Coffee Brewers: An Overview


Common in many commercial foodservice operations, pour-over style coffee brewers require staff to manually fill water reservoirs. Operators use these units in conjunction with airpots to dispense coffee to consumers. Airpots keep coffee hot without applying heat.

Connected to a water line, urn brewers typically brew in ½-, 1- and 1½-gallon batches into a shuttle or thermal server. Urns with auto pumps, which produce up to 180 gallons of coffee, are suitable for high-volume applications.

Similar to urns, insulated or thermal server brewers use applied heat. With these units, foodservice operators can brew up to 1½ gallons of coffee and then dispense it into a vacuum bottle.

Satellite brewers have a 400-cup capacity and a container that holds up to 1½ gallons of coffee. These units are suitable for operations that regularly move large amounts of coffee to satellite holding stations.

Systems that combine a precision coffee grinder and brewer are common in operations serving high-end coffee, such as white tablecloth restaurants. These units have dual coffee bean hoppers to brew two types of coffee into a decanter or airpot.

Pour-over brewers occupy about 2 square feet of space, while larger urns take up 5 square feet of space.

Brewing systems' serving vessels range from glass pots or decanters with a capacity of 64 ounces to thermal serving dispensers that hold up to 1½ gallons.

Electronic settings provide the ability to adjust coffee flavor, brew strength and temperature, depending on the unit.

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