Essential Cleaning Tips for Your Brewing Equipment
Just like everything else in your kitchen, cleaning your coffee equipment is an essential task for making sure that your brews taste great and that your coffee brewing equipment lasts a long time.
Unfortunately, many people overlook these items and never really think about how to clean a coffee pot, let alone do it on a regular basis. That changes today.
Here are some essential cleaning tips for your at-home coffee equipment.
Pour Over Equipment
Pour over gear is quite popular, but it can sometimes be challenging to clean due to its unique shape. However, if left uncleaned, oils and residue will build up and make your brew start to taste a bit funky.
That said, there are many different ways that you can clean your pour over coffee equipment.
The easiest is to simply set your coffee aside for a moment after brewing and quickly wash the equipment with a bit of hot, soapy water. If you are not willing to wait on having your coffee, then afterward, you can fill the vessel with warm water and dissolve a couple of effervescent tablets (like Alka-Seltzer) inside, before rinsing and drying.
Alternatively, you can do a monthly deep clean by submerging your gear in a 1:3 solution of vinegar and water and boiling it for 20 minutes. From there, you can let it soak for four to eight hours. When it is done, wash it with soapy water, rinse, and dry.
Home Brewers and Kettles
Home brewers and kettles are some of the most popular methods for brewing coffee at home. If you fall into this category, here is how to clean your coffee equipment:
Brewers
Using a 1:2 ratio of distilled vinegar and water, pour the solution into the reservoir and run a normal brewing cycle. Allow the mixture to sit for about 15 minutes and then dispose of it down the drain. Follow this by running two more brewing cycles of pure water to flush the brewer of any remaining vinegar water.
Kettles
Once again using a 1:2 ratio of distilled vinegar and water, add the solution directly to the kettle and bring it to a boil. Allow the concoction to sit for 15 minutes, and then dispose of it and rinse the kettle thoroughly.
Burr Grinders
Some of the best homemade coffee is made with freshly ground beans. However, since there are oils in coffee beans, this coffee equipment is essential to clean regularly.
Over time, burr grinders will accumulate coffee ground debris, chaff, and the like, which can start to influence your coffee’s taste negatively.
Fortunately, cleaning this kind of coffee brewing equipment is pretty straightforward.
For a quick clean-up, remove the hopper from the coffee grinder and vacuum out the hopper, burrs, chute, and other areas that bits and pieces of coffee grounds are likely to accumulate. Alternatively, you might opt to pick up some grinder cleaning tables and run those through your grinder.
That said, it is wise to do a deep cleaning every so often by:
- Unplugging the grinder (obviously)
- Pulling apart the burrs
- Scrub down all surfaces with a soft toothbrush and cotton swabs
- Wipe all of the plastic pieces, hopper, and grinds bin with soapy water and a towel to remove any oils and residue
Afterward, put the equipment back together and grind up a small batch to re-season the grinder (and to make sure it works properly).
After you are done cleaning your coffee equipment, revel in the satisfaction by sipping on a nice warm brew out of your Ember Mug².
