Cold Brew

Cold Brew

Cold Brew in spring, summer fall and even winter is a bit of a passion at Lou's. When a refreshing and stimulating cool drink is needed this cold brew recipe will set you right. 

Cold brew is different from iced coffee. Iced coffee is simply brewed coffee that has been cooled, and then poured over ice. Cold brew coffee, on the other hand, is slowly brewed in cold water. This process provides a smoother cup of cold coffee relative to iced. While iced coffee needs to be consumed fresh, cold brew concentrate coffee tastes great for up to a week if refrigerated and still pretty good up to two weeks refrigerated.

The end result is a concentrate that can easily be diluted 50/50 with water or your dairy or dairy alternative product of choice.

Once ready, cold brew is probably the fastest and easiest to serve coffee product. 

For this recipe we're going to use a 1L French Press that will end up netting us out about 750 ml of concentrate.

The ratio for cold brew is 8:1 water to beans versus our usual 16:1 ratio. 

What you'll need

Coffee - 100 grams of your favorite Lou’s whole bean coffee. Dark roast works well in code brew.  

Scale – a digital scale works best for us.

Grinder – burr grinders are best for their consistency of grind. The Barzata Encore is a starter really good home unit. 

French Press brewer – we really like our 1L Espro 32 oz (nominal 1L) stainless steel brewer.

Drip brewer and filter - a Hario V60 or Melita type works fine.

Something to stir with – Spoon, knife, fork, spatula - just needs to fit in the press’s carafe.

Water - Clean drinking water. Water tastes different form place to place all over the world and will affect the taste of what you’re brewing. How aware of that you’ll be depends on your individual taste sensitivity. Filtered or non-filtered, guide yourself accordingly.

Time - 18 to 24 hours.

Time To Brew

    1. Coarsely grind the beans. 
    2. Add the beans to the French Press and add water to the max. fill line.
    3. Use a long handled spoon to stir the beans into the water.
    4. Return the plunger to the brewer but do not press down or alternatively cover the top with something suitable.
    5. Refrigerate the carafe for 18 to 24 hours. 
    6. After the 24 hours are up, gently press down the plunger but do not force it at the bottom. 
    7. Next set the drip brewer with wetted filter on top of a large enough jar to hold the approximately 750 ml of cold brew. 
    8. Pour the contents of the French Press into the dripper. This filters out any sediment that makes it through the screen of the French Press and leaves you with a clean cold brew concentrate. 
    9. Serve to taste over ice cutting the concentrate with somewhere around equal parts fresh water and/or your choice of diary or dairy alternative.
    10. The concentrate can last up to two weeks in the fridge but is best if consumed within a week.