Coffee – How to make a pot of coffee on a bbq grill

I give my coffee maker an internal cleanse with vinegar and water once a month to avoid scale build-up. I use 1/2 cup of white vinegar plus water to make a full pot, run that through my maker two or three times, and then run five or six pots of plain water through the maker until there is no longer any scent of the vinegar. I clean the pot and its basket and insert once a week in the dishwasher, and wipe down the case and heating element daily. I've been using the same drip coffee maker (with its glass, dishwasher-safe pot) for about five years.

On those occasions when I've run out of white vinegar, I use a tablespoon of citric acid dissolved in the first few cleaning pots of water, and then run five or six pots of plain water through the maker. Citric acid is just as effective as white vinegar for descaling but doesn't smell as strong; it's also inexpensive.

Moka coffee pots work well if you use them every day. This way the oils that the coffee leaves inside them do not have the opportunity to go rancid (all fats go rancid eventually) and impart that horrible taste to your coffee. If you use them every day, it is true that you don't really need to clean them, except to remove calcium scale buildup.

If you use it rarely, like in your case or the frequent Moka pot left at a vacation house, you need to clean it with dish detergent and a scrubby sponge, you don't need anything harsher. Make sure that you get all the coffee brown oils out. Yes, it is an unpleasant job. Make sure you rinse it well before putting it away to dry, you don't want to simply replace the bitterness with soapiness.

...and this is the Italian doctrine! :-)