Are you ready to make the best tasting cup of iced coffee you’ve ever had!? If so, it’s time for me to show you How To Make The Best Cold Brew Coffee recipe EVER! This quick cold brew recipe is easy to make, fun, cheap, and delicious!

If you’re in love with coffee like I am, a coffee fanatic, coffee addict, or anything else coffee related and you haven’t tried or are looking for how to make cold brew coffee then you’ve come the right place. This cold brew recipe can be made in bulk and will take your coffee taste buds to the next level!

Why Cold Brew?

No more watered down iced coffee! Sick of icing your hot coffee with a million ice cubes? When making cold brew the choice is yours on how watered down or how concentrated you want your coffee to be.

It’s way less acidic. Hot water is never used so the oils that are full of acid aren’t going to be fully released into the coffee. Less extraction of these oils makes cold brew around 60-65% less acidic.

Less irritation. The various acids typically extracted from traditional hot coffee methods can irritate your stomach and the lining of your small intestine, cold brewing will greatly help prevent this.

It tastes incredible! With less of an acidic taste comes a smoother, sweeter coffee.

It’s extremely easy to make in bulk. Want enough for the whole week? Month? Prep time is the same. No more time wasted on preparing multiple pots.

Cold Brew Coffee Essentials

Now before you start you’re going to need a few items to make your cold brew. If you’re a coffee lover you might already have these items lying around but if not they can collectively be found fairly cheap and should last you FOREVER!

Liquid container. This container can be something you have lying around or if you’re like me, you’ll want something specifically for this cold brew coffee recipe. The 1 gallon jar that I use was cheap enough to justify and big enough to satisfy my consumption, which you can see by clicking here.

Whatever size container you want to use is completely up to you, I find that 1 gallon is the perfect size to last me a couple weeks. Don’t want a couple weeks worth? Don’t worry, you’ll be able to scale this recipe below however you want depending on how much you want to brew at a time.

Burr grinder. The manual burr grinder I use was under $50.00 and though it takes me a bit longer than an electric grinder, it’s a boatload cheaper, much more portable, AND you get a free forearm workout while using it. You can check it out by clicking here.

Burr Grinder vs Blade Grinder

The reason we’re using a burr grinder over a blade grinder is simple. A burr grinder is a nice, consistent grind whereas a blade grinder is not.

Why? A blade grinder, for the most part, has no adjustability. It’s going to grind some of your grounds into a powder and others in larger pieces. Basically, a blade grinder is like throwing in a bunch of random protein powder into a shaker and a burr grinder is using your favorite brand. The burr grinder will extract the most and best flavor.

Filter. The most important part of purchasing a filter for me was to have something I can reuse. The filter I use is a reusable and all purpose strainer bag that I picked up for around $10.00 which you can see here.

Using this filter bag allows me to easily put my ground coffee into it then into my jar which makes things super quick. Another great thing about the filter bag? Clean up is a breeze! Seriously, all you do is dump your ground coffee out and give it a rinse…that’s it.

You could also use a cheesecloth, t-shirt, and so on if you’re in a bind. Think outside the box!

Whole Beans vs Ground Coffee

The choice is yours! You can use either whole beans or ground coffee to make cold brew. Seeing that I’m suggesting you purchase a burr grinder above, I’m obviously partial to using whole beans. Using ground coffee will end up being quicker and more convenient but you’re going to be compromising the taste.

Why is the taste comprised? The simple answer is that whole bean coffee is going to be much fresher. As soon as coffee is ground it starts to go stale. Grinding the beans yourself will give you a fresh, delicious flavor.

Cold Brew Coffee Ratios

To make your cold brew coffee you’ll want to first take out your regular or digital kitchen scale and if you’re making 1 gallon at a time then weigh out 8 ounces or 227 grams of coffee. You can make more or less by following these ratios here:

• 1 Ounce Coffee (28.3g) & 2 Cups Water (16 Ounces)
• 2 Ounces Coffee (56.7g) & 4 Cups Water (32 Ounces)
• 4 Ounces Coffee (113.5g) & 1/2 Gallon Water (64 Ounces)
• 8 Ounces Coffee (227g) & 1 Gallon Water (128 Ounces)
• 16 Ounces Coffee (454g) & 2 Gallons Water (256 Ounces)

If you don’t have a digital kitchen scale the one I use can be purchased it by clicking here, it’s one of the best investments you can make for your kitchen. I’ve used this same scale for almost a decade now!

Once you’ve weighed out your coffee, use your grinder to grind them up if you’re using whole bean. The whole grinding process shouldn’t take longer than 5-10 minutes with a manual burr grinder.

You also want to make sure that your grind is set to coarse! Depending on what you’re using to filter it, it may be harder to filter if it’s too fine.

Add your ground coffee into your filter bag, put your bag into your jar, and pour in 1 gallon or 128 ounces of water. Make sure the end of your bag/filter sticks out a little bit so that the grounds don’t fall out into your water. If you don’t have a bag then just put your ground coffee into the water which you’ll strain out later.

Cold Brew Coffee Brew Time

Let your cold brew coffee brew for around 14-16 hours.

Yes, you can brew it for longer than 14-16 hours but if you brew it for too long it’ll eventually start to bitter. In my opinion, letting it brew for 14-16 hours is optimal.

Whether you brew it in the fridge or leave it out to brew on the countertop is also completely up to you. One benefit of brewing it in the fridge is that you’ll have a nice, cold cup of coffee ready for you in the morning!

After your brew time is up, remove your ground coffee by filtering it. If you used a filter bag like me just pull your bag out, dispose of your grounds, and give your bag a quick rinse.

Distribute your cold brew coffee into some bottles for easy access to take with you or just leave it in your jar and serve it whenever you want it!

Pro tip? Flavor every bottle differently! More tips?

Cold Brew Coffee Tips

• Use flavored roasts!
• Extracts like vanilla, raspberry, coconut, chocolate, etc in your cold brew will easily change up the flavor.
• Compliment your roast flavor with lemon or orange slices, vanilla bean, mint leaves, nuts, and so on!
• Add in sweeteners or sugar free syrups.
• The lighter the roast you use, the more acidity it will have in it (most of the time).

As for storage, your cold brew coffee should stay fresh for around 2-3 weeks so don’t be scared to make a ton of it at a time!

How much caffeine does this cold brew coffee recipe have in it? There’s a ton of variables here but my estimate for the caffeine content is around 100-125mg of caffeine per 8 ounces.

Happy Brewing! 🙂

Drop your favorite ways to drink cold brew coffee in the comments below!

Ready for a Cold Brew Low Carb Mug Cake!?