How to Brew Your Own Cold Brew
A perfectly brewed cup of coffee is a magical thing. Our #brewitright blog series takes the mystery out of the process with tips and tricks for making coffee magic. This time, how to BYOCB—that’s brew your own cold brew—for your business. You may have heard that we have put our cold brew program on hold for the time being, to do more R&D. While you’re waiting for us to get up and running again, we encourage you to give this recipe a try!
What makes cold brew different than iced coffee is the temperature of the water used during the brewing process. While iced coffee is brewed with hot water (like regular coffee) and then cooled over ice, true cold brew coffee is brewed with room-temperature or even cold water. Our Coffee Quality Manager Stamatis Papadopoulos walks us through the process, step by step.
Salt Spring Coffee Cold Brew
Makes 9.5 L (2.5 gallons), or 40–50 servings
Ingredients
- 2.25 kg (5 lb) of our classic Peru coffee, medium coarse grind
- 19.5 L (~5 gallons) of cool water
Equipment
Our coffee team recommends investing in an all-in-one brewing package like the Commercial Toddy Cold Brew System, which includes:
- A 22-quart brewing container
- A no-drip faucet
- A reusable strainer
- 20 one-time-use filters (additional filters are available in packs of 50)
Directions
- Insert one filter into the strainer, then place the strainer and filter into the brewing container with the open end facing upwards.
- Place the ground coffee in the filter.
- Pour approximately 6.5 L of cool water into the open filter, making sure to saturate all of the coffee grounds.
- Use the attached string to tie the filter bag closed approximately 3 inches from the top, leaving plenty of room for the coffee to move around. Tying the bag too tight will result in dry pockets in the grounds and produce a very weak coffee concentrate.
- Add an additional 13 L of cool water to the brewing container. At this point, you can choose to gently massage the grounds through the strainer to ensure saturation.
- Cover the brewing container with the lid and let the coffee brew for between 8 and 16 hours in the refrigerator.
- Drain the cold brew into a suitable storage container (a glass carboy or Cambro works well). If grounds block the faucet, gently clear them. Cold brew can be stored, covered, in the refrigerator for up to one week—but fresh is best!
- Use the strainer to carefully lift the grounds and filter from the brewing container. (Note: The filter is fragile when wet and subject to tearing.) Compost the filter and grounds. Rinse the strainer and let it air dry until next time.
Cold brew cocktail hour
Once you’ve mastered your cold brew technique, why not try your hand at a cold brew cocktail, like a Spiked Dirty Iced Chai or a Cold Brew Mule?
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