How To Make Cold Brew Coffee At Home (In A French Press)

Cold brew coffee takes simple iced coffee to the next level. There’s nothing better than relaxing in the summer with a cold brew coffee at home.

The only problem? Making cold brew coffee at home does take some patience. You’ll need at least 12 hours for your cold brew to steep in the fridge.

Psst! This blog post contains affiliate links in it which sends me a bit of extra money if you use them… at no extra cost to you!

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Why Is Cold Brew Coffee So Much Better Than Iced Coffee?

There’s no denying that iced coffee at home is a lot quicker to make with barely any advance planning. You can pretty much make it on a whim as long as you have ice.

Cold brew coffee is a process that takes about 12-24 hours. But! It makes a HUGE difference in flavour.

When you drink any hot drink cold, you taste more of the bitter notes. That’s just a fact of cold vs. hot drinks. The heat masks most of the bitterness, and you just can’t taste as much.

Cold brew is the solution to mask the bitterness when drinking cold coffee. That’s because you’re using cold water and time instead of hot water.

Hot water allows for quick extraction of the coffee, but in the process, you risk over extracting and even burning the coffee grinds making it taste bitter.

The slow extraction of the coffee never shocks the coffee grinds. This leads to a much smoother brew and different tasting notes.

I find I don’t even need to add milk or sugar to my cold brew coffee, its that good!

Best Cold Brew Coffee Recipe: Use The French Press

I make my cold brew using my French press and ground coffee for easy brewing and filtering afterwards.

My French press cold brew coffee recipe makes 2 cups of coffee which turns into 4 cups (after watering it down – which is necessary).

What You’ll Need For French Press Cold Brew Coffee Recipe

8 cup French press (obviously!), like this one on Amazon.
1 heaping cup coffee beans (or one regular cup ground coffee)
4 cups water
Time! Like 12-24 hours!
Large mason jar with lid for storage (like this one on Amazon – shop in Canada)
Optional: milk, sugar, ice cubes

What You’ll Need For A French Press Cold Brew Coffee Recipe

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Bodum Chambord French Press Coffee Maker, Glass,…

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How To Make Cold Brew With Ground Coffee (In A French Press!)

Measure 1 heaping cup coffee beans/ grind or measure one regular cup of pre-ground coffee.
Measure 3 cups cold water.
Add to coffee grinds to French press, followed by cold water.
Place the French press in the fridge and let steep for 12 – 24 hours (the longer the steep, the stronger the brew!)
After minimum 12 hours, press down your coffee and pour out into separate jug (like a Mason jar so you can cover it to store in the fridge)
When you’re ready to enjoy, measure 1 cup coffee to 1 cup water
Add ice cubes & enjoy!

Tips For Making Cold Brew Coffee At Home

Cold brewing coffee at home sounds easy enough, but to there are a few tips to make it even better!

How Long Should You Steep Cold Brew Coffee?

The minimum steep time for cold brew coffee is 12 hours and you really don’t want to go above 24 hours.

The idea is that the longer the steep time, the stronger the coffee. If you have more time, you can steep it for longer and even use more water to coffee when preparing to drink it (instead of a 1:1 ratio).

I find I like 12 hours, that’s my sweet spot for a well balanced coffee, but play around with different steep times to see what you like best!

What’s The Best Cold Brew Coffee To Water Ratio

Be prepared to use a lot more coffee beans than you’re used to when making cold brew coffee.

But! It’s not as bad as you think.

Remember, even though you use more grinds to begin with, you water down the coffee when you drink it. Because trust me, it’s going to be STRONG! So you’ll always get double the amount of coffee than you think you have!

A typical cold brew coffee to water ratio is 1:3 (1 cup of coffee grinds to 3 cups of water).

To put this in perspective, I use a mere 4 tbsp for 4 cups of water when I make coffee regularly with hot water.

Related

How To Perfectly Roast Coffee Beans At Home

Use Coffee Beans You Don’t Like When Brewed Hot

If you ever find yourself disliking the variety of coffee beans you have on hand, try using them for cold brew coffee instead.

Like I said, making coffee with hot water can over-extract the coffee beans causing them to turn bitter. You might notice this more with some coffee beans over others.

Some of the best cold brew coffee I’ve made has been with beans that I’ve hated as hot coffee.

As a cold brew coffee, I’m able to taste the intricacies of the bean, and this method often reveals so many hidden flavours that I just couldn’t enjoy when brewed with hot water.

Taste & Track Every Coffee You’ve Tried!

Refine your coffee palette with my Coffee Tasting Journal to record and take notes on every new coffee you try.

Shop my Coffee Tasting Journal on Etsy.

Make Coffee Ice Cubes For Your Cold Brew Coffee At Home

Even though your cold brew coffee is already cold, you might want to add ice to make sure it doesn’t warm up in the summer heat.

One way to avoid watering down your cold brew coffee is to use coffee ice cubes.

These are really easy to make and you can prepare them when you’re making your weekly cold brew. This way, you just always have some to use in your freezer.

Make coffee as you normally would (i.e. using a French press, Chemex….).

Then instead of filling up your cup to enjoy, fill an ice cube tray and freeze it for later. I got 22 cubes (about a tray and a half) from 4 cups of coffee.

One thing to keep in mind though is that the coffee ice cubes will stain your ice cube tray. I would suggest having an ice cube tray specifically for coffee (get a new one on Amazon).