Thermal Gravity Fed Coffee Pots

[Yvonne]

I am looking for a good thermal pot for my shop. Preferably gravity fed. The boss would prefer something with a thermometer on it to keep an eye on heat loss. I am not finding anything out there. Are we just dreaming??

[Brady]

Maybe I'm just being stupid (wouldn't be the first time today...), but do you mean a thermal server - an insulated vessel that you brew coffee into, which keeps the brewed coffee warm and then dispenses from a spigot near the bottom? Like this:

[Yvonne]

Yes, that is exactly what I am looking for

[Cedric]

I want to say bunn and curtis makes these pots. Instead of something with a thermometer on it, you're better off rebrewing every 1.5-2 hours.

[Yvonne]

Yes, they do, and also Fetco makes one. But the problem is not that the coffee sits for hours and gets cold, because it doesn't sit for hours, I can't imagine any of our coffee lasting 2 hours except for Decaf and that just gets brewed on a schedule instead of when it is out. The problem I have, and have this problem in all dispensers used for coffee it that if I serve 4-5 cups of coffee and then the coffee sits 30 minutes until the next customer comes in, the air in the dispenser starts cooling down the coffee that is in the pot. Some of them cool faster than others, and I would like a way to easily see this, instead of having to check the coffees every 15 minutes.

As a specialty coffee industry we want to make sure our coffee is always fresh and hot, but this seems like a no brainer, and why doesn't anyone make anything like this.

[Brady]

Yvonne said:

Yes, they do, and also Fetco makes one. But the problem is not that the coffee sits for hours and gets cold, because it doesn't sit for hours, I can't imagine any of our coffee lasting 2 hours except for Decaf and that just gets brewed on a schedule instead of when it is out. The problem I have, and have this problem in all dispensers used for coffee it that if I serve 4-5 cups of coffee and then the coffee sits 30 minutes until the next customer comes in, the air in the dispenser starts cooling down the coffee that is in the pot. Some of them cool faster than others, and I would like a way to easily see this, instead of having to check the coffees every 15 minutes.
As a specialty coffee industry we want to make sure our coffee is always fresh and hot, but this seems like a no brainer, and why doesn't anyone make anything like this.

Theoretically maybe, but we use these every day and never see this. As long as you pre-heat them before brewing into them cooling off is not a problem. It will go stale long before it gets too cool. That's probably why you aren't finding this feature. The couple of ounces of air that goes in every few minutes has very little thermal mass compared to the coffee that is in there.

If you do run across one that cools too rapidly it is probably defective.

[Brady]

Brady said:

Yvonne said:

Yes, they do, and also Fetco makes one. But the problem is not that the coffee sits for hours and gets cold, because it doesn't sit for hours, I can't imagine any of our coffee lasting 2 hours except for Decaf and that just gets brewed on a schedule instead of when it is out. The problem I have, and have this problem in all dispensers used for coffee it that if I serve 4-5 cups of coffee and then the coffee sits 30 minutes until the next customer comes in, the air in the dispenser starts cooling down the coffee that is in the pot. Some of them cool faster than others, and I would like a way to easily see this, instead of having to check the coffees every 15 minutes.
As a specialty coffee industry we want to make sure our coffee is always fresh and hot, but this seems like a no brainer, and why doesn't anyone make anything like this.

Theoretically maybe, but we use these every day and never see this. As long as you pre-heat them before brewing into them cooling off is not a problem. It will go stale long before it gets too cool. That's probably why you aren't finding this feature. The couple of ounces of air that goes in every few minutes has very little thermal mass compared to the coffee that is in there.

If you do run across one that cools too rapidly it is probably defective.

I've been thinking about this and decided to run an experiment. Our brewer is set at 202. Coffee dispensed from the spigot comes out at 185-190F shortly after brewing and within the first half hour when half full. This temp dropped to 180F from a nearly empty carafe that had been sitting in the back for 2-1/2 hours. The coffee was pretty much gone from a flavor standpoint at this point.

One thing that you must be aware of with these is that the ounce or so of coffee that sits in the spigot will cool dramatically. What this means is that if you take a 2 oz sample to check the temp it will be cool. Not a problem in a 12oz coffee, but significant in a sample.

The only way I can think of to serve coffee at a hotter temp is to use one of those "soft heat" type satellites... which will have a significant negative effect on the coffee flavor in a much shorter time. If you do want to go this route, we have one of these brewers that is not being used that we'd be happy to be rid of :).

[Yvonne]

Yes, I realize the spigot coffee is cold, I always dump it into another cup and get rid of it when I know it has been sitting. But since I am not always the one on the counter, I can't always monitor it. I am trying to come up with a way to easily check the coffee without having to make a decree for the employees saying check this every 30 minutes. I also know that when I can feel the heat on the outside of the carafe that the seal has broken, and it is time to get rid of it. I don't want to cook my coffee, but lord knows I have brewers sitting around the shop that I could use to keep it hot.

I think I started asking to see if one thing was made, but now want to know why it isn't made. Still seems like a no brainer, I see you can get a timer on them so you know how long ago the coffee was made. But I put my equipment through a workout. I have had coffee go cold in 2 hours, of course it was outside and a -10 wind chill, so I really don't fault the equipment.

If you leave the coffee sitting too long it is going to lose flavor, and heat, I understand that. But I still don't understand why there isn't carafes with thermometers on them.

[Brady]

Yvonne said several things, including:

If you leave the coffee sitting too long it is going to lose flavor, and heat, I understand that. But I still don't understand why there isn't carafes with thermometers on them.

The two reasons that I would guess would be lack of demand and high manufacturing cost. I'd speculate that %95+ of users do not need this feature... most coffee doesn't sit out on a 20-below Maine night. Now add to that the extra difficulty of building one of these with a thermocouple either poking into the reservoir or stuck onto the outside of the inner liner... its not like a little timer that they can just pop on at the end of the assembly line. Just my speculation, though.

[Yvonne]

That's okay, I think I just found my life's calling.... LOL

[Brady]

:)