Cold Brew Coffee
Friday, August 22nd, 2008Steven Den Beste over at Chizumatic tries cold brew coffee. [Further comments here.]
His experiments finally got me to try:
OK, I’ve been reading about cold-brew coffee for a couple of months now, but that 1/2 pound of coffee just to try was a bit daunting.
You’ve inspired me, though. I weighed 8 ounces of Yuban into a 3-qt sauce pan, and let it infuse overnight in the fridge. Filtering apparatus was one of those folding stainless steel steamers, lined with three torn-open conical filters, sitting atop a glass in a tall storage canister. The steamer has enough surface area that it took only a minute or two to drain, and then I used it to squeeze the remaining water out of the grounds.
Results?
Meh.
For me, it didn’t taste like coffee, although I see why some would like it. With cream and sugar, it actually tasted a bit like black cherry soda, which I do like, but it’s not what my mouth is set for in the morning. And if I want black cherry soda, I prefer Dr. Brown’s.
If I had liked this, I’d have tried basket filters, which I think would be just about the right size to fit in the steamer. Or maybe even something like this fine-mesh permanent coffee filter.
Recommendation: This seems to be strongly a matter of taste. It produces a radically different flavor than hot-brew, and appears to be very sensitive to coffee type and grind. I recommend trying it once or twice.
Steven notes that a coarse grind is probably best, since it will tend to clog the filter less than a fine grind, and the fine grind is only necessary because in the normal drip process, the water is only in contact with the grounds for a few moments, so large surface area is crucial.
I did not pay any attention to how much water I used, either in brewing (enough to fill the pan) or in diluting (about 1:3). (Um, did I mention that this process results in a concentrate which must be diluted? No? Well, now I have.)
Every article I’ve ever read on this emphasizes the importance of fresh-ground coffee, so I may have to try this again, and find an actual recipe to get the proportions right.
vegetable steamer on an inverted drinking glass used to filter cold brew coffee
