How to Maintain Your Home Coffee Gear

With the volume of coffee specialty coffee shops like Schuil go through daily, we go to great lengths to preserve the quality of our brewing equipment – from espresso machines to coffee brewers and grinders. While the average home brewer doesn’t go through nearly as much coffee as a typical cafe does, it’s still not a bad idea to give your equipment some TLC from time to time. Your gear will last longer, and your coffee will taste better because of it. Here are our tips on how to maintain your coffee pot, brewer, and grinder at home:

Over time, coffee brewers will build up what’s called “scale.” Scale is when limestone accumulates inside the brewer. It’s often difficult to see, as it occurs in the inner workings of the brewer. This can ultimately deteriorate your machine and affect its ability to brew as it was designed, which can change the flavor of your coffee. If you’re a regular coffee drinker, we recommend running Urnex Dezcal Scale Remover every few months. Urnex has provided a helpful tutorial on how to descale machines.

Coffee Pot
We often ask ourselves: what can’t vinegar do? Among the many other wonders that vinegar can work, it’s a great way to clean your coffee pot. Over time, coffee pots accumulate an odor of stale, old coffee that can be imparted into the flavor of your coffee. That’s no good! For regular coffee drinkers, we recommend soaking your coffee pots in a solution of 1 part vinegar to 1 part hot water for around 10 minutes. Afterward, thoroughly rinse with more warm water, and enjoy the funk-free flavor of your next cup.

Grinder

Similar to how limestone can build up in a brewer, oils and coffee particles can build up and stick to the burrs of a coffee grinder. This can produce a stale, old coffee flavor in your brewed coffee because particles that have been stuck in your grinder for who knows how long can make it into the brewer. This can also alter the effectiveness of the burrs, which will meddle with achieving your ideal extraction. We recommend running Urnex’s Grindz tablets through your grinder every month or so. It’s as easy as throwing a few in and grinding, just as you would with coffee! Urnex has provided helpful instructions for how to use these, as well.

 
 If you’re a flavored coffee drinker, we also recommend not storing excess flavored coffee beans in the hopper. The flavored coffees tend to adhere to the walls of the hopper and can be imparted into future cups of coffee with other flavors. We recommend following any of our coffee storage suggestions, which will keep your coffee fresher, too!
 
BONUS: now through March 13, 2022, receive a free Schuil Klean Kanteen travel mug with all purchases of $85+!