BREW GUIDE
Cold Brew
Everything you need to pull a great shot at home
Roast level
Any roast works well in a cold brew but a medium roast has the best flavours. The lighter the roast, the more complex your coffee experience will be.
Grind size
Coarse and should feel very gritty like large salt flakes.
Roast date
Cold brew loves rested coffee. Ideally leave your coffee for 7–21 days after roast.
RECIPE
60g
DOSE
coursely ground coffee
12-14 hrs
TIME
total extraction time
840ml
YIELD
of extracted coffee
60g dose / 12-14 hrs extraction / 840ml yield — a 1:12-16 ratio
Let's break it down some more.
DOSE
Getting Your Dose Right
The dose refers to the amount of coffee grinds going into your basket.
So what amount should you dose at?
A cold brew should usually be about 12-16 times the coffee amount so whatever your container size just divide it by the ratio and grind that amount of coffee.
A good starting point is 60g for 1 litre of water. From there go up in 10g increments until you find right intensity.
Time
Getting Your Time Right
The total time of 12 hours gives a nice light, full bodied flavour.
16 hours can be the sweet spot for a lot of people with an even and balanced taste
18+ hours gives a heavy body and deep rich flavours but with dark coffee it might taste overextracted.
Once done, strain immediately.
In our cafe we use our coffee blend TDH (Tall, Dark & Handsome) and leave for 14hours for amazing results
Yield
Getting Your YIELD Right
1:16 (e.g., 60g coffee to ~1ltr water) provides a well balanced cup of coffee.
If you want to have a more intense and heavier cup you can try reducing the ratio down to 1:12 (60g coffee to ~720ml water)
Leaving your coffee to extract for longer almost acts in the same way as adding more coffee.
Troubleshooting Cold brew
My Cold brew tastes sour or bitter - what should I adjust?
If you know that your coffee is high quality and well roasted like ours it eliminates many of the reasons that make coffee sour and bitter so try these fixes instead:
- Sour = under-extracted. A coffee can be underextracted if the grind is too coarse. Try making the grind a little finer in your next brew. You can also extend the time of your cold brew by a few hours.
- Bitter = over-extracted. If your grind is too fine it can cause bitterness but also, coffee that stays in contact with cold water for too long keeps extracting even when all the nice flavours are gone. Try adjusting the grind to be coarser or remove the coffee from the water a couple of hours earlier.
Check out our other coffee brew guides for more tips on how to get the best taste from your coffee.
My Cold brew tastes flat or hollow - what should I do?
Sometimes if your coffee is too fresh, it contains too much carbon dioxide and this can cause a hollow or flat taste in your extraction. Check the roast date and wait 10 days afterwards to get the ideal flavours.
Which brew method is best for beginners?
Plunger (French Press) is probably the easiest of them all if you just want to get started with a good coffee. All you need is a French Press, some great coffee coarsely ground, and some boiling water. Alternatively, if you like your coffee iced cold, then making cold brew is super simple and all you need is ground coffee, a cold brewer and cold water. Put it all in the fridge for 12-14 hours and voila!
What grind size should I use for each brew method?
Each method uses a different grind size but as a rough guide: Cold Brew is very coarse (like salt flakes), French Press or Plunger is coarse, Filter/Pourover and Drip coffee is medium, Stovetop is fine, and espresso is very fine. Every brew guide includes a recommended grind range to make it easy.
Check out these helpful brew guides
Do different coffees need different recipes?
Yes. Each coffee extracts differently depending on the how it was roasted, when it was roasted, how the coffee was processed, and what flavours you want to highlight. However, Espresso is the most temperamental, and thats why every product page includes a specific recipe with the ideal dose, yield, time and temperature for that coffee.
Do I need special equipment to follow these brew guides?
Nope. You only need the appropriate brewing device. A grinder does make for a better tasting coffee in the long run, and a precision kitchen scale helps with accuracy. But don’t get caught up in the hype to buy fancy expensive coffee accessories!
Our brew guides help you understand what affects the flavour the most.
Which roast level works best for each brew method?
As a guideline:
- Filter / Pourover / Batch Brews→ Omni, light and filter roast
- Plunger / Drip / Cold Brews → medium and medium-light roast
- Espresso & Stovetop → medium and medium-light roast
Each coffee to buy on this website recommends every method it’s best suited to.
Coffees we recommend for Cold Brew brewing
These coffees are selected for body, intensity and flavour clarity when brewed using Cold Brew
