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I've heard cold brew can be more forgiving for whatever reason, as I've read a few examples of people making decent iced coffee with cheaper beans. Either way I'm gonna keep playing around with it. I don't expect it to taste as good as my morning coffee, just looking for something a little better than what I've got and still make it affordable.
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Aug 14, 2012 03:29
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dema posted:Not an accurate way to measure coffee grounds. Right, so how much by weight/volume should I use for coldbrew then? For the record I like my coffee a tad on the stronger side. I use about ~15 g of grinds for about a mug of coffee. Dunno how big the mug is cause I've never bothered to measure it, but all of our coffee mugs in this flat are around the same size.
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Aug 14, 2012 08:41
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nosleep posted:I'm also using cheap Eight O'clock coffee cause there's no way I'm using basically a whole bag of delicious fresh roasted 15-20 dollar coffee for one batch of cold brew. My steep time has been 24 hours in the fridge. I've gotten drinkable results from Folgers even, in a pinch (way more drinkable than any other preparation of it at least). However I usually only steep for 12 hours in the fridge. Maybe try a particularly small batch- like a single cup's worth, with your nicer coffee to see if it makes a difference? You may just dislike how those beans come out with cold brew. As far as ratios go I mostly eyeball it, and mostly just dilute it according to how 'strong' it is. I've been making something at around 1:6 - 1:8 ratio but dilute it very little- treating it less as a concentrate and more as just regular coffee, but I also blend it with some milk or half & half, maybe some ice, to make it a more frothy drink. I know I made it much nicer last year but I've lost my secrets to time. However the other people drinking it drink a great deal more coffee than I, and I don't really want to try too hard when they have no complaints and I get so little of it.
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Aug 14, 2012 09:02
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Boris Galerkin posted:Right, so how much by weight/volume should I use for coldbrew then? For the record I like my coffee a tad on the stronger side. I use about ~15 g of grinds for about a mug of coffee. Dunno how big the mug is cause I've never bothered to measure it, but all of our coffee mugs in this flat are around the same size. The 1:3 by volume rule for cold brewing works just fine in my opinion, like said before, it's a very forgiving method. The tricks I've found to give the best results, is to grind the beans quite fine (couple of steps finer than filter). Combine water and coffee, let it sit for 10 minutes or so and then stir it once more, then leave it for 24 hours in room temperature.
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Aug 14, 2012 11:46
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Ok, I just mixed up some cold brew using that 3:1 ratio. Holy hell is that a lot of coffee grinds. I set it up in a jar so I should close it so that it's air tight and then leave it sitting in my kitchen outside the fridge right? It's going to be a hot weekend so I can't wait. It seems like its a lot of coffee to the water I used though, so when I filter this I'm guessing I need to mix it again with water too? Also, what was the point of letting it set for 10 minutes before mixing? I'm also confused why French press instructions tell me to wait 1 minute after I pour in the water before storing too.
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Aug 15, 2012 20:36
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A pretty foolproof method for cold brew is 100g of coffee, 200ml of brewing temperature water (say, 202f) and 800ml of very cold water. Heat the 200ml, dump in the coffee and stir it in, let it sit for about 45-60 seconds and then dump in the 800ml. Room temp for 12 hours and tadaa. No dillution, tastes outstanding and its a pretty simple ratio. Easy to make larger amounts thanks to metric measurement (and everyone has measuring cups with ml on it, and its helpful to have 1/2 gallon ball jars and those all have ml marks as well).
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Aug 15, 2012 21:17
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Except that defeats a huge purpose of cold brewing which is the mild acidity caused by not extracting at temp. Just brew a pot of coffee and put it in the fridge at that point (which I often also do).
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Aug 16, 2012 04:38
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It's been about 12 hours sitting in my kitchen out of of sun, and I looked and it looks like all of the coffee grounds are concentrated at the bottom. I plan to give it another 12–20 hours, should I be stirring it periodically, or just let it be?
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Aug 16, 2012 09:06
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lags posted:Except that defeats a huge purpose of cold brewing which is the mild acidity caused by not extracting at temp. Just brew a pot of coffee and put it in the fridge at that point (which I often also do). Well, that's one way of looking at it, especially if you buy into Toddy marketing. I make cold brew because I like delicious iced coffee. There are a number of ways to accomplish this (toddy concentrate, hot bloom cold brew, brewing over ice, etc.), and all of them have their pluses and minuses in terms of the sort of flavour you get. Sticking a jug of regular brewed coffee in the fridge to cool down is somewhere at the bottom of the list, slightly above mixing some instant coffee crystals with ice water.
