Cold Brew Iced Coffee: Get a French Press OR a Cold Brew Carafe?

Ok, we've talked about iced coffee before. I really like coffee. I grew up in a house that exclusively drank espresso (yeah, I'm super Italian), but I like regular "American" coffee better for everyday drinking. At home, I have a Keurig 2.0 which my wife loves, but I find it to be a PITA. Also, I like iced coffee a lot. Making a carafe of hot coffee with the Keurig and chilling it doesn't taste so great... very acidic and watery.

I've been reading about "cold brew" iced coffee brewing. You get less acidity and a smoother taste. There seem to be a few different schools of thought when talking about cold brewing, mainly people using a French Press and people buying a carafe with a coffee infuser filter built in. I don't know which way to go. The French Press could be used for both hot and cold coffee, but usually yield smaller amounts, while I can get more coffee out of the carafe.

Right now I'm leaning toward the carafe, because you can probably do iced tea in it. Something like this:

What say you GRM hive mind?

I make it in a growler, then filter through cheesecloth to get the big stuff then a normal pourover coffee filter for the fines. Pourover goes into a second growler. Makes about a week's worth of concentrate, which keeps in the fridge.

Cold brew is one of those things that can be as simple or complicated as you want. I try to keep it simple.

Takeya from Amazon. You will not regret the money spent on it. I started cold brewing with a French Press and it just ended up being kind of messy and a pain to keep in the fridge without spilling. The nice part about the Takeya carafe is that it's completely sealed up. I make it the night before and throw it in my gym bag and bring it to work the next morning. It's that easy.

And yes, cold brewed iced coffee >>> iced 'hot' coffee. You'd be amazed at the difference in smoothness and taste.

In reply to cmcgregor:

Interesting. I think I have a couple growlers kicking around at home! This might work. How big are your growlers and how much coffee do you use?

I too love iced coffee, and cold brew.... SO good.

cmcgregor wrote: I make it in a growler, then filter through cheesecloth to get the big stuff then a normal pourover coffee filter for the fines. Pourover goes into a second growler. Makes about a week's worth of concentrate, which keeps in the fridge. Cold brew is one of those things that can be as simple or complicated as you want. I try to keep it simple.

More details please! I have growler and coffee. Grind, amount per jug?

Standard 64oz growlers, if you don't have two, good excuse to support your local brewery!

You have to play with the amount of coffee you use, but it will take a lot. About 1.5 cups for a growler batch.

The pourover dripper I use is one of these Fancy! the bottom lip fits nicely over a growler top and balances on there. You do have to be careful pouring.

Now that I'm thinking about it, you could probably do it with 1.

Grind your coffee coarsely, one cup is about 85g according to the internets.

Add to your growler with a funnel (cutting the bottom off a cone filter is great for this) then fill with cold water.

Refrigerate overnight, or until you get around to filtering it.

Pour through cheesecloth into a pitcher, then rinse grounds out of the growler (this might be a pain in the ass).

Then, go back into the growler through the pourover dripper using a cone filter.

Refrigerate and dilute to taste.

I've skipped a step in the past and brewed in the pitcher with saran wrap over the top too. Easier to get the grounds out of.

I boil fine ground coffee in a pot turkish style then pour it thru a coffee filter into a pitcher full of ice. No new equipment required.

What's the deal with the pourover dripper? Is it necessary?

We've used this system for years - for hot and cold coffee. We love it.

Toddy coffee system

I just use it to filter out anything the cheesecloth doesn't catch. If you just use the dripper, it's going to clog up and take forever. I already had one because that's my primary coffee making apparatus anyway. Try it without, see how it goes.

I loved cold brew, smooth is the word for how it tastes. The lack of caffine compared to brew or espresso is why I stopped making it.

I make mine in a french press.

UPDATE!

I tried the growler method. I found a couple 64oz growlers in my basement, cleaned them out, and tossed 1.5 cups of coffee in one of them with filtered water. I shook it real good and tossed it in the fridge for 12hrs.

One of my growlers has a "Grolsch"-style top, so I used that one for the process. The other one has a flimsier screw top, so I put it aside for now.

