How To Make Cold Brew Coffee

Everyone has the best homemade cold brew recipe. So I'm not going to bother telling you mine is the best. But I will explain how to make cold brew coffee, look at the right ratio of grounds to water, and the recommended extraction times. With a little planning and the right brewing process, you can make delicious cold-brewed coffee at home for much less than your daily glass from the Boston-accent or green-apron chains. 

How Do You Make Cold Brew?

My cold brew coffee recipe is a 1:4 ratio of coffee grounds to filtered water. To make cold brewed coffee, just add the water and grounds to a container and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours. Simple, right? It absolutely is, but the details are important.

You will need the following:

• Carafe or container for brewing coffee
• Freshly roasted coffee beans
• Coffee grinder
• Digital scale
• Mesh strainer
• Cheesecloth (optional)
• Manual pour-over coffee dripper
• Paper coffee filters
• Several storage containers for the finished cold brew

Follow these steps to make cold-brewed coffee at home. I also have a concentrated cold brew recipe further down.

Choose The Right Container

Technically, you can make cold brew in anything, but I prefer metal or glass carafes. Stainless steel carafes are great because they won't give off flavors, they block out light, and you can drop them. Glass carafes also won't transfer unwanted flavors, but they will let in light or break.

I am strongly opposed to using plastic. Even BPA-free plastic can still cause off-flavors over time. But plastic is really affordable, so make sure it has a tight-fitting lid and a good handle if you go this route.

Mason jars are a popular container for brewing cold coffee, but they are a little small for my taste. And like any glass container, they let in light and can break.

Also, I'm not a fan of anything marketed specifically for cold brewing. The inexpensive models are basically low-quality carafes. And the cold brew coffee makers are too expensive to be useful, even if they brew great coffee. Stick with a stainless or glass carafe, and it will last you for years.

When it comes to size, I prefer a carafe that is at least 50 ounces. That's roughly three 16-ounce cups of coffee per batch. If you drink more than that, look for a 68-ounce or larger container. Or use two containers.

Alternatively, you can make concentrated cold brew and dilute it when you pour each glass. I cover concentrates below. 

Measure And Grind Your Coffee

Next, you need to measure and grind the coffee. The amount of coffee depends on the size of your container. For a 50-ounce carafe, I use 355 grams of coffee beans.

This is a 1:4 ratio of grounds to water. I like it because it tastes great black or with milk or sugar. But I have a table below with several cold brew ratios for different volumes.

Weigh out your coffee using a digital scale. I have a small one that works great for anything from espresso shots to large-batch drip coffee. If you plan to make cold brew in bulk, you might want a larger scale.

You want a very coarse grind on the coffee beans for cold brew. So I recommend using a burr grinder for a consistent coffee grind.

In most cases, you can use the coarsest setting. However, on some mills, that setting might still be too coarse, so you may need to make adjustments to get it right.

Getting the right grind with a blade grinder can be tricky. To get the right grind, you should add a small amount of beans to the mill and pulse to avoid over-milling the coffee. Depending on the model you have, it may take two or four pulses to crack open all the beans. 

Regardless of the grinder you use, the coffee should be cracked open but still resemble the beans. The ideal size is 1.5 millimeters, or about the size of rock salt. Anything finer than kosher salt will leave your cold brew gritty.

Mix The Coffee Grounds With Cold Water

As soon as you grind the coffee, it's time to get brewing. Add the grounds to the container and fill it with about one-third of the total water.

You should always use cold, filtered water when making cold brew. Using filtered water will make sure your cold brew tastes crisp and clean, more like coffee than the minerals in your tap water. And using cold water ensures a slow, consistent brew.

With one-third of the water in, stir the grounds until they are thoroughly mixed with the water. Then top off with more filtered cold water until the carafe is full. Pouring slowing will prevent splashes and spills.

Give it another stir to distribute the grounds, then let the coffee steep in the fridge for 24 hours. A stainless steel carafe blocks out light. But if you are using glass or plastic, try to keep the refrigerator door closed as much as possible.