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Aug 16, 2012 09:06
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Boris Galerkin posted:It's been about 12 hours sitting in my kitchen out of of sun, and I looked and it looks like all of the coffee grounds are concentrated at the bottom. I plan to give it another 12–20 hours, should I be stirring it periodically, or just let it be? I usually shake around the container lightly a few times during the brewing, but it's nothing to worry too much about. The point of stirring after waiting for a bit, is because usually a bunch of grounds will rise to the surface, you want to get them mixed properly with the water too.
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Aug 16, 2012 09:58
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Bob_McBob posted:Well, that's one way of looking at it, especially if you buy into Toddy marketing. I make cold brew because I like delicious iced coffee. There are a number of ways to accomplish this (toddy concentrate, hot bloom cold brew, brewing over ice, etc.), and all of them have their pluses and minuses in terms of the sort of flavour you get. Sticking a jug of regular brewed coffee in the fridge to cool down is somewhere at the bottom of the list, slightly above mixing some instant coffee crystals with ice water. I'd never heard of "Toddy" before until just now - I'm honestly not sure where I got the assertion that cold brew makes a less acidic, but years of alt.coffee and subsequent message boards (after the NG turned to poo poo) and various industry literature has muddied my brain waters with more coffee information than anyone needs, so it was in there somewhere. Is it 100% true? I thought so, but I wouldn't go to the mat over it. Iced coffee for me gets milk/cream and simple syrup, (and often plenty of irish cream or kahlua or rum) so that, combined with the cold temp obscures flavour nuances that whichever brew technique may develop anyway, so I don't see much reason to get very persnickety over how I make it. Typically, all summer long, I keep a pitcher in the fridge that I dump leftover coffee from whatever brew method I use that morning, be it drip, chemex, or french press. I empty it & start over more or less weekly. That gets mixed with cream & simple syrup since it's already dilute coffee. Occasionally, as my roasted beans begin to stale, before I make a new batch, I'll take what's left to make a cold brew concentrate and keep that in the fridge. This gets milk to dilute and a titch of simple syrup, since, I agree it tastes significantly better. It's also what I'll use to make coffee iced cream. All that was a long road to tell you that I promise you, sir, they are all delicious, and none of my methods remotely approach the end of the spectrum containing instant. Good day! 
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Aug 16, 2012 20:16
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lags posted:Except that defeats a huge purpose of cold brewing which is the mild acidity caused by not extracting at temp. Just brew a pot of coffee and put it in the fridge at that point (which I often also do). Nope. You still get essentially the same acidity, but you get a whole lot more of subtle aromatics and flavors that cold brewed coffee otherwise cannot have. Initial hot and very quick drop to room temperature extracts everything that hot brewing can extract, and then the volatility is reduced down to cold-brew level and you get all the advantages of pulling out the heavier volatiles and keeping them in solution. Putting hot brewed coffee into the fridge is very, very far from the same thing.
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Aug 16, 2012 22:15
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Cold brew is the most bomb proof of all coffee preparation methods. Did you let it go 5 hours too long? No problem. Grind it a little too fine? It will be fine. I make mine ~4:1 by volume (seriously, the ratio itself is bordering on "eyeball it" territory), french-press grind, and usually with whatever coffee I'm trying to use up. Most recently I did it with some month-old medium roast beans from Trader Joe's that I wanted to blast through. It was still super delicious. Sometimes I cut it with a little milk, sometimes I just take it over ice. I drink it with a nice big king cube in a tumblr, which caused my friend who arrived in the middle of breakfast to assume that I had just gulped down some whiskey. 
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Aug 16, 2012 22:57
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marmot25 posted:Cold brew is the most bomb proof of all coffee preparation methods. Did you let it go 5 hours too long? No problem. Grind it a little too fine? It will be fine. Oh drat, I completely forgot about my cold brew today. Well, I won't get a chance to mess with it tomorrow, so it'll have been roughly 36 hours. Is there a point where the coffee starts going bad? I made the mistake of leaving a french press brewing for too long (got a phone call and forgot about it) and that tasted terrible.
