50 beans | cold brew trials

I’m a nut for iced coffee. Instant, leftovers, even fresh brewed. Any kind of coffee tastes better poured over a cup full of ice. Depending on the methods available, I’ll pour espresso, drip, or even moka (from a bialetti) over a heap of perfectly stacked cubes. Next up…chemex filters :) The problem with all of these methods is…it’s freakin hot. I mean seriously, by the time the drink cools down in the ice, half my ice is gone and I’m left with some fairly watered down coffee. No bueno. But there really isn’t any other way to do it, unless I brewed coffee and left it out all day until it cooled.

Well…

Apparently there’s a form of coffee brewing (traditionally from new orleans) that involves cool tap water and coffee grounds in a mason jar. 12-24hrs later you filter it through a sieve and a chemex or cone filter to get rid of the silt and there you have it: cold brew.

I was skeptical at first. If this method was so great…why the heck hasn’t major coffee shops started doing this already?? The first time I brewed it…I had no clue what I was doing. All my housemates knew was that there was a very very brown jar sitting on the center island. I was lucky nobody got wise and tossed it. After filtering it a few times, I was ready to taste.

I slowly poured it over a large glass of ice and took a sip. Meh, no big deal. Yea it was pretty good, but nothing amazing about it. After downing the whole glass, I was essentially bouncing off the walls. I’ve never felt like this before from coffee, heck I’m the guy that drinks two iced quad-shots during audit and still fall asleep at night. Not this time. After doing a bit of reading online on cold brew, it finally dawned on me. That’s the method for making cold brew concentrate. This stuff is supposed to be mixed with equal parts water for the final product. Yikes…I just chugged a jar of the strong stuff.

Great.

Ok looks like I’m gonna have to give it another go, and let me tell ya, this stuff is awesome. There’s less acidity (supposedly close to 70% less acid than hot brewed coffee). Not really sure what the science is there, but I guess it has something to do with heat and beans creating more acid. No idea, but the mason jar seems to be working. Over the last 2 weeks, I’ve been experimenting with different beans to see what kind gives me the best coffee. I’ll probably post again when I’ve found it, but in the mean time…if you’re ever in the area, roll through and I’ll fix you up a cup.