okay guys. this is the conversation that is kind of still happening over in my g+ stream. all names of participants are scrubbed. this first huge part was not written by me. Cold Brew Coffee Ive heard about cold brew coffee for a long time and heard how great it was but I was also given the impression that making it was a long, painful and difficult process so I never was terribly interested. Last week I was reading Cory Doctorows HOMELAND, the sequel to his novel LITTLE BROTHER, and in it the lead character/narrator goes on for about two pages about cold brew coffee and how to make it. It was simple and easy sounding so I did a few searches online and decided to try it. For those of you that have never heard of cold brew coffee the idea is that brewing coffee in cold water rather then boiling or near boiling water releases all the good flavors and caffeine from the coffee without many of the acids that are released in the hot brewing. The result is a condensed, strong but much more flavorful and delicious version of coffee. There are numerous devices out there, most of the ones I ever saw were quite expenseive, to cold brew but Cory told me it was easy. Heres an excerpt from the book (if you havent read LITTLE BROTHER and HOMELAND and you live online... you need to. ( craphound/littlebrother/buy/ ) After youre done give it to a teenager and tell them to do the same! This is the section where the lead, Marcus, talks about it from the plains of Burning Man: You’ve had hot coffee before, and in the hands of a skilled maker, coffee can be amazing. But the fact is that coffee is one of the hardest things to get right in the world. Even with great beans and a great roast and great equipment, a little too much heat, the wrong grind, or letting things go on too long will produce a cup of bitterness. Coffee’s full of different acids, and depending on the grind, temperature, roast, and method, you can “overextract” the acids from the beans, or overheat them and oxidize them, producing that awful taste you get at donut shops and Starbucks. But there is Another Way. If you make coffee in cold water, you only extract the sweetest acids, the highly volatile flavors that hint at chocolate and caramel, the ones that boil away or turn to sourness under imperfect circumstances. Brewing coffee in cold water sounds weird, but in fact, it’s just about the easiest way to make a cup (or a jar) of coffee. Just grind coffee—keep it coarse, with grains about the size of sea salt—and combine it with twice as much water in an airtight jar. Give it a hard shake and stick it somewhere cool overnight (I used a cooler bag loaded with ice from ice camp and wrapped the whole thing in bubble wrap for insulation). In the morning, strain it through a colander and a paper coffee filter. What you’ve got now is coffee concentrate, which you can dilute with cold water to taste—I go about half and half. If you’re feeling fancy, serve it over ice. Here’s the thing: cold-brew coffee tastes amazing, and it’s practically impossible to screw it up. Unlike espresso, where all the grounds have to be about the same size so that the high-pressure water doesn’t cause fracture lines in the “puck” of coffee that leave some of the coffee unextracted and the rest overextracted, cold-brew grounds can be just about any size. Seriously, you could grind it with a stone axe. Unlike drip coffee, which goes sour and bitter if you leave the grounds in contact with the water for too long, cold brew just gets yummier and yummier (and more and more caffeinated!) the longer the grounds sit in the water. Cold brewing in a jar is pretty much the easiest way to make coffee in the known universe—if you don’t mind waiting overnight for the brew—and it produces the best-tasting, most potent coffee you’ve ever drunk. The only downside is that it’s kind of a pain in the ass to clean up, but if you want to spend some more money, you can invest in various gadgets to make it easier to filter the grounds, from cheap little Toddy machines all the way up to hand-blown glass Kyoto drippers that look like something from a mad scientist’s lab. But all you need to make a perfectly astounding cup of coldbrewed jet fuel is a mason jar, coffee, water, and something to strain it through. They’ve been making iced coffee this way in New Orleans for centuries, but for some unknown reason, it never seems to have caught on big-time. So away I go---- I didnt have any larger Mason Jars around the house so I bought the bottle in the photo and decided to use it. Not the best choice because of its narrow neck. It makes it very difficult to stir the coffee slurry and you end up having to spin the bottle to keep everything circulating. A mason jar is a much better choice with a wide mouth and an easy to deal with lid. But still, I think any glass container will work. I took Corys suggestion after reading through a few websites and finding most of them recommending a 1 to 1 or 1 to 1.5 ratio of coffee and water. I had a bag of beans and for the first batch I ground them up and did a 1 to 1 ratio and let it sit for about 11-12 hours. Once youve got the cold brew most people suggest mixing it with hot water to create a great cup of