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Aug 17, 2012 00:19
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marmot25 posted:Cold brew is the most bomb proof of all coffee preparation methods. Did you let it go 5 hours too long? No problem. Grind it a little too fine? It will be fine. Seriously, it's really forgiving. It's the only brew method that I don't measure my beans by weight. I just throw a bunch of beans into my grinder. Measure what came out with a measuring cup and then triple that in water and it's awesome.
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Aug 17, 2012 13:38
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Coffee is the New Wine Lets take all the worst parts of wine snobbery and apply them to COFFEE. Basically this article made me feel like a douchebag.
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Aug 17, 2012 17:42
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Copernic posted:Coffee is the New Wine It doesn't seem bad to me. Pretty straightforward.
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Aug 17, 2012 19:44
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That's because you are the douchebag.
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Aug 17, 2012 21:16
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Copernic posted:Coffee is the New Wine Seriously, if you want to get into the "douchebag" side of coffee, go read the book God In A Cup. It's a great book and will make you feel like a magnificent rear end in a top hat while reading. And try and at least go to a cupping run by Counter Culture. They're really great at teaching people how to appreciate the subtleties of coffee; the roastery is almost second to their passion.
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Aug 18, 2012 03:10
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Welcome to 10 years ago: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Wave_Coffee
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Aug 18, 2012 03:33
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My coldbrew tasted terrible. I couldn't mix it right with water without it tasting too watery, and I should have known better than to drink all of the concentrate in a span of like 30 minutes since it didn't seem like it was anything.
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Aug 18, 2012 09:18
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I bought a japanese hand grinder on impulse while I was in columbus. I'm so excited. 
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Aug 18, 2012 20:41
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Anyone have a decent recipe for iced coffee by weight? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but like others have said, I'm getting an awful aftertaste and it comes out terribly bitter. Nothing like the Stumptown coldbrew I'm drinking as I write this. I've tried different grinds, different coffees (all very high quality and make amazing hot coffee), and even filtered my water, but it always tastes like rear end. Any ideas?
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Aug 18, 2012 21:54
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mattdev posted:Anyone have a decent recipe for iced coffee by weight? I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong, but like others have said, I'm getting an awful aftertaste and it comes out terribly bitter. Nothing like the Stumptown coldbrew I'm drinking as I write this. This may be obvious so forgive me if you've considered this, but you haven't mentioned how long you let the coffee brew for?. I know I always let my cold brew go for at least 24h in my fridge. I've used some medium roasted beans from Tanzania so far, and they've produced a strong flavored concentrate with subtle nuances. I can get you my exact ounce measurements but I DO use/have one of those filtron units (it seems overkill since you can DIY cold brew pretty easily, but I do like my glorified filter caddy with convenient holes). Off the top of my head I used 12oz of coffee and like maybe 24oz water by weight. I know it is less than 1L. At this concentration I typically dilute it with 1:2-1:4 concentrate:chosen liquid depending on my mood
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Aug 21, 2012 17:21
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Hi coffee goons. I had a 4 cup Mr. Coffee drip coffeemaker and just broke my second carafe. It's eight years old and while the machine works, it's heavily stained (white) and replacement carafes cost drat near what I payed for the thing to begin with. So I'm looking to buy something small since I'm the only one in the house who drinks coffee, and we already have a 12-cup drip machine that only gets trotted out when company comes over. I'm weighing my options between getting another drip machine or going with a French press. I've heard that a French press can make a more flavorful cup of coffee but this is going to be something I only use in the morning when groggy and stupid. Are they much more of a hassle to use than a drip machine? How about cleanup? And does anyone have any experience or opinions on electric French presses? It seems like there aren't many options for 4-5 cup drip coffeemakers out there. If I do go that route, I'm tempted to get something with a metal carafe just because I've had to clean glass out of the sink twice in the past few months and something sturdy sounds nice right about now. Also, I have an unreasonable hard-on for Bunn coffeemakers. Not based on the quality of the coffee but on the look of the things. There's this sort of vaguely cold, weary, malevolent aspect to them, not unlike waitresses in the diners in which they're found. Basically anything that looks metallic and like it wouldn't give a poo poo if pressing its button killed you or your family makes me 
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Aug 22, 2012 02:57
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Quiet Feet posted:. I'm weighing my options between getting another drip machine or going with a French press. I've heard that a French press can make a more flavorful cup of coffee but this is going to be something I only use in the morning when groggy and stupid. Are they much more of a hassle to use than a drip machine? How about cleanup? I recently bought a french press. They're easy to use and cleanup is basically 'rinse in sink'. Maybe 'empty out in trash' first. You don't even have to deal with filters. (I say this but using a Clever Coffee Dripper is also just as easy but cleanup is way easier BECAUSE you use a filter. It also has the benefit of not getting grounds in the cup.) If you're grinding your own coffee I'd say do it no questions asked, as it doesn't take a fine grind or anything so it's pretty simple to do even while half-asleep. If you're using pre-ground... I don't know. If you do go the route of a drip machine, anything with a metal/vacuum carafe is going to be miles better than a glass/whatever that sits on a burner.
