Easy Cold Brew Coffee ***Updated***

Summer is just around the corner even if winter doesn't want to leave. Hard to believe that central MN got pounded with several inches of heavy wet snow on the 23rd of April. That said I'm posting a summer drink that is easy to make, but does take a little planning ahead of time. Also it's a lot cheaper to make than buying it a coffee shop. Like the title indicates I'm talking about cold brew coffee.

Well it's been 48 hours since my first attempt at making cold brew coffee. As was noted in a Google plus post my first attempt was more or less coffee paste over any actual cold brewed coffee. The main reason for that was the proportion in the recipe I initially used had the ratio of coffee grounds to water too high. For my second attempt I went to the internet and found a site that had a easy recipe for making cold brew coffee.
After a quick read through of the recipe I decided to give it shot.

Cold Brew Coffee:

1-3/4 Cup of ground coffee of choice (Used a medium bodied roast for this attempt)
3-1/2 Cup of water (Used cold filtered water)

(yields ~ 2 cups of coffee concentrate) 


Mixed all ingredients into a 2-quart container then cover with plastic wrap or container's cover. I used a old juice container that I had cleaned out. Let sit for minimum of 12 hours and maximum of 24 hours.

Once the brewing time is up, now comes the fun part filtering the brewed coffee from the grounds. For this I used a coffee filter and a single serve coffee maker (that black thing above the clear coffee mug).

I included a short video showing a part of the filtering process.

As an aside I ended up using 3 #2 Melitta paper filters during the filtering process. I generally use Melitta papers filters because they tend to brew better coffee than the standard cheap coffee filters. Again this is personal preference. Also I was a bit on the anxious side finishing up this batch so I ended up squeezing the filters to get out all the brewed coffee I could. That was a bit of a mistake. On the site, I noted above, they don't recommend doing that and I'll concur since it made the brew a lot more bitter than I was hoping / expecting. 

Once I had filtered the cold brew coffee I ran it through one additional filter before I put it in my storage container for refrigerating. If you were wondering that stacked mess below in the picture luckily didn't fall over when I was pouring.

Cooling should take a minimum of 2 hours in the refrigerator. In winter up in ND it will probably take 20-30 minutes outside. 

Once cooled enjoy with ice, sugar / coffee syrup and equal parts half-half, water or milk. 

I've started another batch this evening and will try to alleviate my mistakes noted from above and will report back with another post or amending this post with a update. Also I'm going to try and find a cheap french press coffee maker and try using it to see if it makes the filtering process a little easier.

Let me know how your batches turn out with a comment below and any suggestions your tips and tricks you have when making the cold brew coffee. Also let me know what kind of roast you used ie (light or dark roast).

Best Regards,

Dan

Reference Site: http://www.chow.com/recipes/30487-basic-cold-brewed-coffee

***Update***
After trying for a third time I was able to take the bitterness out of the cold brew coffee by not squeezing out the coffee filter. Sorry no pictures.