature, etc. But like I said, I get good results with 3-4 pours on the April Brewer. But I like variety in coffee so sometimes I give the single pour a shot
"really produces great cup of Coffee *for the effort you invest* " you know that means the Coffee is not that great.
I just recently switched to a one-pour method after doing more standard multi-pour methods for the past 13 years. I stick to Tetsu's method shown in a previous April video, but for the past month, I've been consistently making the best coffee I've ever made.
Show the actual grind size perhaps? Who tf has a Ditting blah blah at home for reference? Too much useless coffee hipster talk as well