How to Make Cold Brew Coffee at Home
Cold brew isn't iced coffee — iced coffee is hot-brewed coffee cooled down and poured over ice, while cold brew is steeped in cold or room-temperature water for most of a day. The long, cold steep pulls out less of the bitter and acidic compounds that heat extracts quickly, which is why cold brew tastes naturally sweeter and smoother and why it's worth making separately instead of just chilling a pot of drip coffee.
You don't need a dedicated cold brew maker to get a good result. A jar, a coarse grind, and time do almost all of the work.
What you actually need
A large jar or pitcher, coarsely ground coffee, cold or room-temperature filtered water, and something to filter the grounds out at the end — a fine-mesh strainer lined with a paper coffee filter works fine, as does a nut-milk bag.
A dedicated cold brew maker with a built-in filter (like a Takeya or OXO cold brew pitcher) is a convenience upgrade, not a requirement — it mainly saves you the separate straining step.
Grind size and ratio
Use a coarse grind, similar to what you'd use for a French press — a fine drip or espresso grind will clog your filter and over-extract into a muddy, bitter result. If you're grinding your own beans, a burr grinder gives a far more even coarse grind than a blade grinder, which matters more for cold brew than for drip coffee since there's no heat to mask an uneven extraction.
A standard starting ratio is 1 cup (about 85g) of coarsely ground coffee to 4 cups (32 oz) of cold water. That produces a concentrate meant to be diluted roughly 1:1 with water or milk before drinking — don't drink it straight, it's intentionally strong.
Steeping
Combine the grounds and water in your jar, stir to make sure all the grounds are saturated, and cover. Steep at room temperature for 12-16 hours, or in the refrigerator for 18-24 hours if you'd rather it steep overnight into the next evening without rushing.
Longer isn't always better — steeping much past 24 hours starts to pull out more bitterness again, the same way an over-extracted hot brew does.
Straining and storing
Strain through a paper filter set inside a fine-mesh strainer, or a nut-milk bag, into a clean container. Expect to strain in a couple of passes if you used a coarser mesh first — fines (the smallest coffee particles) will cloud the first pass.
Store the strained concentrate in the refrigerator for up to 1-2 weeks. Dilute each serving to taste rather than diluting the whole batch up front, since that lets you also serve it hot or as a stronger iced drink without making a second batch.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can I make cold brew in my regular coffee maker or French press?
- A French press works well as a steeping vessel since it has a built-in filter for the final strain — just don't push the plunger down until the full steep time is up. A drip coffee maker isn't useful for the steeping step, but it's exactly what you'll use the grinder from (or beans ground elsewhere) to make a hot pot afterward if you want both options on hand.
- Why is my cold brew weak or watery?
- It's almost always one of three things: too fine a grind (under-saturating instead of properly extracting), too little coffee relative to water, or diluting the finished concentrate too much. Start with the 1 cup grounds to 4 cups water ratio and adjust from there once you know your taste.
- Do I need a burr grinder for cold brew, or will a blade grinder work?
- A blade grinder will work, but it chops beans into an inconsistent mix of chunks and dust rather than an even coarse grind, which makes it harder to predict extraction and strain cleanly. A burr grinder gives a more uniform coarse grind and a more consistent result batch to batch.
- Is cold brew stronger than regular coffee?
- The concentrate is stronger than drip coffee, which is why it's meant to be diluted before drinking. Once diluted to a normal strength, cold brew typically has similar or slightly less caffeine per cup than drip coffee, depending on the ratio used.