Cold Brew Coffee

Oh.Em.Gee.

Homesteading Housewife

So Pinterest strikes again. My wonderful friend Garyn - a beautiful, red-headed, coffee addict - happened to stumble upon this UH-mazing post from The Homesteading Housewife on her Craving Comfort food blog. It was titled, "The Last Iced Coffee Recipe You Will Ever Need!" and to be honest I couldn't agree more. Her picture alone makes me crave 90 degree-sunshine, along with a blanket in a park under a shaded tree, with said beverage in hand and a book in the other. Garyn also happened to make this recipe before I tried it and she loved it too! So, I knew it was worth giving it a whirl.

Thankfully, I took a lot of pictures for this particular post and I think it will help all of you (who decide to try this) understand exactly what cold-brewing coffee entails. It's not particularly hard, but it can be quite time-consuming and rather messy if your not careful, so just know you have been forewarned.

To begin with you will need the following supplies:

1. A large bowl (big enough to accommodate 1-gallon of water).
2. 1- 12 oz bag of your choice of coffee. I would encourage you to use a medium to bold roast and a good quality bean. This isn't the time to go cheap. In other words "the best part of waking up should not be Folger's in your cup". I used Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, but to be honest Kona Coffee makes THEE best brew in the world.
3. 1 gallon of bottled drinking water
4. Coffee Filters
5. Large Funnel
6. Fine Strainer

This is the coffee I used and I thought it was wonderful! So if you can't decide just find this one and I promise you will not be disappointed. 

So to start - pour the entire gallon of water into your large bowl.

Next, add your coffee.

As you can see the coffee for the most part will float atop the surface of the water. Another reason to make sure you use a large enough bowl. Otherwise stirring will be extremely messy. 

Slowly stir the coffee into the water, making sure you submerge all of it.

It should look similar to the above photo when its completely mixed. Then let is sit overnight or throughout the day for around 12 hours. 

Once it's done sitting for 12 hours, grab another large clean bowl (or pitcher), whatever you have on hand. I used a bowl since it was the only thing that would fit under my strainer. 

Cover your strainer with coffee filters. The more the merrier. 

Then slowly ladle the coffee water over the coffee filters and through the mesh strainer into the clean bowl (or pitcher) underneath. 

If you have a double-wide sink, I would place the  bowl of brewed coffee water next to your straining device. This part can get really messy and this helps prevent any major spills/cleanup.  

Since the straining process can be s....l.......o......w - I started ladling out large portions of the coffee grounds with a slotted spoon into a grocery bag. This step allows you to grab mostly coffee water when straining, instead of spoonfuls of coffee grounds. Make sure you use a slotted spoon so that the excess coffee water drains through and you don't toss out coffee water along with the grounds.

This part does take time. So find something to keep you busy as the coffee drains through the filters and the mesh strainer. Once you have completed this step in its entirety, you are going to go back and repeat it. The coffee needs to be filtered twice to make sure NO grounds make it into your final product. When you do it the second time make sure you clean the strainer first and then put down new coffee filters. Use another clean bowl to ensure a coffee ground-free final product. The second straining goes by quicker since its mostly just coffee and only a little bit of coffee grounds.

Once you have your final product, grab your empty gallon of water and place the funnel into it. 

If you are doing this by yourself then I suggest ladling the coffee through the funnel slowly. Again, this is time consuming, but you have to hold the filter in as well so it doesn't fall out. If you have someone who can help you, then just pour the bowl directly into the funnel. It's much quicker.

In the end you will have less coffee then the amount of water you began with. This is because the coffee grounds do absorb a lot of water. The next time I do this I would actually add 2 more cups of water after pouring out the full gallon. My brew came out pretty strong (which I like), but 2 more cups of water will give me more coffee in the end and I am sure it will still be strong enough.

So at this point you just place your jug of cold-brew coffee into the fridge and serve over ice with creamer whenever you like! The cold-brew will stay good up to 1 month, but of course if you like iced coffee then it may only last a few weeks ; )

 I pinned it. I made it. And I loved it!

Enjoy  : )