Make Good Cold Brew Coffee at Home

Thank you for purchasing our Cold Brew Coffee Home Kit. Here you will find more detailed instructions on how to get the best results, and some more great cold brew ideas as you perfect your craft at home.

 
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Fill your filter with ground coffee

If you purchased our Home Kit with the coffee already ground, skip this step. You are ready to start brewing.

If your coffee needs to be ground, make sure to grind it coarse. For perspective, typical pre-ground supermarket coffee is usually medium. You want a coarser grind level than that.

If you have a burr grinder, you should be able to empty the full contents one filter from the Home Kit into your grinder and set it to Coarse.

If you have a propeller grinder, we suggest emptying the contents of one of the filters into a container, and feeding beans from that container into your grinder, and the ground coffee back into the filter.

Make sure to tie the filter at the top so the ground coffee does not get out. Be sure to tie the filter gently as not to tear it.

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Immerse the filter in water

Place your filter of ground coffee into a container. The amount of coffee in the filter is designed to brew 2-2.25 quarts or a half-gallon of cold brew coffee.

We recommend using a glass or stainless steel container. However we’ve also found that when using a plastic container, the difference in flavor is negligible, even after the coffee has sat in that plastic container for up to a week.

If you’re making a full gallon of cold brew, you can put both filters of ground coffee into your container and pour the gallon of water over them both.

Pour the above amount of water directly onto the filter of coffee. We suggest a filtered water for the best results. Coffee is mainly water so use the same standard for your cold brew water as you would for your drinking water.

Put a lid on the container and put it in the fridge. Experiment with different brew times until you find the flavor you like best. We recommend a 24-hour brew time, but some people like to brew it as long as 48 hours before drinking it.

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Enjoy!

Take the container out of the fridge. Remove the filter of coffee from the container and dispose of it. If you have a disposable glove, we suggest using that to remain sanitary as you pull the filter out of the container without tearing it open. A glove also allows you to squeeze the brewed coffee that is soaked in the filter.

Many people enjoy their cold brew with a splash of cream, sweetener, or flavor.

Some people enjoy the flavor of cold-brewed coffee but like their coffee hot, and heat their cold brew. If you do, be careful not to let the coffee boil when you are heating it, as this will destroy some of the flavor.

We recommend returning the container to the fridge when not drinking it, as we’ve found the best results are when cold-brewing and storing your coffee at refrigerated temperature.

Season to taste

  • We recommend leaving the cold brew in the container “black”, and adding things to it by the glass.

  • Cream: Many people add a splash of dairy or non-dairy cream or milk to their cold brew. We recommend doing so sparingly as cold brew coffee has a thinner body and even a small amount of cream will transform the drink. Remember that you can always add more, but can’t remove anything you’ve already added.

  • Sugar, sweetener, and flavors: Same advice as above. Add sparingly at first and then add more as you need to. Whatever you’re used to adding to conventional hot-brewed coffee, add a little less to cold brew to account for its thinner body. From the world of flavors, we have found many people enjoy vanilla or caramel flavoring.

Cold Brew Cocktails

MIDNIGHT HOUR RUM SOUR

2oz cold brew
2oz dark rum
½ oz brown sugar simple syrup
Juice of ½ lemon
Ice
Lemon zest as garnish

COLD BREW HOT TODDY

1oz cold brew
1oz bourbon whiskey
6oz hot water
1 tablespoon honey
Juice of ½ lemon

COLD BREW BOURBON COCKTAIL

2.50 oz cold brew
1 oz heavy cream            
1.25 oz bourbon              
.50 oz triple sec
.50 oz maple syrup         
Orange peel for garnish
Combine cold brew coffee, bourbon, triple sec and maple syrup with ice in a shaker, and shake to mix. Strain into a rocks glass over ice, and top with cream.

COLD BREW MANHATTAN

1oz cold brew
1oz rye whiskey
1oz sweet vermouth
1oz maraschino liqueur
Dash of Peychaud’s bitters
Lemon zest and fresh thyme sprig as garnish

COLD BREW COFFEE NEGRONI

1.5oz cold brew
1oz campari
1oz sweet vermouth
Orange peel garnish

IRISH COLD BREW

3 ounces cold brew             
2 ounces Irish whiskey (or other whiskey, or dark rum)   
1 ounce sweetened condensed milk       
Combine everything in a cocktail shaker, add ice, then shake until the shaker becomes too cold to hold comfortably. Strain into a coupe and enjoy.        

Our Tasting Notes

  • Costa Rica Tarrazu SHB (light)

    • Aroma: Chocolate

    • Flavor: Chocolate milk

  • Ethiopia Yirgacheffe (light)

    • Aroma: Some fruit, some chocolate

    • Flavor: Blueberry forward, fruit and tang aftertaste

  • Guatemala Antigua SHB (light)

    • Aroma: Sweet, rich, chocolate

    • Flavor: Dark chocolate

  • Colombia Excelso (medium)

    • Aroma: Earthy, dirty, grassy

    • Flavor: Flat, mild malt

  • Peru Organic (light)

    • Aroma: Sweet, bright

    • Flavor: Mild, sweet

  • Guatemala Antigua SHB (medium)

    • Aroma: Milk chocolate, caramel, sweet

    • Flavor: Dark chocolate, especially in aftertaste

  • Joshua Bean Coffee (medium blend)

    • Aroma: Mild sweet, mild grassy

    • Flavor: Dark chocolate forward, malt

Coming Soon…

  • Video: How to infuse your cold brew coffee with nitrogen