This is mostly for those who already cold brew your coffee. Describe your brewing process, display your gear, comment on whatever aspect of cold brew coffee strikes your fancy. Or just wax poetic about cold brew in general.
For those of you who may be cold brew curious but have not yet tried or not yet ready to try, check out this YouTube video by Thomas DeLauer.
My current gear. This makes 4 liters. I don’t make a concentrate and I drink a liter each morning, so this is a 4-day supply.
Technique: I brew for 24 hours. I started at 12 hours and gradually increased brew time. I discovered by trial and error that more brew time extracted more flavours. In addition, 24 hours fits my schedule better than shorter brew times.
My secondary brew gear is an Espro Micro Filter French press to make 1 liter.
What I like about this is that the micro filter enables me to pour the cold brewed coffee directly from the press pot into my Bunn carafe for heating. I use this gear whenever for whatever reason I run out of coffee from my primary brewer. In addition, when in dire straits, I can use the Espro press pot to hot brew French press coffee.
What the–? Seriously? Are you channeling Walter White?
Dude, I dump a pound of course grounds unceremoniously into a bigass stainless steel bowl and pour cold water over them. I cover it with a metal pan, mostly to keep out curious spiders overnight, and strain it through a metal camp coffee sieve 12 to 24 hours later.
That’s it. Spent grounds get tossed around the garden after sitting on the counter for a few days making the house smell all nice. Yield is just under a gallon of liquid dynamite so powerful it’d make yer teeth vibrate. Lasts me 3 weeks because I reasonably cut it with water.
Usually.
One of the ‘selling points’ of cold brew is that one can utilize any number of different tools to do the job. Your selection of tools is your choice. The end result is what matters. If you’re happy dumping a pound of coarse grounds and water into a bowl, carry on. I won’t make snarky comments about it.
I use a set of tools that I’ve assembled over the course of several years of cold brewing. The tools I use minimize the amount of lifting and pouring heavy volumes of liquid required to make a large batch of coffee. I’m 75 1/2 years old and that’s important to me. Also I have minimal kitchen space in which to work so I use tools that fit and work in the available space. I use tools that enable me to brew consistently pot after pot which in turn enables me to experiment with different coffees, determine the taste differences and replicate the results reliably. Finally, I have a full-time job with varying shift times each day and the tools I use and coffee brewing routines have to fit that schedule.
@Aqua_chonk I find your parakeet gif very annoying and would appreicate you’re removing it. Thank you.
I found this method that should work fine for me I only recently became interested in cold brewing. I want the convenience mostly.
The most significant and ongoing expense drinking coffee is the coffee. If you make it at home you’re going to beat the coffee shop price every time. No argument. Whether you hot brew or cold brew, you still have to purchase coffee. Sure, you can cold brew in a Mason jar, but even a cheap drip hot brew machine will last years and so amortize the cost to pennies or less per day. But you’re still going to buy coffee. If you’re content with supermarket house brands, you’ll pay the least. But if you really like coffee and want to experiment with different brands, different grinds, different roasts, different blends, etc, cold brewing won’t be any cheaper that hot brewing. And with cold brewing simply because you can tell the difference between all those different coffees on offer, you will eventually want to try them.
As for overall convenience, cold brew certainly has the potential to be convenient but lots of folks would think it hard to beat adding water and dumping a scoop or two of coffee grounds into a Mr Coffee machine.
I’ve been using one of these for years:
I’ll look at going to 24 hours again. Either 12 or 24 work well.
What’s your ratio? I just got a basic brewer which is just a huge mason jar with the screen and cover. Per the instructions it was the whole thing (it’s either 2qt or 2L) to the whole screen full of coffee for either 24hrs at room temp or 24-48hrs in the fridge. This (allegedly) makes a concentrate. It doesn’t! It’s definitely a direct drink deal and after the 48 it tastes pretty damn good, I was using a blend just for cold brew (Stone Cold Joe) but seems like it’s taking too long for a non concentrate. Maybe it’s the coffee? I was gonna grab another mason jar that way I always have one on deck ready to go.
I used a French press for cold brew. Game changer for flavour and acidity. The usual ratio of coffee to water that I would use if brewed hot. Combine them inside the French press and leave in the fridge for at least 24 hours. The only drawback is the small brew size as it’s only 1 litre at a time. Unfortunately, caffeine doesn’t agree with me anymore, after my eyes were opened to the real flavour of coffee when I started cold brew.
I usually do only 12 hours, and I sit the brewing equipment on my counter. Don’t know why some say to place it in the fridge. Since I have enough coffee, I’m going to try to compare 12 and 24 hours to see if there’s a difference (never noticed much of a difference, but I’ve never done a direct comparison).
I use 3/4 cup coffee to about 2 cups total (the size of my container) after adding water, so about 1:1 ratio. I used to use less, about 1 coffee to 2 water, so say 1/3 cup coffee then fill to 1 cup with water.
But I think it depends on your taste.
According to this, brewing at room temperature takes less time:
This says something similar:
I’ve been using room temperature for years, mainly because I never thought about putting it in the fridge, and my container is so big, it would be hard to do.
Do you guys drink the coffee at room/refrigerator temperature or heat it up after cold brewing? I’ve been drinking french press recently and already have anything I might need to give this a go.
I personally drink cold brew, even in the winter. But sometimes I’ll heat it up in the micro, if I’m particularly cold.
Hot. Don’t like cold coffee even during the summer. But temperature makes a difference in taste. The lower the drinking temp the more flavours you can actually distinquish. Although, I think the near boiling temp most folks drink their coffee hides most of the flavour profile, I generally drink it at about 180°F. I read somewhere that 140°F is the ideal drinking temp, but don’t recall where I read that. I find 140°F a little too cool.
