How to Make Cold Brew Coffee – Simple Guide

There is nothing as tasty and refreshing as slowly drinking your cup of cold brewed coffee, especially after a long summer day or enjoying a vacation.

Many people love freshly brewed coffee, and some have become addicts to this drink.  These individuals will go the extra mile to find ways to brew and have this tasty drink in the comfort of their homes.

If you are among the ardent drinkers of this beverage and need ways to cold brew coffee at home, look no more. This guide will give you every detail and step of making your cold coffee at home. Follow this article to the end to learn more.

Last update on 2023-11-22 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

Why Should You Cold Brew Your Coffee?

There are many reasons why you should cold brew your coffee.  Here are some of the benefits.

• You get what you need: the slow infusion process pulls out the required taste and flavor from the coffee beans, making you get what you need. It also leaves back unwanted compounds which make your coffee taste sour or bitter. A cold brew coffee has a greater taste compared with other brew types.
• Perfect for iced coffee: Cold-brewed coffee has an amazing, smooth taste. You can add some ice to make it taste better.

• You can adjust the concentration: While cold-brewing your coffee, you can adjust the taste from less strong to stronger, depending on the coffee beans you add.  You can improve its taste by adjusting the ratio of water to the coffee beans.
• The whole process saves time: Yes, you can brew your coffee at any given time, put it in a fridge and take it in bits. It is ideal for an early morning coffee fix since it does not take much time to serve it.

Key Tips for Cold Brewing your Coffee

Before starting to brew your coffee, you need to make sure you have all the ingredients. The main ingredients needed for this process are coffee beans and water.  

Once you have your essentials ready, you need to coarsely grind the coffee using a grinder like Capresso Infinity coffee grinder. Then have it in a brewing container, add water (the water can be room temperature or cold), and let the mixture brew.

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You can leave this mixture between 12 hours to 24 hours. Once done, you need to sieve the mixture, store it, and enjoy your coffee in bits.

While these steps are not complicated, there are few factors that you need to consider when preparing your coffee.  These include the best coffee for cold brewing, the best brewing recipe, and the brewing technique you’ll be using in your home. Here are the details to guide you on the coffee brewing exercise.

What is the Best Coffee for Making Cold Brew?

When making a cold brew coffee drink, you can choose any coffee beans available in the market. Many brewers prefer two types of coffee beans.

1.    The leftover coffee or the aging coffee – Mostly, this method is used by individuals who don’t fancy cold-brewed coffee. They will keep the beans as a last resort.

2.    Fruity and sweet coffee – these are the most recommended beans for most cold brewers. These sweet and fruit-tasting beans mostly come from African countries, especially coffee beans from Ethiopia.

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As a brewer, any coffee type can do. The reason is that the cold brewing method cuts down the bitter and sour taste of any coffee, leaving you with the desired taste. Using high acidity coffee beans tends to leave you with a fruit taste, even when you cold brew the coffee.

What’s the Optimal Cold Brewing Coffee Recipe?

Will it be ready to drink or concentrate? Cold brewed coffee has similar characteristics as single filter coffee.  You can make your coffee ready to drink or make it a concentrate to dilute it when drinking.

In most cases, the ready-to-drink concentration is 40g to 600ml of water, while the concentrate is 100g of coffee to 600ml of water. You can dilute the concentrate with water, tonic water, or milk, depending on your preferences.

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Another variable used to determine the concentration is the period you will soak the coffee beans.  For a more concentrated drink, you need to leave the beans for longer – more than 24 hours. You can also use finer grind size to get more concentration.

Steps to Cold Brew Coffee

This simple guide will enable you to make your perfectly cold-brewed coffee at home. It is important to follow the steps keenly to get the best cold-brewed coffee. 

Ingredients:

1.    A cup of whole coffee beans (should be about 113 grams)

2.    4 cups of water (Approximately 900 grams)

The Brewing Method:

Step 1: Coarsely Grind Your Coffee

If you always buy your coffee already ground, you should choose ones done in a coarse setting.  If you grind them at home, set your coffee grinder to a coarse setting.

Once ground, the coffee beans should resemble coarse cornmeal and not a fine powder.  Ensure to grind only a cup for the current brewing.

Step 2: Mix the ground coffee with water in a clean, brewing container

Once you have your ground coffee, please put it in a clean brewing container and add four cups of water. Stir the mixture gently and ensure the coffee is thoroughly saturated with water.

Step 3: Steep Overnight

It is important to cover the brewing jar with a lid or anything to avoid getting contaminated with insects, dust, and other dirt. You can leave the coffee at the brewing counter or refrigerate it. Let it steep for at least 12 hours or overnight.

Step 4: Strain the coffee

When you wake up, your drink will be ready for storage.  You only need to strain it well to remove the coffee remains.  To perfectly strain your brewed coffee, have cheesecloth over a strainer and place it over an empty, clean jug or bowl. Pour the coffee gently through the strainer while taking care not to spill it.

Step 5: Store the coffee

Once you have your coffee concentration, you need to transfer it to a bottle or closed jar and store it safely in a fridge for a maximum of one week. If you don’t have a fridge, you can use a cool storage place.

Step 6: Serve the coffee.

After almost a week, your brewed coffee will be ready.  Since this coffee is a concentrate, you have to dilute it with water or milk, depending on your preference. For individuals who love the coffee ice-cold, you can add some ice when serving or put the cup in a microwave if you need it warm or hot. 

How Do You Serve Cold-Brewed Coffee?

Serving a cold-brewed coffee depends on one’s preferences. You can serve it iced cold, warm, or hot. 

First, you will need to make the coffee as highlighted then serve it as preferred. If you need it warm or hot, you can heat it in a microwave.  Many coffee lovers will dilute the concentration before pouring it into a glass, but this will depend on the concentration and how you will like it.

When icing it, you have to consider the melting ice in your concentration. This situation is crucial because the ice will melt and dilute your coffee.  If your coffee does not taste as you wanted it, you can add some milk or water to taste. 

Success Tips for Your Cold Brewed Coffee

To ensure you get everything to go well and have the best cold-brewed coffee, you need to follow the iced coffee recipe tips from coffee experts.

• Ensure your coffee beans are coarsely ground:  Grinding your beans to a fine powder might result in an over-infused coffee.  Your coffee will leave muddy stains during serving. 

Also, having larger particles makes you not get the required nutrients and flavor from the beans.  Your ground beans should resemble cornmeal or slightly coarser to get a perfect concentration.

• Steep for a minimum of 12 hours:  While most brewers will want to have a shorter time to enjoy their drink, experts recommend leaving your cold brew coffee to steep for at least 12 hours. This ensures full infusion of the beans with the water.   Also, it would be best to avoid leaving the mixture for extended hours as this will extract the bitter or sour flavors.
• Use filtered water: It is important to use filtered water to enjoy the true taste of your coffee.  With pure water, you will get a sweeter, cleaner flavor, free from impurities.
• Have your coffee with ice cubes: Do you want to have it extra cold?  You can add some ice cubes to chill it.
• Keep it cold: You should maintain your cold-brewed or iced coffee at cool temperatures at all times. If you don’t have a fridge, consider having a cool box or store your coffee in a cool place.

Cold Brew Coffee Made Easy

You probably have come across many cold brewing recipes on the internet that will provide you with many ways of cold brewing your coffee.  

While some of these recipes are spiced up to ease the process or make your coffee taste better, the above is the common method to cold brew a perfect coffee. The process is not expensive and allows you to use the readily available items in your kitchen.