Keys to Cold Brew Success

Lately I've been on a big cold brewing kick. Drinking hot coffee in the summer seemed counter-intuitive to cooling down in the Austin heat, and I'd heard that there are benefits to cold brew in terms of lower acidity and better taste. So! Being the incessant researcher that I am, I started digging around online and asking friends about their tried-and-true cold brew methods.

My initial findings:
- Coarse grind the beans for steeping; burr mill preferred
- Medium roast or espresso blend gets the best flavor without being too strong
- A 1:3 ratio works best; one cup of grinds to three cups of water, for example
- French presses work well for making small batches

I was determined to not have to buy a bunch of new stuff to make this happen, so I haven't been able to hit all of the points above, but I've found a happy medium between making cold brew and not breaking the bank.

Pumpkin candle optional

The cold brew method in a nutshell:

1. Grind coffee beans in a bean grinder of choice; I inherited this one from my parents and I'm pretty happy with it, though I'll get a burr mill grinder once I save up some money for it.

2. Put grinds in a French Press (I got this one from IKEA, I like that it all comes apart easily for cleaning) and pour over approximately three cups of filtered water (I just fill to the metal rim at the top). Stir it gently to make sure that all of the grounds hit the water.

3. Put the top on the French Press without pressing down. Let it sit in the fridge overnight, anywhere from 12-18 hours (I got some helpful timing metrics from this post).

4. Once you hit the desired steeping time, press down the plunger on the French Press to filter out the bigger grinds.

5. Pour the steeped cold brew into a container that you can store air-tight. I highly, highly recommend filtering another 1-2 times. My method is using a #2 unbleached filter with a funnel.

6. Once filtered, store in the fridge. Boom. Cold brew.

French Presses aren't perfect, and grinds will get through. Filtering is important to avoiding bitter coffee.

My keys to success have been the following:

1. No matter how course you grind, always filter the coffee after steeping. As you can see above, the filter will catch grinds that the French Press misses. This is especially important if you have a cheapo bean grinder like I do. You don't want any grinds left in the cold brew because those grinds will continue to steep and make the coffee bitter.

2. Serve the cold brew over a cup filled at least half-way with ice, and put in enough coffee to fill it about three-quarters of the way to the top. Then top off the rest with creamer/milk/whatever. I've found Califia vanilla almond milk coffee creamer is pretty much the best ever. It's sweet enough that you don't need much, so you can pretty much just put in a small splash and won't have to have a ton of sugar to lighten the coffee flavor. The new Silk vanilla almond creamer is also pretty good.

A lot of sites out there want you to put in a crap ton of sugar. If you get the right blend of coffee you don't need to overpower it with sugar.

3. Local roasts are the best. Support your local coffee roaster! So far Ruta Maya medium roast and Progress Espresso Blend are my favorites. I try a new coffee each time, and have found that medium roast and espresso blends are my favorite.


There you have it! My cold brew method. If you try it let me know!