Just started experimenting with cold brew. I noticed the extremely low water ratio of 1:4 as compared to your garden variety manual pourover of 1:15 to 1:18. Is it as thick as I imagine it would?
How much do you usually make in a single batch? How much (before diluting) would you put in a single serving?
I start with a 3:1 ratio of water to grounds, maybe 4:1 by the time it mixes. I do mine in a mason jar, so I fill the jar to 500ml with grounds then I fill that up the rest of the way with water. Its a 1.75L jar so I figure about 1500ml water goes in as its mixing up with the grounds.
Let sit for a day in the fridge and stir or shake occasionally.
This makes a good concentrate, which I then mix with water to get the right taste.
How much would you put in a single serving, and how much would you dilute it?
When using the above concentrate, I’d go for a roughly 60/40 concentrate to cold water mixture.
I usually fill a 20oz yeti with ice, then add concentrate and water to fill it up.
Ohhh yeah that makes sense now.
I uh… Drank it straight and got kinda loopy a few times.
Woof. Cold brew has the highest caffeine content of any other brew method. You probably drank 4-5 times the amount of caffeine you’re used to lol
Yeah. All I knew was that my throat hurt and it felt like I had boofed a JATO rocket
I make this for my kids in the summer and I think it’s about 1/5 coffee to water by volume not weight. It comes out so smooth and strong. Closer to an espresso in strength, good undiluted but better diluted.
I sub it for espresso in cold drinks - there is this weird one supposed to be made with fresh orange juice, espresso and fizzy water, recipe had a lot of advice about not shocking the espresso but it’s so much easier and better with cold brew. Cocktails too. Shaken with ice, delicious.
What do you mean by volume and not weight? Isn’t water density 1 g/ml anyway?
I mean like measuring out about one dry cup of ground coffee, then filling the same cup 5 times with water to put over the coffee. By weight it would be a lot more water than coffee.
I did some experimenting for a while and eventually settled on the Oxo cold brew system. It’s super quick to clean and start a batch. The water amounts are set and they suggest 10oz of grounds which is the size of many pre ground bags. The only factor left is time. I’ve found that 12 hours suits me. If I want a batch to enjoy with creamer, I’ll do 16 hours.
I was making cold brew with that oxo system for some years. Its very low maintenance and easy to do. Only gripe I really have is the narrowing taper on the glass, which means i had quite a lot of near misses almost dropping it. Put a rubber band around the glass for anti-slip and its great.
IIRC I was doing 100g of coffee and 600ml of water for around 20hr steep. Makes a concentrate but I was personally just drinking straight shots of it occasionally _
I have a Toddy cold brew system that I use during the summer. It’s pretty simple and it looks like it functions similarly to the Oxo. I agree that 12 hours is a good time.
The only thing I do differently is to get whole bean coffee instead of using preground. I have Cuisinart grinder that works decent enough for me.
