Learn how to make cold brew coffee with this step-by-step video tutorial and recipe!
It’s no secret that my home away from home is my beloved coffee shop next door. My friends and I joke that it’s kind of like our own little “Central Perk” from Friends. Anytime I walk in the door, it’s pretty much guaranteed that I’ll see at least a few friendly faces I know, often many of those fellow entrepreneurs in the neighborhood who hang out there at the same time each day to be pretend “co-workers” and keep each other company and bounce small business ideas off one another while we work. Which I love. I also love the fact that anytime the guys behind the counter see me, they know — whether it’s the hottest day in the middle of July, or if we’re in the midst of a December blizzard — that my “regular” drink order will be the same:
Iced Coffee.
Oh man. I love good coffee, I love it cold.
Most of the time when I go there, I order my favorite iced pour-over coffee. (You can see my tutorial for that here.) But I have also become a mega fan of the other iced coffee option they offer — cold brew coffee. By contrast to traditional iced coffee, which is brewed hot and then served over ice to cool it down, cold brew coffee is brewed entirely with cold or lukewarm water over a longer period of time. And as such, you lose most of the acidity or bitterness that comes with brewing coffee with hot water, resulting in a deliciously smooth, sweet, and bitter-free coffee that tastes fabulous over ice.
Anyway, the guys at the shop had always told me that cold brew coffee was “crazy” easy to make at home. But it wasn’t until the past few months that I finally tried it myself and began tinkering with the proportions I like. And good grief, they were right. It literally takes me 3 total minutes to make an enormous batch, which I can then keep in the fridge and use over the course of a week or so. SO EASY.
Basically, if you love iced coffee, you must give cold brew a try. Here’s my quick tutorial for how to make it like a pro.
Cold Brew Recipe | 1-Minute Video
The key to any good coffee is to begin with good beans. Probably obvious, but I can’t stress this enough. Buy your coffee beans fresh (and roasted locally if possible) and buy them whole. Then just before you’re ready to start your cold brew, grind them up to a coarse ground. You don’t want to use finely ground beans for cold brew coffee.
Then pour your coarsely ground coffee into a large bowl or measuring cup or a French press. Add in your cold water, and stir to combine. Then cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours. (I like to make mine in the evening and then have it ready to go in the morning.)
Once it has sat for 12 hours and “brewed” in the refrigerator, all you need to do is strain it!
If you made the cold brew in a French press, this part is super easy — just press down the lid to strain the coffee, and then pour it into your serving glasses or a separate (sealed) container to keep in the fridge. (You don’t want to keep the coffee in the French press on top of the old grounds for more than 24 hours.)
If you made it in a bowl, like I did above, just get a separate bowl ready and place a fine mesh strainer on top of it with a cheesecloth. Pour the coffee and grounds into the cheesecloth and let it sit until the liquid has drained through. Remove the cheesecloth and strainer and serve, or cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Sidenote: Don’t forget that your coffee grounds are not good for your garbage disposal. So pop them in the compost, or toss them in the trash. ;)
Once your coffee is strained, dilute it with however much water you’d like. I like my coffee pretty strong, so I go for about a 2:1 concentrate/water ratio. Others like the 1:1, or even more water than coffee. It’s totally a matter of personal preference. Of course, feel free to also add in some milk or cream and sweetener. Although, I’d recommend giving it a taste before you add sweetener, because cold brew coffee naturally tastes sweeter than traditional iced coffee.
Then just serve it over ice, and you’re ready to go! So easy, right??
Alright, here is the basic recipe, which I also recommend doubling or tripling if you’d like to make a big batch to carry through the rest of the week or serve to a crowd. Or you can also halve it if you’re making a smaller batch.
Cheers, friends!
Cold Brew Coffee
Ingredients
- 1 cup coarsely-ground coffee beans
- 4 cups cold water
Instructions
- Add ground coffee and cold water together in a large bowl. Stir briefly to combine. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 12 hours (or up to 24 hours).
- Then remove the bowl, and place a strainer covered with a cheesecloth in a second bowl. Pour the coffee (and ground) over the strainer, and wait a minute or two until the liquid has filtered through the strainer. Discard the grounds and remove the strainer.
