How-To Cold Brew

ARTICLE

How-To Cold Brew

by Paydn Augustine

Summertime is finally starting to show itself here along the stormy Wasatch Front, and it’s starting to get warm enough after the eons-long winter to begin considering a more indulgent cold cup over the typical hot latte or classic black with no cream. I for one am a rather big proponent of the cool afternoon caffeine kick, and there’s not been anything better than a Cold Brew Classic to smooth out those hot summer days out on the patio. But Daily Rise has a special present for the start of summer, and June brings in our long-awaited Cold Brew Blend as the Bean of the Month for its bagged-bean-birthday release! In honor of the occasion I’m here to tell you all about how to start cold-brewing your own bag of our special blend, and I’ll throw in a couple more points about dressing it up and some more creative methods to try out.

First things first, let’s talk Cold Brew vs. Iced Coffee; The latter is a much more common occurrence when you’re out and about ordering from wherever it may be as it’s frankly a much easier method in general: Brew coffee as normal, chill briefly, then serve with ice cubes. While the method can’t be faulted in terms of efficiency and general ease, it’s not going to give you the same level of flavor depth and distinction, nor caffeine kick, that a proper cold brew will provide, the primary reason being that you’re just straight up using way more coffee than you would in a normal brew method. At the end of it all though, the Cold Brew process is really pretty simple: Just steep coffee grounds in water, refrigerate overnight, and filter. Need that codified into bolded steps to make life more particular? I got you fam, Let’s make a Cold Brew!

There’s no end to all the fancy options you’ll find out there that you can use to make your cold brew as particular as your daily hot coffee, but today I think it’s best to keep it as simple as possible using a formula that anyone can follow and tweak at home. For me, the list goes as follows:

1: Gathering your mats

• • • 1 Glass mason jar - I ended up using two, each jar makes about 2 servings!

    • 80g of coffee, coarse grind - I’m using the 11 on my Fellow Ode. No worries if you don’t have a scale… Read step 2.

    • 640g of room temp water

    • A refrigerator

    • Chemex w/ paper filters

    • Appropriate summertime glassware for serving

2: Start the steep - 1:8 Coffee to Water, refrigerate overnight

The combination we are running here is simple enough for those without a scale, just use 1 part coffee and 8 parts water. This is a fairly common ratio and, you’ll notice, much more potent than a typical pour-over ratio at something around 1:12 - 1:15 coffee:water. This is also the part where you’ll start to tweak things around based on what your preferences are: Needing a stronger blend? Add more grounds! A bit too heavy and want more out of the servings? Add some more water! The only catch here is that it’ll take a little bit of time, so plan ahead. Cold Brewing with this steeping method with take a usual minimum of around 12 hours, but I’ll just be throwing mine into the fridge overnight.

3: Filter, like coffee

The first thing I remember is David Bowie’s Changes blasting on through the dark abyssal haze of my sleep. As I listen to the tune, the words of my favorite rockstar tell me to Turn and face the strange Ch-Ch-Changes–carried on the wind by a fuzzy FM band of the local alt radio station transmitting from Farnsworth Peak–and I’m reminded of the strange changes that must’ve taken place in the refrigerator over the slumbering silence. Typically when it gets to this point I’m not all that excited to start my day, but It’s Friday today and the AC went out last night, with windows offering no respite to the early summer’s teasing temperatures. Pulling the cool brown jars out of the fridge is like a Christmas in June, and the promise of cool caffeinated release is just beyond the lid, but I’ve still got to unwrap the present and that’s where you come in.

Fltering the coffee is just the same as you would any other time you’re making a classic cup in the AM, and you can get as wild as your heart desires here so long as it filters similarly to a Chemex, which is what I’m using. Hell, you could even toss a French press in the fridge overnight with grounds to steep and press it out in the morning if you don’t mind a heavy level of soot in your chilly cup. For me, I prefer a clean drink, and I think the Chemex does a slightly dbetter job than the V60 in terms of allowing me to be a tad bit lazy, running around the house getting half dressed then hopping back, pulling on a shoe to pour in the rest of the jar’s contents. Once it’s done, let’s set it up in a glass, preferably with ice cubes, and watch the morning thunderstorm roll in across the Ogden mountainscape. Cheers to you, and your first homemade Daily Rise Cold Brew!

Experiment and personalize!

Now that you’ve gone in and made your brew, it’s up to you how you want to serve it. Get creative! I’m usually one to cut straight to the chase and drink my cold brew black on the rocks, but for my second glass, I’m adding a splash of milk and a bit of flavor borrowed from a friend's latte line-up. No matter what you go with, you really can’t go wrong. A proper cold brew is going to run deep with a full-bodied, rich, and sweet flavor profile that will completely outshine any iced coffee you’ll try. You could really double down on the cold-brew efficiency if you want to max the flavor out and make one cold brew, freeze it into ice cubes, then brew up another batch while the cubes freeze; an award-winning presentation that’d be sure to make any of your summer guests giddy with excitement and a hefty dose of caffeine.

Another cool part of cold brew is that you don’t explicitly need a refrigerator to enjoy an ice-cold coffee. If you’re wanting to make a fresh brew out at camp, just pack out the jar of grounds in your cooler under the ice, and use an Aeropress to filter the water when you’re ready to relax with a cool pick-me-up under the sunny summer skies.

Let us know how you’re brewing your Daily Rise Cold Brew and tag us @dailyrisecoffee in your stories!