coffee (the ratios are all over the place on this suggestion) but I tried it straight and with water and it was okay but didnt blow me away. It sure was easy and it sure was coffee but didnt knock my socks off--- which makes me think I did something wrong. Maybe not long enough soaking? Ratio? Last night I started my next batch. This time I did a 1 to 2 ratio of coffee/water and will let it brew for 24-36 hours and see how it works out. Cold brew is a damn simple and easy way to make coffee. I could see taking this method camping or into places with no or bad coffee making reputations. I can also see the appeal of this for making iced coffee: make the brew and throw some ice in and youre ready to go without the watered down coffee we usually get. Have you ever made cold brewed coffee? Whats your formula / recipe / best method? Id love to hear from anyone and everyone on this. commenter 1: Love it but to do it right it uses so much coffee. Cant afford to do it often. commenter 2: IMO percolating makes the best coffee. No boiling water but hot enough and you can drink it straight from the carafe. Takes about half an hour or longer to make though. lyra cole: it takes a while, but most of that time is just letting it brew. i could have told you all about it :) original poster: lyra, What method do you use? What ratio of coffee to water? How long? lyra cole: i use basically a jar and filter (toddy method). depending on how i brew it, i either end up with normal strength or double strength coffee. about 8 or so hours. some recommend 12-13, and say thats as long as the brew is actually effective. my set up cost me $20 commenter 3: Ive been wanting to try it but was put off by stories of filtering the cold coffee through glass tubes descending through elaborate ritual Dr Seuss contraptions. This is helpful and Im going to grind coffee now. lyra cole: so, re-reading: youre making it the hard way. dont stir it much, if at all. put a layer of water down, then your ground coffee, then pour more water over it slowly. if you feel the need to stir, do it after most of your water is poured, otherwise, the water will insinuate itself through the grounds on it own. its really that easy. you dont have to keep the contraption air tight. youre only letting it sit 8-12 hours, so nothing harmful is gonna get a foothold in there anyway. mine is actually an open air hard plastic thing, that has a spot for the filter and a cork in the bottom. do you want a picture? when its set long enough, i pull the cork, and it takes a while to drain. original poster: commenter 3, Yeah! I read stuff like that too and was put off. If you do some searches youll come across both dead simple easy (like this method) ways to make it and some a little more complex but easy too. The one thing I keep hearing people say is that this will work with just about any coffee and make it great. I bought a can of stuff on sale yesterday I wouldnt normally buy and its next on the test. I still wont give up the better stuff for my coffee maker but for cold brew Id be happy saving a few bucks. yeah, lyra, Id love a picture. lyra cole: i am not sure what my ratio is, on brewing. it usually do something like a 3/4lb to a full pound of coffee, then fill my thing with water. i think its about 2.5 to 3 litres of water (is this a gallon? half gallon? i should ask google). this makes double strength coffee, to which i can then add milk or water or whatever when i am actually done and drinking it. i usually add milk or creamer though, not water. kinda like what starbucks does with iced chai (yes, they add water and milk to the hot version, and just milk to the iced version). i guess that really means i dont like watery coffee :P also, experiment like crazy. i find that my household likes bolder coffee flavours (african beans, for instance). the cold brew brings out a lot of the weirder notes, like florals and fruity essences. once you get your particular coffee right, youll start noticing the little things :) in reality, those crazy science tubes do exist. they cost thousands of dollars, and mostly are owned by hipster coffee breweries. they look way neato though!! commenter 4: hmm, thing is, Ive always enjoyed the acid edge on expresso so much. Thats part of the overall flavors the mix together making it delicious. If you dont like that, I can see the appeal of this, but it sounds like a weak version of what I like in my coffee. I hope to hear your further adventures with the 2nd more concentrated batch. Perhaps thats the secret. Or a finer grind and a cheesecloth to filter it? lyra cole: commenter 4, speaking on the acidity for a sec, i and many others cant stomach the acid. almost literally. a hot coffee starts me to being sick pretty fast, due to the acid kind of slowly destroying my stomach, i guess. and not in an acid reflux kind of way either. im not sure how to describe it. the cold brew curbs that, a bit. not entirely. but it sure makes it take longer :P i do still enjoy an espresso drink on occasion though! commenter 4: I understand. Ive always had a strong stomach. :-)
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 17:53:37 +0000
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