The Hamilton Beach BrewStation line of automatic coffeemakers is among the most convenient options of coffee makers because it brews a pot of coffee and keeps it hot in a holding tank without the need for a hot plate or fragile carafe. Magic, right? The BrewStation can be used to make hot or iced coffee with only minor tweaks to the process, not to mention the timer can be adjusted to keep the coffee hot for up to four hours. Here's how to use it:
Hot Coffee
Preparing the BrewStation
Fill the water reservoir with water to the desired level depending on the number of cups of coffee you wish to make. Slide the reservoir in place on the right side of the body. There are two ribs on the side of the reservoir that fit into two grooves on the body.
Line the filter basket with a round coffee filter. Add approximately one level tablespoon of ground coffee beans to the coffee filter per cup, adjusting the amount depending on the desired coffee strength. Use no more than a total of 12 tablespoons for a whole pot of coffee.
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Brew the Coffee
Press the "Brew Options" button on the control panel to select "Regular," "Bold," or "one to four cups." Push the button until the desired option appears on the display screen. Select "one to four cups" only if the water reservoir is filled with one to four cups of water. The "Bold" option makes stronger coffee and takes longer to brew than regular coffee. Press the "Keep Warm" button repeatedly to select the desired number of hours you wish to keep the coffee warm in the tank, from zero to four hours.
Press the "On/Off" button to begin the brewing cycle. Monitor the level of coffee on the left side of the holding tank to determine when the coffee is finished brewing; the coffeemaker also stops making sucking and steaming noises when finished brewing. Push in the coffee dispenser bar with a coffee mug to dispense a fresh cup of coffee, much the same as you dispense a fountain soda.
Hold the "On/Off" button in for 3 seconds and release to reset the "Keep Warm" timer. Press the "Keep Warm" button to display the desired time if you want to keep the coffee warm for longer than the original setting.
Iced Coffee
Fill the water reservoir with no more than six cups of water. Fill the coffee tank with ice to no higher than the 10-cup line, leaving enough room to fit the filter basket.
Add a round coffee filter to the filter basket and fill it with two tablespoons of ground coffee for every one cup of water in the reservoir. Use no more than 12 tablespoons of ground coffee. Ice dilutes the coffee, so the brewed coffee should be twice the strength as hot coffee.
Set the filter basket in the coffee tank, removing ice cubes from the tank if the basket doesn't fit properly. Set the coffee tank on the BrewStation body and close the lid. Press the "Iced Coffee" button on the control panel. Press the "On/Off" button to begin the brewing cycle.
Fill a glass with ice. Push in the dispenser bar with the glass to dispense the cold coffee. Ice in the glass is necessary because the six cups of hot coffee that drips from the ground coffee to the coffee tank melts most if not all of the ice in the tank.
Tips for Successful Use
The water reservoir is not removable on all BrewStation models and can instead be filled by filling the coffee tank with the desired amount of water and pouring the water into the reservoir.
The "Keep Warm" function is not available on all models. Some automatically shut off after two hours and you simply press the "On/Off" button to start another two-hour cycle. When you make iced coffee, the "Keep Warm" function should be kept at the default setting of "0" hours so the heating element under the coffee tank doesn't turn on and melt the ice.
Never submerge the BrewStation body to clean or attempt to clean the components in the dishwasher.
References
Writer Bio
A former cake decorator and competitive horticulturist, Amelia Allonsy is most at home in the kitchen or with her hands in the dirt. She received her Bachelor's degree from West Virginia University. Her work has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle and on other websites.