So, I’ve been making cold brew coffee at home for a while now. I use a Takeya cold brew maker, and after some initial trial and error came up with a routine based on recommendations I found online:
3.5 oz. (by weight)/quart
medium-roast coffee (usually Peet’s Baridi Blend or Domingo)
ground medium coarse, and
brewed for 15-24 hours
And it’s consistently good, and I’m pretty happy with it on the whole.
But I feel like maybe it’s not as strong as it ought to be. I drink it 2 parts cold brew to 1 part water; I’ve seen recommendations online for as much as 2:1 the other way, which with my cold brew would be much weaker than I like to drink. (And it’s certainly not as strong as commercial cold brew concentrate, though that may be a whole different process.)
Am I doing it wrong somehow? Any suggestions for what I could tweak to get a stronger brew?
My cold brew comes out super strong and I do at most a 4 (water):1 (coffee) ratio.
I grind 1 lb of medium roast on a coarse setting to 64 oz water. I let it soak for a full 24 hours. My issue is that I don’t get the amazing nutty notes that I get out of some cold brew that I buy (NOT Starbucks. I only taste burnt there).
My advice would be to bump up the coffee and the brew time and see if that gets you where you want to be.
The amount of ground coffee I can put in is limited by the capacity of the insert in my setup. So there’s no way I could use 1/2 lb. for a quart (to use your proportions). Best I can do is probably bump it up to 4 oz.
I make a very strong cold brew anticipating the ice cubes will dilute it a bit.
I start with Peet’s major dickinson blend, which i think is darker than the roast you’re using.
Through trial and error i also now grind the coffee smaller which made a not insignificant difference- although with the machine you’re using I’m not sure if that will be a problem (i just use a fine sieve).
With your recipe listed i would start with grinding smaller and reduce the amount of water by one or two cups and continue to tweak it from there
Interesting. I don’t think a finer grind would be a problem with the insert I’m using. I’ve been going for relatively coarse because that’s what everyone I saw recommended (though it seemed counter-intuitive), but I’ll give it a try with a finer grind.
My concern about reducing the water is that with the configuration I have, less water means some of the grounds aren’t consistently in contact with the water. Maybe shaking it periodically would help with that, but I don’t know.
The method I started with says not to stir or shake - my modification is to add half the water, swirl gently to moisten all the grounds, then add the rest.
The grounds end up at the bottom eventually.
The method is quite forgiving, so I would go back to what coffee and what grind. If there’s a coffee shop cold brew you like, ask what beans they are using and try those and see if tastes closer.
There’s also one method that starts hot and switches to cold - if it’s the oil based compounds you’re missing - basically start with hot water, and then in a minute or two add cold water and ice to neutralize the heat.
If you go to the link I provided, you’ll see what I’m using. There’s a filter insert in which the ground coffee goes; the container is 1 qt., so that’s how much water I use.
I use a very unscientific (lazy) method myself- aka dump in coffee grounds, add water, shake and stir, put in the fridge. i just use a big tupperware thing that is now permanently coffee stained and flavored. I just do the inital mixing to get all the grinds wet and then let it be usually 24hrs unless i just forget- which also happens- and it goes longer.
I’m reviving this thread because I am just now experimenting with cold brew coffee at home. I want to keep things simple and not buy a special pitcher. Not yet, anyway.
Any favorite (ground) coffees that folks prefer for cold brew these days?
How are you filtering out the grounds after brewing? I want to keep the process as unmessy as I can. Because when a groggy me deals with wet sludgy coffee grounds in the morning, it’s not pretty.
I’m very late to the cold brew party and I have a hunch that others here have perfected this technique. Thanks for any tips!
Unmessy is kinda hard with coffee grounds in general.
But in any case, with cold brew you don’t need to do this in the morning when you’re groggy - you can make the coffee liquor once or twice a week and keep it in the fridge.
I steep the coffee in a glass jar (pasta sauce for eg) and filter through a coffee filter placed in a strainer. In theory you could also do this in a french press if you already have one, and then pass the liquid through a coffee filter to get the residual grounds out.
I saw this on ATK awhile back. In my opinion they could’ve shaved a few minutes off the episode, but I don’t produce the show. She does use a French press but maybe some of the rest of it will be helpful.
I wouldn’t recommend using pre-ground coffee, because making cold brew works best with very coarsely ground coffee (like for French press) and most pre-ground coffee is finer than that. If you don’t want to grind your own, see if you can get it ground for French press.
As for filtering out the grounds, you can put the grounds into a big filter (they sell them for tea). And then there’s this if you want to take your game to the next level: https://toddycafe.com/product/toddy-artisan. I got it as a gift, and it works very well.
I had an old Toddy in the closet - I’d stopped using it as it was a messy cleanup. Recently got these bag filters and it’s a much easier operation. I have the Toddy large version and the jug lasts about a week (husband prefers his hot drip coffee).
I’ve tried a few different cold brewing methods - French press, cheesecloth bag, pouring through a paper filter - and finally found one I like that is minimally messy. (As @Saregama noted, it’s not really possibly to be unmessy.)
County Line Kitchen - Cold Brew Mason Jar iced Coffee Maker, Durable Glass, Heavy Duty Stainless Steel Filter, Flip Cap Lid - 64 oz (2 Quart / 1.9 Liter), With Handle https://a.co/d/gZuJCkV
This has a stainless steel insert for the grounds… after brewing, just lift it out and dump the grounds into the trash (or compost). It is SO much easier to clean up than the other methods I’ve tried.
I use 8 scoops of beans, ground medium-coarse. (For comparison, I’d use 2 scoops of beans ground fine for 12oz water if I make pour-over.) I have the 64oz jar but with the grounds in the filter, I can generally only get about 6.5 C water into the jar. I let it brew in the fridge for 18-24 hours. I mix the concentrate about 1:1 with milk, no ice.
i just use a big tupperware thing that is now permanently coffee stained and flavored. I just do the inital mixing to get all the grinds wet and then let it be usually 24hrs unless i just forget- which also happens- and it goes longer.