Cold Brew Guide
Cold brew,
properly.
No heat, no rush. Coarse grind, cold water and time do the work, and you end up with something sweeter and rounder than iced coffee.
Shop Beans Cold Brew GearRoasted in Melbourne · Ground to order
Cold brew is not iced coffee.
Iced coffee is brewed hot and then chilled. Cold brew never sees heat at all, and that changes what comes out. Hot water pulls the sharp, bright acids out of coffee quickly. Cold water largely leaves them behind, so what you taste is the sweet, heavy end of the bean. Rounder, softer, a bit like chocolate milk before you add anything to it.
| Method | Ratio | Time | Grind | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cold brew concentrate | 1:8 | 12 to 18 hours | Coarse | The practical one. Make a batch on Sunday, dilute it through the week with water, milk or over ice. |
| Cold brew, ready to drink | 1:15 | 14 to 18 hours | Coarse | No dilution needed. Takes up more fridge space for the same number of cups. |
| Cold drip | 1:10 | 3 to 4 hours | Medium coarse | Water drips through slowly rather than sitting in it. Cleaner and more tea-like, and you can watch it happen. |
| Flash chilled | 1:15 | 3 minutes | Medium | Brewed hot straight onto ice. Keeps the brightness a cold brew loses, and it is ready now. |
One litre of concentrate
This is the one to learn. It gives you roughly two litres of finished coffee once diluted, which is a week of mornings for most people.
Serving it
Start at one part concentrate to one part water or milk, over ice. If it tastes thin, use less water next time. If it is heavy and syrupy, use more. There is no correct number, only the one you like.
Concentrate also makes a very good base for an iced latte, an affogato, or a coffee tonic with tonic water and a slice of orange.
On caffeine
Undiluted concentrate is strong. It is brewed at roughly twice the strength of a normal cup, so treat a mug of neat concentrate accordingly. Diluted 1:1, it lands in the same territory as a regular coffee.
What to brew it with
Cold brew flattens acidity and rewards sweetness, so it pulls different things out of a bean than espresso does. Two directions work well, and they taste nothing alike.
Chocolate and nut
The classic cold brew profile. Deep, sweet, drinks beautifully with milk. Try Espresso Supreme, Beanery Special or Brazil Ipanema.
Fruit and florals
Lighter roasts turn into something closer to iced tea. Clean, juicy, best drunk black. Try Ethiopian Guji Hambela, Kenya AA or Colombian Organic Excelso.
Buying it ground
Choose the Plunger grind at checkout. It is the coarsest we offer and it is the right side of the line for cold brew. A dedicated cold brew grind is on its way.
Fixing a batch
Cold brew has fewer variables than espresso, so there are only a handful of things it can be.
| What you get | Usually because | Next batch |
|---|---|---|
| Weak and watery | Not enough coffee, dry pockets, or you cut the steep short. | Weigh the coffee rather than scooping it. Stir properly at the start. Give it the full sixteen hours. |
| Harsh and bitter | Grind too fine, steeped too long, or you squeezed the grounds. | Go coarser and stop at twelve hours. Let it drain under its own weight, do not press it. |
| Sour or savoury | Beans past their best, or a very light roast pushed too far. | Check the roast date. Coffee is at its best from about 7 to 28 days after roasting. |
| Cloudy and gritty | Fines got through the strainer. | Strain a second time through a paper filter. Let it settle in the fridge and decant off the top. |
| Flat and dull | Too much dilution, or the batch is more than a week old. | Ease off the water. Make smaller batches more often rather than one big one. |
| Goes cloudy when chilled | Normal. Oils and solids drop out of solution in the cold. | Nothing to fix. Give the bottle a gentle swirl before pouring. |
The slow one
If steeping feels too much like waiting, cold drip gives you something to watch. Cold water drips through the bed a drop at a time rather than sitting in it, and the result is lighter and cleaner than immersion cold brew.
Grind medium coarse, a little finer than you would for immersion, because the contact time is hours rather than overnight. Aim for roughly one drop per second. Too fast and it is thin, too slow and it turns woody.
A 600ml batch takes about three to four hours. It is worth resting the finished coffee in the fridge overnight before you drink it, as it settles and sweetens noticeably.
Bruer Cold Brew SystemFlash chilled, for right now
No time to wait? Brew a pour over or plunger as normal, but replace about 40 per cent of the brew water with ice in the vessel underneath. The coffee lands hot on the ice and chills instantly, which locks in the aromatics a cold brew never extracts.
It is the better method for a bright single origin, and it takes three minutes. Our brew calculator will do the numbers.
Fresh beans make
better cold brew.
We roast in Melbourne and grind to order. Pick a bag, choose the Plunger grind, and you are sixteen hours away.
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