My Cold Brew Coffee Setup

Like everything else, everyone is different, and It's taken me a few years, and lots of different experimentation to find the setup that works for me.

My Cold Brew Coffee Setup

What I have found is a 1:8 Coffee to Water ratio that seems to work best for my taste.  Some people over on the Cold Brew subreddit like a bit more concentrated version of about 1:4 ratio, while others like it more diluted at around 1:15.  

End of the day, you have to experiment with different batches to find the right one.  This also varies a little with types of coffee, too.

To brew my Cold Brew

I used to use a Bodum 1.5-litre cold brew coffee maker. This is basically a plastic version of a French press but has a separate lid to help while cold brewing.

As you can see, over the years, my version is a little bit battered but, still going strong.

However, I finally made the switch to the OXO Cold Brew Coffee Maker as this is a cleaner, a little better (less coffee sludge) yielding maker.

 

This uses roughly 284 grams to 1.2 litres of water however, after some experimentation, a whole bag (around 227g) of coffee is more than enough to make a good cold brew.

My Coffee Grinder

I will first grind my coffee with my Krups Burr grinder with the grind set to Corse (all the way to the right) and with 10 cups selected on the front.  This is my grinder and how I have kept the settings:

Even though the Bodum is 1.5 litres, you need to allow for coffee but a gap up the top of the container to allow putting the top on. What I have worked out is that I need to run this twice, so 2 lots of coffee, to get the 1:8 ratio correct to go into the Bodum. This works out at around 160g of water to 1.3 litres of water.

I double-checked this with the Dilution Calculator to ensure that it's the correct ratio.

From there, add the ground coffee into the Bodum container, add water and pop the lid on.

Then I leave this to cold brew for around 12 hours.  Once 12 hours are there, check the container to see if the coffee ground has sunk.  What you will find most have.  What I then do, is stir it a little, not too much, and let it rest for another 1 or 2 hours.

Once you're happy with the brew, just like a French press, plunge that coffee!

To store My Cold Brewed Coffee

I then pour the coffee into a 1 litre Hario Mizudashi Cold Brew Coffee Maker so that it filters the coffee a little more (removing that coffee sludge) but also a great way to store it in the fridge.

This is how it looks Once been in the fridge and One cup taken (Currently has Hard Lines Coffee  Christmas Blend with Sticky Toffee Pudding wash)

This will then give a decently concentrated 1 litre of coffee that you can get 4/5 cups out of but, it's quite strong. Just how I like it.

Coffee Tips

That's it, that's how I do my Cold Brew Coffee.  However, if you managed to pick up coffee grounds, not whole beans, that's fine too.  The same amount applies with a slight adjustment/experiment for different types of coffee, though I have found finer the grind, the more "coffee sludge" you get.