Cold brew is NOT simply brewed coffee poured over ice. That is called Ice Coffee , and you can do that simply by making a pour over directly onto some ice (just double the amount of coffee to account for the dilution due to melting ice). While that is a nice beverage, and can be made quickly, cold brew, as it's name implies, is brewed without heat. Because there is no heat, the process takes significantly longer.
There are many cold brew devices you can buy (like Toddy - which has it's own recommended recipe), but large mason jars (7 cup) make great brewing vessel and you can find them on sale frequently.
There are 2 options. Ready-to-drink, or concentrate. Ready-to-drink, as the name implies is ready to go as soon as it's done brewing. A concentrate, however, is designed to be diluted before being consumed. If you like to add cream/milk, I personally think the concentrate works better. Concentrate also works awesome for a coffee martini!
For both, you will need:
- Cheese cloth (or check out the JARVA system.)
- Funnel
- 2 large mason jars (one to brew and one to store)
- 12 hours
Ready-To-Drink - 1:14 ratio
16gr coarse ground coffee for every 1 cup of water
Concentrate - 1:7 ratio
32gr coarse ground coffee for every 1 cup of water
- Mix the ground coffee and cold water together in one jar. Give it a good shake/mix, and store it in the refrigerator or just on our counter for at least 12 hours (up to 16 is fine, some people even go a full 24).
- After brewing is complete give it one last shake.
- Make a filter from several layers of cheese cloth and put it in the funnel. Put the funnel in the second jar.
- Pour the coffee slurry through the cheese cloth. If you want, you can perform several more filter steps to further remove sediment. The resulting brew can be stored for 2 weeks in the refrigerator.