Can we talk about how I ruined 3 months of cold brew by reusing the same filter
So back in April I started making cold brew at home to save money, and for the first 3 months it was honestly fine, like 32oz every Sunday night for my week. Then in July my batches started tasting muddy and bitter, and I blamed my beans, my grind, even the tap water here in Phoenix. My roommate watched me dump a whole batch down the sink and asked why I was still using the same mesh filter I bought in April without ever really scrubbing it. Turns out the oils build up in the mesh, and once I soaked it in hot water with a little dish soap for 10 minutes, the next batch tasted like actual coffee again. Now I rinse it every single time and deep clean it once a week, and I swear the difference is night and day. Has anyone else had a filter sneak up on them like that, or am I the only one who ignored it for months?
Something people forget is that mesh filters hold onto stuff in a way paper filters never do, because paper gets thrown out every single time. The mesh seems clean when you rinse it, but that thin layer of oil keeps building and you can't see it, so you keep trusting it. A cheap pack of paper filters would have saved you three months of bad coffee, even if it costs a few bucks more.