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I’m constantly baffled by cold brew coffee seeming like a mysterious and arduously-obtained concoction. Stick ground coffee in some filter bags and put it in s

• ct0 4y ago
  Cold brew should be brewed at room temperature, then stored in the fridge. It's considered cold because it's not brewed at 190*f.
  • dangerlibrary 4y ago
    What are the consequences of brewing in the fridge vs. at room temperature?
    • goldenkey 4y ago
      Fungus and mold will likely appear if you brew anything with water at room temperature. Use the fridge - trust my experience. It may take a bit longer to brew at colder temperatures, due to decreased convection of the liquid, but it will taste much better, as it prevents bacterial and fungal growth.
      • hericium 4y ago
        I believe fungi aren't too fond of caffeine.
        • goldenkey 4y ago
          Perhaps, but I've cold brewed black tea enough times with moldy results to forewarn y'all.
        • yunohn 4y ago
          Mold (a fungus) has grown in my refrigerated cold brew enough times for this to be false. More here - https://kitchenappliancehq.com/can-cold-brew-coffee-mold/ https://kitchenappliancehq.com/can-cold-brew-coffee-mold/
          • traverseda 4y ago
            Huh... that hasn't been my experience. I notice that article uses a lot of affiliate links, are you sure it's not fear-mongering in order to sell it's special cold brew coffee maker? Not saying that mold is impossible, but I don't think the solutions is to buy their amazon affiliate coffee maker and special coffee butter. If you have mold issues after 24 hours of cold brewing I think you have some deeper issues at play. Consider getting mold tests for your house, sterilizing the tools/containers you use, and switching out your beans.
            • yunohn 4y ago
              I wasn’t endorsing the article, merely providing it as evidence of mold following my anecdote. I generally face it 3-4 days in, not 24 hours.
        • DontchaKnowit 4y ago
          As someone who has terrible kitchen cleaning habits- definitely not true lol. Wet coffee grounds will grow mold quicker than any other food product I've seen. Even a pot of coffee will get mold on the top within like a week.
          • foobiekr 4y ago
            I wonder if this is that the grounds, post use, are somewhat sterilized and vulnerable to rapid colonization.
            • goldenkey 4y ago
              I believe it has more about the lack of airflow and the compaction and moisture.
      • traverseda 4y ago
        I'm not a doctor or a biologist. But I do have a water cooler and have brewed both alcohol and cold brew in the past. There's no super special sterilization process for cold brew, we don't use sterilite on the spike that opens up the bottles, we don't store the water in an especially cool place, or otherwise take any special precautions. That water turns out fine, often for weeks at a time. Store the cold brew out of direct sunlight, don't leave the grounds in for a super long time, and you'll be fine. It's not like brewing alcohol, you're not adding a bunch of sugar to it or anything like that. The coffee grounds you're adding are shelf-stable, the water you're adding it to is shelf-stable, you're not introducing any real food for bacteria/fungus. Water will eventually go off if you leave it in direct sunlight (mostly due to algae), especially after introducing extra organic matter, but the actual risks of following established methods for brewing cold-brew at room temperature are very low in my opinion. Especially chlorinated water like you probably get out of your pipes.
      • krageon 4y ago
        This is nonsense. Fungus and mold takes a while to develop, and most probably that timeframe is not over night in ground coffee (or tea). It is still better to do it in the fridge, because if you put it straight in it's less work and tastes good if you leave it overnight.
        • goldenkey 4y ago
          Overnight, sure. But I like my extracts/brews super strong. After a couple of days you will get mold growth.
          • IIsi50MHz 4y ago
            Cold-brewing can reliably be done at food-safe refrigerator temperatures over multiple days, safely. The longest brew I've heard used at any coffee shop is 8 days, though I've never tried more than 5 (usually 1 to 3).
            • goldenkey 4y ago
              Right, that's what I'm saying. If you try to cold-brew non-refrigerated for more than a day, you'll get mold.
    • nibbleshifter 4y ago
      Maybe lower extraction, but honestly, I'd have to get a refractometer or some shit to test it, and I can't really justify that expense.
    • amit9gupta 4y ago
      I have a very sensitive stomach; I get an upset stomach (watery stools) and pimples all over my forehead and head when I have coffee. With cold brew, (if made properly), I do not get any of this. So there is definitely some difference in the chemical constituents of hot-coffee vs cold-brew-coffee. Some other papers state less caffeic acid and less quinic acid. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-34392-w https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-34392-w
    • toss1 4y ago
      In the Abstract part of the paper, they highlight some distinct chemical differences to validate that their process works more like cold brew vs hot brew: >> "Furthermore, the liquid phase’s alkaloid content, analyzed by reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry, is dominated by caffeine and trigonelline and is comparable to traditional cold-brewed coffee rather than hot-brewed coffee. Furthermore, analyzing the head-space of the prepared coffee variants, using in-tube extraction dynamic head-space followed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry, gives evidence that the lack of heating leads to the preservation of more (semi-)volatile substances like pyridine, which provide cold-brew coffee its unique taste. "
    • jghn 4y ago
      Takes more time to get the right amount of extraction
    • danielheath 4y ago
      Different fats dissolve at rates that are temperature-dependent (which is why cold brew has a different flavor to espresso - a different subset of the oils in the bean have dissolved into the water). As a result, each brewing temperature would have a different rate of extraction for each fatty compound. This is why temperature / pressure / flow rate are so important to good espresso - some of the heavier compounds taste very bitter and including much of them in the brew makes for an unpleasant drink.
