Homemade Cold Brew Coffee

Homemade cold brew coffee is essentially just how it sounds: it is coffee…that is cold…made at home.  Um, yes!

Coffee culture has evolved drastically over the years. A cup of coffee is no longer just a cup of coffee.

It’s an experience.

With these ever evolving trends it can be hard to keep up. If you are wanting a cold coffee there are 3 options available:

• Iced coffee: made using traditional coffee making methods. Hot water is used to extract the oils, sugars, and caffeine from the beans then poured over ice. This is definitely the way to go if you need a cold coffee NOW. However, the quick results come at cost. It’s typically less preferred by the coffee connoisseurs as the coffee is diluted in the process. It is also more bitter and more acidic than it’s counterparts.

• Cold brew: coffee beans/grounds are seeped for a prolonged period in room temperature or cold water. This process is much more time consuming than the iced coffee method but the results are superior. Just make sure you have plenty of coffee beans. Cold brew requires about twice the amount of coffee beans than hot brewed coffee. This is why those cold brews are more expensive. However, I don’t like my coffee overly strong, so twice the coffee beans may be a bit aggressive in my book.

• Nitro brew: cold brew coffee that has been infused with nitrogen to produce an ULTRA smooth product with a foamy top. Kinda like beer. Coffee in a keg.

Why cold brew coffee?

I love my morning coffee.

It’s an essential start to my day.

However, as the heat of a Missouri summer looms closer, I find myself gravitating more toward cold beverages than hot.

Lucky for me cold coffee is now a thing and I can easily enjoy it in the comfort of my own home and for just a fraction of the cost.

Beyond the obvious answer that sometimes we just want to drink a cold beverage, there are additional reasons that cold brew is the preferred choice for many.

Cold brew coffee has less acidity than hot coffee with estimates coming in around 60+ percent less acidic.

This decrease in acidity also means a decrease in bitterness and a smoother textured beverage.

Cold brew coffee tends to have more stability than hot coffee. Ever tried to heat up that day old hot brewed coffee? Not great, right? Well, cold brew’s taste holds true for days, if not weeks, so you can make a huge batch and slowly enjoy it.

How to make homemade cold brew coffee

Making cold brew coffee is surprisingly simple.

Coffee grounds and water are added to a large container. Since the beans are steeped in room temperature or cold water, it takes much longer to extract the sugars, oil and caffeine from the beans. Recommendations vary on the soaking time for the beans, anywhere from 6 hours to 24 hours. I personally recommend at least 12 hours.

This mixture can then sit at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Since I can’t wait to drink it once it’s ready, I like to store it in the refrigerator so it’s nice and cold.

The grounds are then filtered out using a coffee filter in a fine mesh sieve set over a large serving container.

Strain it in batches until you are left with a smooth, cold beverage that can be enjoyed on its own or used as the base of a specialty coffee. I used it with some of my homemade Sweet and Spicy Simple Syrup and a few other goodies to make a version of the homemade Sweet and Spicy Simple Syrup.

Enjoy!

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