I had never really thought about using an immersion brewer as a pure pour-over device but just had a mind blowing honey process Ethiopian, and I noticed barista was brewing it in a Hario switch with the switch open the whole time. Tasted as good as a v60 brew to me. I’ve been wanting to try immersion brewing for a while. I get the sense this forum and many others lean more strongly towards the clever dripper. I imagine that device could also be kept open and used as a pour-over. Do you think an open Hario switch basically IS a v60? That sounds like the ultimate multi-Tasker to me. Am I missing something here? Any thoughts on the perceived lean toward clever? I’ve ruled out the plastic version and would be looking at glass clever vs switch.
From the perspective of chemical equilibriums, there is a clear difference.
In a normal V60, the solid bed is constantly fed with fresh water, while the permeate is also removed at roughly the same rate. This means, that it’s unlikely that the grinds would even come close to an equilibrium with the water phase. If you want to maintain maximum rate of extraction for all compounds, this is the way to do it. In the short term, it makes sense to do so, because that’s how you make delicious coffee. However the longer you keep irrigating, the less useful it gets.
Immersion brewing leads to a situation where different compounds will begin to approach an equilibrium. If that happens, the rate of extraction will slow down, which can be good or bad depending on the compound you’re talking about.
Fortunately though, sugars tend to extract rather quickly whereas compounds responsible for bitter notes require more time. The problem is, I don’t really know if any of them will come close to an equilibrium in immersion brewing.