• __alexs 4y ago
  You don't even need filters. Shove ground coffee in a plastic bottle. Fill it with water. Shake it briefly. Leave it in the fridge for 8 hours. Pour the coffee out slowly so the grounds stay at the bottom.
  • 13of40 4y ago
    Several years ago I spent a few weeks in a country that as far as I could tell didn't have a "coffee culture" and all that was readily available was packets of instant coffee. I hunted around and found a vacuum packed brick of ground coffee at a shop, but didn't have any equipment to brew it. Then I worked out that you can throw some in a glass bottle, pour in some hot water from the kettle, let it sit until everything settled to the bottom, pour out the liquid, and "voila!" Later on the trip I bought a Turkish coffee maker, which works on the same principle, so it's not so much an innovation as it is a hotel survival tip.
    • nescioquid 4y ago
      Cowboy-coffee is just a pot with water and coffee grounds on a fire. Apparently there is a trick involving adding egg-shells to the grounds to make them settle more quickly (never tried it, though). Glad you prevailed! My nightmare scenario is having coffee, but no way to grind it.
      • 13of40 4y ago
        The trick for that is to use two identical bowls, one as a mortar and the other as a pestal.
      • sgtnoodle 4y ago
        That's a very common misconception. The egg shells are for their calcium carbonate, in order to cut down acidity and improve the flavor. The classic trick to causing the grounds to settle quickly is simply to add a little bit of cold water at the end of brewing.
        • 4y ago
• js2 4y ago
  I make cold brew in an Aeropress. I fill mine with fresh grinds and room temperature water at the start of making my breakfast and put it over a cup of ice. It drips most of the way through while I'm preparing my meal and I squeeze out the last bit of water as I plate my eggs, so maybe 5-10 minute brew time. I'm drinking a cup now. It’s obviously weaker than hot coffee, but though I drink my hot coffee black, I prefer a weaker iced coffee with a bit of milk or cream. The only way to get a really strong iced coffee is either to brew hot and let it cool before pouring over ice or to make coffee ice cubes, both of which are too much trouble for me. So between pouring stronger hot coffee over ice which melts a lot of the ice or pouring weaker cold brew over ice and melting less ice, the dilution ends up about the same, but the flavor profile is different with the cold brew being more subtle and less acidic. Truthfully I enjoy it both ways. Just depends on my mood. The Aeropress is very flexible. Experiment with it. No one brew will work for all beans/roasts. I’ve found some beans/roasts taste better brewed at 175° and others at 190°. Besides the Aeropress, the thing that upped my coffee game the most is an electric kettle. Other than percolated, there’s almost no brewing method I don’t enjoy. I use an Aeropress most of the time, but I also make coffee in an ibrik, a mokapot, a Chemex, a simple silicone pour over mold; it just depends on my mood. The only style of coffee I gave up on at home is espresso. I was just never able to pull consistent shots and got tired of how much work it was to clean the machine and the space it took on my counter. And before you say it: I just can’t countenance pod machines.
  • rsfern 4y ago
    I do this too, but I like to use the inverted aeropress method, and I put a bit of honey in at the end before I put on the filter and flip it over a cup of ice. It’s my favorite iced coffee method (Just saw you use room temp water; I use hot and let it brew for like 2min. Do you get a strong enough extraction? How long do you let it go for?)
    • js2 4y ago
      When brewing with room temp water it doesn’t seem to matter much whether I press the water through right away or let it sit for 10 minutes and then press it. It is not a strong extraction either way. I’ve expanded my comment since you replied.
• peteforde 4y ago
  My read of the materials presented is that this process is legitimately faster (three minutes vs 8-20 hours) and makes no claim about easier. Sure, you can just make some that will be ready tomorrow. But if you want some right now, it seems legitimate that being able to press a button and get cold brew is novel. If that doesn't sound like you, don't buy it.
  • anon84873628 4y ago
    Most coffee innovations are focused on cafes as the customer. If you can make on-demand cold brew you no longer need to worry about anticipating demand, throwing away waste, etc. You can probably even market the "fresh brewed" aspect of it. Cafes will make an effort to increase extraction yields 1% because that means 1% less coffee needed over the many pounds used per day.