Strain and Store Your Cold Brewed Coffee

After 24 hours in the fridge, your cold brew is ready to strain and serve. Grab a mesh strainer and a manual pour-over dripper. You will also need a carafe or containers to collect the filtered coffee.

If you mostly drink cold brew at home, another carafe works great. But if you usually take your coffee to go, mason jars are a great option. They have an airtight lid for storage, and you can even get sipper lids that make it easy to drink on the road. 

Put a paper coffee filter in the dripper and wet it down, then place it over the new carafe or jar. Hold the mesh strainer over the dripper with one hand, while slowly pouring the cold brew into it.

With a steady hand, you will filter out all the coffee grounds without making a mess. The strainer will get heavy after a while, so stop and empty it in the trash if needed.

The mesh strainer collects the large grounds, while the paper filter prevents any of the finer grounds from making it into your cold brew.

If you don't have a mesh strainer, you can use just the pour-over dripper and the paper filter. But you will need to empty or replace the filter more often.

If you don't have a manual pour-over dripper, put several layers of cheesecloth in the strainer. I use binder clips to hold the cheesecloth in place while straining.

Your cold brew will last one to two weeks in the fridge. However, you should never store your cold brew with the grounds still inside the carafe. The water will continue to extract flavor from the beans, leading to overly strong and bitter coffee. 

How Long Does It Take To Make Cold Brew?

I recommend 24-hours for cold brew, which gives you a fresh-tasting coffee reasonably quickly. If you prefer weaker coffee or are in a hurry, you can brew for as little as 18 hours.

While brewing longer will make the coffee stronger, it also gets more bitter. After 24 hours, the water starts extracting more of the harsh flavors of the beans, which most people don't really like.

If you want stronger cold brewed coffee, use more coffee grounds instead of a longer brew time.

What Is The Best Cold Brew Grounds To Water Ratio?

The key to making delicious cold brew at home is getting the right coffee to water ratio. My ideal ratio for cold brewed coffee is 1:4. That means you are using one part of grounds for every four parts of water.

But you can choose whatever cold brew coffee ratio tastes best to you. A 1:3 ratio will make stronger cold brew, while a 1:5 or 1:6 is slightly weaker. Anything above 1:3 is moving into concentrated cold brew territory. More on concentrates later.

But what's a part? Technically, the part could be anything—a thimble, a cup, or a gallon. So you could waste a bunch of time using some arbitrary scoop to measure out coffee and water. It'll work, but it's not too efficient.

Instead, I prefer using weight because it's easier to be precise. However, the weight of the coffee depends on the container you are using. An ounce of water weighs 28.345 grams, so you need 7.086 grams of coffee per ounce.

I really like glass or metal carafes in the 50-ounce range. They make a few days' worth of coffee and are easy to store in the fridge while brewing. For the best results, you need 354 grams of coffee to get that 1:4 cold brew ratio.

[TABLE OF RATIOS AND VOLUMES] Data: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_Loq24ZERSKmUSHVuVVAbj8_m0yI43ZrhY5qHIcJujY/edit?usp=sharing

My Cold Brew Concentrate Recipe

If you drink more than two glasses of cold brew a day, I strongly suggest making a concentrate. It means less brewing and more drinking. And we are all about drinking coffee at Cupa Coffee Roasting.

Whether you have a healthy coffee addiction or you are looking to make cold brew for your coffee shop or business, I use one pound per gallon of water in my large-batch recipes.

A pound of coffee is 454 grams and a gallon of water is 128 ounces. 

Another benefit of concentrate is that you can use it to make iced coffee. Fill a glass with ice, then pour in the coffee. The first few sips might be overly strong, but the ice will dilute the concentrate as it melts.

Get Fresh Beans Perfect For Cold Brewed Coffee 

Brew the perfect batch of cold coffee at home with fresh beans from Cupa Coffee Roasting. Roasted in Orlando, Florida, we ship fast to ensure your beans are as fresh as possible. Choose from our 250 gram bags of whole bean coffee for small batches of cold-brewed coffee or our 5 pound bags of bulk coffee if you like brewing more often. Cupa also offers wholesale beans for coffee shops, retail stores, or any workplace. Plus, all orders over $40 get fast and free shipping.