Sous Vide Coffee (Cold Brew Coffee Recipe) Savoring The Good® (2024)

FAQs

How to get the smoothest cold brew? ›

After 12 hours (or more), strain the coffee through a fine-mesh sieve. Discard the grounds. Then, do a second strain, this time pouring the coffee through a coffee filter. This will remove any fine particles or grounds, yielding the smoothest possible cup.

Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the jars completely and place a sous vide immersion cooker into the water. Set temperature to 150 degrees F (65 degrees C) according to manufacturer's directions.

Grind 83g of coffee (for 1 litre) or 250g of coffee (for 3 litres). For cold brew, we always use a 1:12 ratio (coffee:water).

You just add water to coffee, stir, cover it and leave it out on the counter overnight. A quick two-step filtering the next day (strain the grounds through a sieve, and use a coffee filter to pick up silt), a dilution of the brew one-to-one with water, and you're done.

Cold brew starts with coarse ground coffee that's cold-steeped in cool filtered water, usually anywhere from 12–24 hours. It's time rather than heat that extracts the flavor, caffeine and sugars from the coffee beans. This creates lower acidity and the naturally smooth, sweet taste it's known for.

Stick with a coarse grind. Using a coarser grind will make the filtration process easier and your coffee taste far less bitter. Grinding too fine can heat up the grounds, which can negatively affect your cup. Stir the grinds in the water making sure they are fully saturated.

Cold brew is generally made using room temperature water (around 20°C or 68°F), which eliminates acidity in the cup and brings out the sweetness and body of the coffee.

Set your sous vide circulator to 150°F and preheat the water bath. Add the ½ cup fresh coffee grounds and 4 cups water to a mason jar and seal the top. Once your sous vide bath has reached the target temp (150°F), set the timer for 2 to 4 hours and place your sealed jar of coffee and water into the sous vide container.

The US FDA model Food Code specifies that cooking vegetables to ≥ 135°F, intact meat to ≥ 145°F, ground meats to ≥ 155°F and poultry to ≥ 165°F is considered “fully cooked” and safe. Therefore any sous vide process that achieves those food temperatures is safe.

The short answer: This one's easy—use your favorite medium or dark roast. You can use your favorite coffee bean for cold brew. It's the size of the grind that matters more. (You'll need coarse ground coffee.

How many scoops of coffee for cold brew? ›

How Many Scoops of Coffee do I Need for Cold Brew? You can use around 6-7 scoops (12-14 tablespoons) of coffee grounds per quart of water to make cold brew coffee. By weight, that's around 85 grams of coffee per quart of water.

The best part about making cold brew at home is you can dial it in to your personal taste. Somewhere in the 16 to 20 hour range is the sweet spot for most coffees. We're willing to bet you'll find your favorite steep time right in there somewhere. Start with a 16-hour batch, taste, and go from there.

Cold brewing extracts the delicious flavor compounds in coffee while it leaves behind the bitter oils and fatty acids (including some less desirable compounds such as ketones, esters, and amides) that get released during hot brewing. The result is a delicious tasting coffee.

Dark roasts are most commonly used for cold brew coffee because the roast profile offers a consistent flavor. The margin of error is low, and the rich flavor is suitable for those who enjoy adding milk or sweeteners to their brew.

Another option is to create a much stronger cold brew (named cold brew concentrate), by using a ratio anywhere from 1 part coffee to 4 parts water, up to around 1 part coffee to 2 parts water. This stronger brew will take much, much longer at a coarse grind setting, but can be quickened by grinding finer.

One of the biggest myths about cold brew is that it's always strong and highly caffeinated. This isn't exactly true. What is true is that because it's brewed with a higher ratio of coffee to water, the concentrate that is made can have considerably more caffeine than the same volume of hot brewed coffee, even espresso.

A bit of sweetness

It's best to add liquid sweeteners to the cold brew, others will be hard to dissolve. Maple syrup, honey or molasses will work great.

If your coffee is bitter-tasting, it means you dissolved more organic compounds and flavors than desired. As we now know, this is called over extraction. So, to remedy over extraction and brew a more balanced cup free of bitter notes, grind coarser for larger coffee particles.

So, while it may take 12 hours to brew on the counter, it could take 17 hours, for example, to reach the same extraction in-fridge. I brew on the counter exclusively for simplicity, but if you know you won't be home in 12 hours, but you will be in 15, going the refrigerator route will work better with your schedule.