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Aug 22, 2012 03:08
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lags posted:Just brew a pot of coffee and put it in the fridge at that point (which I often also do). I've always thought of this as a decent way to get some cold coffee. On a really hot day, I've been known to just brew a hot cup and then pour it on ice. However, my trip down the coffee rabbit hole has only just began. Thanks to this thread I recently put my metal filter coffee machine in storage and set up a decent hand drip kit. Next purchase will be a scale.
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Aug 22, 2012 11:20
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Whalley posted:You're ten years behind the industry if you are just hearing about this sort of thing for the first time. Counter Culture has been devoted for a long-rear end time to educating people on how complex coffee is; the SCAA has been printing coffee cupping "experience wheels" for years and there are international competitions for many aspects of coffee, not just being an espresso-slinging barista, because coffee's full of incredibly complex flavors. Huh, I hadn't realized Counter Culture was focusing that much on the education. I drink it because it's the only decent, semi-locally roasted stuff I can find in southern Louisiana. But at my favorite coffee house when I'm in the Bay Area, Red Rock Coffee on Castro in Mountain View, they do these Saturday 'tasting classes' where you can watch people slurp coffee out of a spoon. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered doing it.
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Aug 22, 2012 15:49
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Quiet Feet posted:Hi coffee goons. Please read the OP. (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 22, 2012 18:06
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GrAviTy84 posted:Please read the OP. Okay, I read it for the third time now. It still doesn't have any opinions on smaller drip machines or tell me if French presses are any more annoying to clean, though Comic has already been helpful with that. Honestly I appreciate the effort that went into it and it did answer some other questions I had (discarded the idea of getting a moka pot, for instance), but it's not like every single thing I'm asking about was in there.
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Aug 22, 2012 22:35
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Quiet Feet posted:Okay, I read it for the third time now. It still doesn't have any opinions on smaller drip machines or tell me if French presses are any more annoying to clean, though Comic has already been helpful with that. I find my French press to be very annoying to clean. I live in a house with terrible, old pipes, and I really can't afford to let anything solid go down the drain. I have a strainer over the drain, but the coffee grounds slip in around the sides. I usually take my French press outside to rinse it off with the hose. Seriously.
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Aug 22, 2012 23:01
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I found pour over to be much easier to deal with. Just toss the filter and give the cone a quick rinse.
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Aug 22, 2012 23:08
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Quiet Feet posted:Honestly I appreciate the effort that went into it and it did answer some other questions I had (discarded the idea of getting a moka pot, for instance), but it's not like every single thing I'm asking about was in there. For more recommendation, both a CCD and a french press really require you to have something to make hot water with, so if you're considering price and don't already have an electric (or standard) kettle then keep that in mind. CCDs and french presses aren't too expensive though. The main problem I have with french press is that you do get grinds in your cup- it really only means don't drink the last of your coffee really, but if that's a dealbreaker I would say get a CCD instead. I've had one of those for even longer, and enjoy it a lot. It has a cup more similar to the drip machine (as you're using filters) and the most complex it gets to use is just knowing how to add the hot water in (there are plenty of usage tutorial videos on the internet if not their site). I've even started using my CCD as a general filter as well when making coldbrew or french press for other people. Being able to set it on a cup or container and easily pick it up when the cup/container is full makes it a great thing to use to filter out the more fine grinds that a strainer wouldn't catch. With a lid I even don't feel bad about walking away and letting it drain. I only use it combined with a french press for people with which the grinds are a deal breaker and I also didn't want to bother making two different batches of coffee.
