So I know the accepted practice for cold brew is to do a coarse grind, and to brew somewhere between 8-24 hours depending on whether you’re doing it at room temperature or in the fridge.
But is this really necessary? Could I just use a finer grind and brew for less time? I’m asking because when you grind coarse, you end up having to use a lot more coffee beans (mass) than you would for the equivalent volume of any other type of coffee.
For context, I’m using a coffee sock which is just a glorified reusable coffee filter, so I don’t think that grind size is going to impact filtration that much.
You can use a suis vide and make it in 2 hours instead.
The whole volume/coffee mass trade-off is a bit misleading. Espresso has a much higher ratio, and cold brew is by taste and strength somewhere between filter coffee and espresso. Mixing cold brew half and half with sparkling water is a nice way to bulk it out if you want a greater volume of coffee.
Oh good, now I just need to acquire a suis vide :)
I do generally mix the cold brew half and half with filtered water. I do have to say, I love sparkling water of all kinds, but I tried this with sparkling water and was not a fan, haha.
Can you tell me more about doing it sous vide? I have a sous vide stick that I rarely use and would love to have a use for it!
So I broadly follow this. https://recipes.anovaculinary.com/recipe/sous-vide-cold-brew-coffee
I basically make cold brew coffee in a French press that I stick in the water bath at 65 degrees c for two hours and then decant it into a new jug I stick in the fridge.