I recently received a new device for making cold brew coffee. It put out a really good cold brew. The filter is made out of a fine nylon mesh.
How coarsely (or finely) should the coffee be ground for best cold-brew extraction?
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1This is a bit broad, you need to narrow this down a bit, plus there are a couple cold brew questions already: http://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/cold-brew – EdChum Feb 23 '15 at 21:18
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2Welcome to [coffee.se]! Your question doesn't quite fit the Q/A style of [se]; please take a minute to take the tour and look at the [help]. How about restricting to "What characteristics of beans are best suited to cold-brew?" I'd be happy to change this around as an example; let me know. See also: this question talks about grind; other questions tagged [tag:cold-brew]. – hoc_age Feb 23 '15 at 21:30
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1As an example, I trimmed your question down to just one question and formatted it in a way that I'd suggest for this site; hope you don't mind. +1 for an interesting topic, about which we didn't yet have a question! – hoc_age Feb 24 '15 at 02:17
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1Thanks for the suggestion. I'm learning the ropes. I appreciate your guidance. – Roland Feb 25 '15 at 06:00
2 Answers
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Two guides do have specific (though differing!) recommendations on coarseness of grind for cold brew.
- Blue Bottle recommends a grind a bit finer than paper-filtered drip coffee (they compare it to the same grind as for AeroPress); they're using an immersion setup with a wool filter.
- Kicking Horse recommends a medium-coarse grind, nearly like that of French press; they are using a similar setup but claim that a finer grind extracts more bitter compounds.
Personally, I use the latter because I find the filtering goes more easily with a coarser grind; see also this question about making cold brew easier to filter.
This question also discusses the grind. See also related questions with the tag cold-brew.
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In addition to the above listed guides I have also found another two to answer your question.
Prima Coffee recommends a medium to fine grind. They are using an AeroPress with 2 filters. They do suggest that at least one of those filters are paper.
ChestBrew has a how-to video that demonstrates the process of making cold brew from start to finish. Their whole bean coffee packaging suggests a medium coarse grind.
My husband and I are huge cold brew coffee fans and we prefer the second option because we've found that too fine a grind makes the coffee taste burnt and too harsh a grind makes the coffee too bitter. The medium coarse seems to make it just right. However, we use a pitcher and a milk bag to make our cold brew which I feel may make a difference in overall taste as compared to the device you referenced in your question.
Hope this helps and good luck!
Teresa M.
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