The Cosmic Cold Brew Perspective…
What is Cold Brew? We first have to answer that question before we get into the details and technique of how we brew our cold brew coffee. Cold brew is an immersion style brewed coffee which is cold steeped in water over a slow period anywhere from 12-48 hours. There is a set ratio depending on how concentrated you would like your overall cold brew. Another thing to consider is the overall flavor of your cold brew. There are certain flavor notes to each individual coffee which will most likely end up in your cup. If you would like to add milk or other sweeteners to your cold brew you may want to use a more robust coffee and a more concentrated ratio. There are many different scenarios but we will get into the way we brew our cold brew at the Cosmic Bloom Shop
With any cold brew we first begin with the coffee. The base of our current cold brew which will eventually change is our Honeybee. This coffee is a balance of body, sweetness and acidity. This coffee has a deep cherry/chocolaty body, with a nice berry and brandy like sweetness and acidity. These flavors are what we would like to end up in the final cup, but also have the body to come through in a milk beverage. We tend to blend a small amount of a fermented sweet coffee to add a bit more complexity. A popular coffee that we have been using is a Capitan Black. This coffee has a very candy like sweetness with a juicy body. Adding this coffee brings more fruit like aromas, a more syrup like body and very nice complex sugar notes.
Once you have chosen a coffee or blend, we move on to the ratio. We tend to lean on the more concentrated side in the shop which allows us the flexibility to dilute with either just ice or add a milk or other flavor. We add about 100 grams per liter or around 1 pound per gallon of coffee. Depending on the profile of the coffee we may use a little bit less but typically never any more. This amount tends to yield a nice concentrate which can easily be diluted with ice or used in some of our signature beverages such as the “Black Lodge.”
When you are finished with the cold brew extraction you are going to have to figure out a way to filter our the grounds from your cold brew. Luckily Alto Cold Brew has created in our opinion the best cold brew filter available from small sample and home brew sizes all the way to the large commercial batch size filters. They have created a tea bag style filter that will keep all of the cold brew grounds inside the filter and will not tear as you pull the filter out. There are more affordable filters, but we highly recommend using the Alto filters.
Things you need to brew:
Coffee Ground/ or grinder to brew fresh coffee
Vessel to steep cold brew in and keep once brewed
Filter or way to filter out coffee grounds
Filtered Water
The process is very simple.
You first want to ground the coffee on the course side as this will help the overall cleanliness of the cup.
Second you want to line your brewing vessel with your filter.
Add in your ground coffee into the filter in the vessel.
Add in about a quarter of the water you will be using and agitate the coffee. You want to stir and allow about 30-60 seconds for the coffee to breathe. You then want to either tie or seal the filter with a zip tie to avoid the grounds spilling out during the steep.
Seal your vessel place it in a refrigerator and leave for desired brew time. Our brew time is 48 hours as this amount of time will allow the complex sugar notes to develop in the cold brew. You can also open the container and sample the cold brew at different times until you have reach the desired brew time.
Last once your cold brew has steeped the desired amount of time remove the filter with the coffee grounds in it, or filter out the grounds from the vessel and put the cold brew in the vessel you will be serving it in.
Remember you may have to experiment when brewing your first couple of batches. You may also have a different preference, but that is okay. We encourage to experiment between batches with coffee, ratios and brew time. In the end what we are looking for a a cold brew that slaps.