The next morning, I went out and bought a strainer, cone filters, and some cheese cloth. I grabbed a pitcher, and the strainer was a perfect fit.

Here's where I hit a small snag. I tried the paper filter to strain the coffee grinds, and it clogged too easily.

After that, I grabbed some cheese cloth and did it that way. WAY faster. Then, I filtered it again back into the cleaned out growler that I brewed it in. Lastly, I poured a cup into my reuseable drink cup.

I wish I had a clear cup around so you could see it better, but yeah, it's iced coffee.

So, how does it taste? I used cheap Maxwell House coffee because that's basically all I had aside from some Italian espresso that I thought was ground too fine for this. It is a darker taste, and it is STRONG. I don't know if it's a placebo effect, but the caffeine content seems a lot higher than the stuff from the stores/chains. It's not as smooth as I thought it would be, but it's some seriously high octane E36 M3! I found that I can fill that blue cup about 4 times when ice is in it (I think it's a 20oz cup, so that makes sense).

I have a second batch chilling in the fridge right now. This time, I added some of that Italian espresso in with the mix. We'll see what happens.

cold brew coffee does have higher caffeine content than regular drip brewed coffee. Caffeine content is a function of 2 details-

Roasting grade- darker roasts tend to burn off more caffeine, and as a result will be lower in concentration than typical light roasts

dilution time- This has much more to do with caffeine strength than any other factors. The longer the grounds are in water, hot or cold, the more caffeine extraction that occurs. It typically goes like this- hot water and long steeping duration is at the strongest end of the spectrum, where technically cold coffee and short steeping is at the lowest (and also the weakest in terms of taste, hence the long cold brew durations).

I will typically cut my cold brew with water to find the happy medium- good, strong taste without sending me running up walls, haha.

In reply to golfduke:

No wonder why I was tasting colors on Saturday after drinking a cup and a half of this stuff!

Yeah, you really want to use the brew as concentrate, and dilute it to taste. Looks like your first attempt was a success though!

In reply to cmcgregor:

Well, I did put ice and cream in it. I figured that diluted it enough.

you essentially made and consumed 20oz of pure, concentrated espresso hahah.

Yup cold brew is more concentrated. I brew mine for 72 hours and measure with a 2oz shot glass. That's about the equivalent of a full cup of coffee. I usually just throw in some creamer and treat it like cold espresso. If I want it to last a little longer I'll add water and then cream.

I am planning on trying this tonight but all I have is espresso grind. Is that a huge issue?

Finished making that second batch. This time, I added a couple of scoops of Italian espresso in the mix, and you can definitely tell it's there. I also watered it down when pouring it into the travel cup, and the bitterness mellowed down quite a bit.

I'm finding that paper coffee filters are completely useless in this process. The cheese cloth over a metal strainer is the only way I can get the coffee to filter. There's still some fine sediment, kind of like when you make home brewed beer, but if you are careful when pouring, you'll be fine.

And as far as the espresso grind goes, try it!

Espresso grind will be muddy and murky, but if you don't mind a little grit, or let it settle thoroughly, it will be fine.

It turned out ok with the fine grind. Filtered through a woven towel and then a paper towel as I am out of standard paper filters.

Im going to bump this 3 year old thread because I also tried the growler suggestion for making cold brew coffee.

I did 1.5 cups of coarse ground coffee (medium kona blend) and 6 cups of water. After brewing (18 hrs or so) I added a little more water to fill up the growler (I neglected to measure but should have been around 2 cups more water) and a splash of flavored creamer. Because everyone says its supposed to be super strong and you need to dilute it.

Im not entirely sure, I think i made it too weak. Tasted fine just looked kind of watered down before I added any creamer. I think I went too coarse with the grind, there were a few bigger chunks of beans in there. Everything strained out fine with cheesecloth. Going to grind it a little more this time and let it brew for a full 24 hours. I did 6 cups water to leave room to add water and dilute without having to have a 2nd container in the fridge. It was awesome having morning coffee for the week, and a few extra cups for evenings, and only having to "brew" it once.  Because its kind of a pain in the ass brewing a cup every morning on a keurig while trying to get kids ready for daycare and everyone out the door.