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Aug 22, 2012 23:10
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Florida Betty posted:I find my French press to be very annoying to clean. I live in a house with terrible, old pipes, and I really can't afford to let anything solid go down the drain. I have a strainer over the drain, but the coffee grounds slip in around the sides. I usually take my French press outside to rinse it off with the hose. Seriously. Just use a handheld strainer:  Fill the used press with water, swirl the grounds around, and pour the water out through the strainer. The press gets clean, and all the grounds are collected in the strainer, which you can tap out over the trash. It seriously takes like 10 seconds.
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Aug 23, 2012 04:23
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dema posted:I found pour over to be much easier to deal with. Just toss the filter and give the cone a quick rinse. This. i've abandoned a drip machine all together and only really use my press if it's something special.
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Aug 23, 2012 05:59
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I'm almost done with my first sampler of green coffee from Sweet Maria's. I'm glad I got to taste the different kinds of coffee, but I was let down in how much I didn't really like the Indian or Ethiopian coffees. That said, I really enjoy Brazilian (and Nicaraguan) beans as I've had them from several different local roasters and they're all awesome. Anyone have experience with Sweet Maria's current offering of Brazilian coffee?: http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.southamr.brazil.php#3412 Thinking of getting either a 2lb or 5lb.
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Aug 23, 2012 17:06
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Doh004 posted:I'm almost done with my first sampler of green coffee from Sweet Maria's. I'm glad I got to taste the different kinds of coffee, but I was let down in how much I didn't really like the Indian or Ethiopian coffees. That said, I really enjoy Brazilian (and Nicaraguan) beans as I've had them from several different local roasters and they're all awesome. I haven't had that specific one, but I got a Brazilian fair trade organic from them in my last sampler and it's quite good. What Ethiopian did you get? I haven't had theirs yet, but I typically like Ethiopian coffees.
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Aug 23, 2012 19:30
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rockcity posted:I haven't had that specific one, but I got a Brazilian fair trade organic from them in my last sampler and it's quite good. What Ethiopian did you get? I haven't had theirs yet, but I typically like Ethiopian coffees. If I remember correctly, it was the Ethiopia Illubador Camp. http://www.sweetmarias.com/coffee.africa.ethiopia.php?source=side#3433 I dunno, it tasted just really flat and muddled. Not sure why though. Roasted it to around FC+. Didn't taste burnt or anything.
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Aug 23, 2012 20:01
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Comic posted:For more recommendation, both a CCD and a french press really require you to have something to make hot water with, so if you're considering price and don't already have an electric (or standard) kettle then keep that in mind. CCDs and french presses aren't too expensive though. Hmmm. Yeah, not seeing anything that's a deal breaker. We have a kettle and my wife makes tea every morning so hot water isn't an issue, and I usually toss out the last ounce in a mug anyway since it's always cold. Screw it. I have a Bed Bath and Beyond gift card burning a hole in my wallet and I'm already sick of instant coffee. I think I'm going to spring for one of the 4-cup Bodum presses in the OP and see how it goes. Having lived on nothing but drip coffee I'm sort of curious now too. Thanks Comic and everyone else! 
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Aug 23, 2012 22:07
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rockcity posted:Something about a nice clean stainless steel percolator just doesn't sit right with me. I think it's largely because I associate percolators with my cabin where we've been using the same percolator since my dad built the cabin 25 years ago. It's old, it looks old and that's part of the charm to it. I think I'd feel weird about using a nice new one. I'd almost want to beat it to and scratch it to poo poo first to try to make it feel right. Yeah, that's sort of the point though, my aluminum one feels like camping, not like home. Also, if I use it every day it won't last. I went with the Farberware steel one: http://www.amazon.com/Farberware-50124-Yosemite-Stainless-Percolator/dp/B00005NCWQ/ VERY happy with the purchase. I was on an espresso-only kick for a while, and the GF was only making French Press for herself, so perk coffee is the perfect compromise: we both love the coffee it makes. Very rich, very strong, but still drinks like coffee. We've been using Starbucks french roast ground to "percolator grind". Good poo poo, would recommend it! They do sell round paper filters with a hole in the middle for use in percolator baskets, but that seems entirely unnecessary to me. You get some grinds in the brew, but they settle to the bottom. Besides, let's face it, perk coffee is a step up from cowboy coffee, anyway... if I have to leave a little in the bottom of my cup, no big whoop.
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Aug 24, 2012 22:45
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