How to make the perfect home brew in your home and easily. A guide to making cold brew coffee the easy way.
What Is Cold Brew?
Many people still assume that cold brew coffee and iced coffee are one and the same, there are actually a few key differences between the two. Iced coffee is made in a similar process to normal coffee, using heat as an aggregate to extract the coffee flavours from the beans.
Once the normal coffee is made, the coffee is then poured over ice to cool it down, and then served. Cold brew on the other hand does not use heat in the brewing process. It may not seem like a big change, but it does affect the flavour profile of the coffee quite considerably.
How Is Cold Brew Different?
Iced coffee will generally taste exactly like normal coffee. The heat in the brewing of iced coffee allows for a great extraction, which typically extracts some bitter elements to the coffee as well.
The bitter elements are normally welcome in a standard cup of coffee as they provide some depth to flavour, but in ice coffee the bitterness can become a little too sharp for some. Cold brew coffee is made in a way to avoid the potential negatives of coffee in a cold drink and focus on the parts that make an iced coffee great.
Cold brew coffee is typically more sweet than iced coffee, not from sugar, but the natural sweetness in the coffee. Another big aspect which changes between iced coffee and cold brew coffee is the amount of bitterness, Cold brew is typically much less bitter than ice or traditionally made coffee.
How To Make Your Cold Brew
The first step to making a great cold brew is the beans. Be sure to select great coffee beans and avoid pre-ground, as grinding will be an important distinction. When grinding your coffee beans for cold brew, try and go for a very coarse grind, finer grinds will result in more bitterness in your final product.
Once you have the grind perfected, next is the actual brewing. The extraction rate of the coffee will depend on the temperature range you brew at. There are two temperature ranges often used to brew cold brew.
- Room temperature – At room temperature, the cold brew should be left for around 12 hours. It can be left a little longer, but don’t exceed 15 hours, as that is when the bitter and woody elements of the coffee will start to come through.
- Fridge – At the average fridge temperature, the cold brew should be left to brew for around 17 hours. It can be left a little longer, but don’t exceed 20 hours, as that is when the undesirable elements will come through.
Once you have reached the ideal time, it’s as simple as straining out the coffee and enjoying while you read the news. Cold brew is best served around 55 degrees Fahrenheit and should be finished within 4 days of the initial brew.