- Serve the coffee over iced, stirring in water to dilute the coffee at a 1:2 or 1:1 concentrate/water ratio. (Or whatever strength you prefer. I recommend just adding the water to taste.) Refrigerate the remaining coffee concentrate in a sealed container for up to 1 week.
Did you make this?Let me know how it turned out in the comments below!This post contains affiliate links.
I love this! Is it completely necessary to use cheese cloth or could you use a regular coffee filter?
Hey Elise, you can make it with coffee filters instead, but I would double up on them, since they’re so thin. Just line 2 or 3 of them over a fine mesh sieve. Hope that helps!
Check out a Filtron. I used one back in my barista years a couple decades ago and my father-in-law bought one for me 2 years ago. The design is still exactly the same. It’s the best cold water brewing system. So basic. I make it all year round and in the winter, add hot water to the cold brew concentrate instead…smoothest cup a joe you’ll ever drink.
Whoa, I haven’t heard of the Filtron. I’ll definitely check it out. I seem to have a slightly obsession with coffee gear. :)
So i realllly want to try this, but do not have cheesecloth currently. Would a paper towel work? Also, do you have to grind your own beans or does preground coffee work ok?
Hey Alexandra, I would actually try a dish towel rather than a paper towel. You definitely don’t have to grind your own beans, (I think the coffee tastes fresher and better if you do), but it should still be tasty otherwise! Hope that helps!
Actually, I worked for years in a coffee shop that made Cold Brew/Cold Press coffee (long before it became “fashionable” and “hip”), and you’re not limited to coarse ground beans. You can, in fact, use espresso ground (r drip ground) for Cold Press. It’s how I do it at home. It makes for a stronger concentrate. The only downside, if you can call it that, is that it takes a little long for it to strain.
If you want the same strength Cold Brew when using fine ground you can increase the water. Which is more economical since you’re using few beans and getting more brew. For drip ground use 1 cup to 5 cups water. For espresso grounds use 1 cup to 6 cups water.
Also, to save money use a good ol’ fashioned coffee filter to strain your Cold Brew instead of cheesecloth. After a use or two of the cheesecloth it’ll take on the color/smell of the coffee that no matter how well you wash it won’t come out. It’s a lot more economical to buy a $2.00 pack of 500 coffee filters than it is to repeatedly buy $2.00 cheesecloth.
I LOVE iced coffee. Even in the middle of winter. And watching milk being poured into a fresh glass is, just magical. I will have to try this cold brew method.
I don’t want to clutter up my kitchen, and I’m more of a tea drinker anyway, so I don’t want to buy a coffee maker.
This is the perfect way to get my iced coffee fix. I’ve been using Mt. Haagen instant, but have been wanting to adventure into all different varieties of beans.
I’ll be checking out your other coffee making tutorials, too!
(Also, I love your earl grey tea latte. Never thought of adding lavender!)
I made a double batch of this with Columbian roast from Wegmans. It came out great and was super easy. I let it steep in fridge for 20 hours then strained right from the pitcher through cheesecloth. No sediment or grit at all, naturally sweeter and makes an awesome “coffee milk” lightly sweetened w honey.
ALSO for the old timey glass milk bottle, Wegmans again comes to the rescue with the Bormioli Rocco brand from Italy for a few dollars each. Great stuff Ali, thank you for the additional way I can enjoy caffeine
I actually like hot coffee, but I’m cheap, so I do my own version of cold brew. I take a tablespoon of coffee grounds, put it in an empty bottle (old starbucks iced coffee bottle – good to recycle, eh?), fill the bottle up about 3/4 of the way (enough to fill a mug) with hot water from the sink, leave it in the fridge overnight, and strain it into a coffee mug (use one of my wife’s tea strainers), then microwave it for a minute and half, and I’ve just created a good cheap cup of coffee. Presto. You can get a lot of mugs of coffee out of a can of coffee if you’re able to do a little bit of work. And I do actually rinse the old grounds down the dispose-all in the sink. No problems from that, but maybe I should be worried?
I am a coffee junkie and love this! Thank you for being unoriginal.
A coworker of mine swears by cold brewing. He keeps it in a bottle in the work fridge & actually heats it in the microwave before drinking. He’s always telling me how much better it is than traditionally brewed coffee. Now that I see how easy it is, I’ll have to give it a try.
I love ice coffee too! I have been making ice cubes with my leftover coffee to use in my coffee drinks so they don’t get watered down.