How I Make Cold Brew
Hey guys! How is it July already? I turn 23 at the end of this month…weird. Not too sure what to make of that at the moment. I honestly haven’t been up to much other than work and school. I’ve been working on an original collaborative play called Shame In Society (title is self-explanatory). We’ve been in the developmental lab process since end of January. We were meeting in person but then switched to Zoom once the "shelter-in-place” order was set. We’ll probably meet once a month and we’re hoping to open in late April-May of 2021. I can’t share what my fellow actors are doing but I can share that I’m sharing one of my stories surrounding mental illness through two dances (which actually can be found on my YT channel).
Today’s post is one that I am super excited to share with you. I am going to teach you how to make your own cold brew (something I am very much obsessed with at the moment). Cold Brew. It’s my favorite thing to drink and I’ve been making my own since the shelter-in-place was started. Now, I’m not an expert in brewing coffee but it is my dream to maybe one day have my own coffee house and I have done a lot of research to perfect my craft at making cold brew. I hope you enjoy it.
Important things you should know before making cold brew.
What kind of coffee are you using
You ant to use a really good quality coffee to make good quality cold brew. You wouldn’t expect a cheap $5 bag of coffee to make Starbucks quality cold brew, right? The coffee I use is from the Mariposa Coffee Company because it’s relatively local. The blend I use is called Oakhurst Morning and it’s around $10 a bag.
Grind your coffee
When you pour water on coffee, the beans expand slightly and bubble up. This is called “blooming” and it’s basically just releasing the carbon dioxide from the beans. If you use pre-ground beans, it most likely will not bloom very much and no one wants that, so it’s best to make cold brew from freshly ground beans. You also want to make sure that your beans are medium course because they won’t be so fine as to go through the filter later and it’ll release a better flavor.
The ratio of coffee grinds to water
This part here is super duper important. The standard rule for cold brew is 1/3 cup coarsely ground coffee for every 1 1/2 cups water. This is entirely dependent on personal taste and is definitely trial and error so mix around with different ratios to see what works for you. I tend to make my cold brew in big batches so my ratio is definitely skewed a bit.
Water temperature
I use room temperature filtered water but colder fridge water, works just as well. Just don’t use warm or hot water because this is cold brew after all.
Brewing time
The amount of time that you let the coffee grinds and water brew really does matter. I find it’s best to do this overnight for at least 12 hours. Some places, like Starbucks, brew the Cold Brew for 20 hours. I steep mine for 12 hours. So if I finish making it by 7pm, it’ll be ready for me by 7am. You can put it in the fridge like I do or leave it out. Brewing time stays the same.
Filter
I’ve read that it’s best to use a cheesecloth but I find that a paper coffee filter works just fine as long as I change it out a few times. I like to strain my coffee in a small measuring cup with a spout, so I can pour it into my jars as I go along. It takes a while but it’s less messy that way and I’m not worried about dropping anything.
Storage.
I have this cute jar that you see restaurants use for water and that’s what I store my main cold brew supply in. The rest I put in large jars and I keep them in my outside fridge. I go through my cold brew pretty fast so mine always lasts the two weeks that it’s meant to.
I hope you all thought this post was helpful and informative about something that I truly love and I know many other people love as well (my Mum not being one of them, sorry Mum).
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