Cold-brewing is a great way to enjoy coffee on a hot day. We’ve shown you how to make it in a blender before, but this is a simple alternative.
Photo by Dennis Tang
Author and Boing Boing co-founder Cory Doctorow (and friend of Lifehacker!) explains how his system works. All it takes is a coffee grinder, a $10 “nut milk” bag and a plastic jug. Here’s how to produce the drink:
Every night before bed, I ground up about 15 Aeropress scoops’ (570 ml) worth of espresso roast coffe, leaving the beans coarse. I filled the bag with the grind, put it in the bottom of the empty jug like a huge tea-bag, and topped up the jug with tap water (distilled water would have been better — fewer dissolved solids means that it will absorb more of the coffee solids, but that’s not a huge difference). I wedged the top of the bag between the lid and the jug and stuck it in the fridge overnight.
In the morning, I took the bag out of the jug and gave it a good squeeze to get the liquor out of the mush inside. Add water to the jug to fill to the brim and voila, amazing cold-brew. You can dilute it 1:1 or even further.
That’s all there is to it. Doctorow notes that cleanup is as simple as inverting the bag over the trash and rinsing it off, and the rig produced excellent coffee concentrate with very little grit at the bottom of the jug. If you’re interested in trying cold brew, it’s an easy way to get started with great results. Hit the link below to read more.
Summer Cold Brew Coffee Reminder [Boing Boing]
Comments
5 responses to “This Cheap, No-Mess Cold Brew System Offers A Hassle-Free Caffeine Fix”
I’ve been doing the same method for a while now. a couple of extra tips:
-I use about 125g coffee for a 2L jug, which makes it handy to buy beans in 250g bags.
-You can go for long or short brew times, but 12 hours is a handy benchmark.
-The resulting coffee lasts great in the fridge, so you can just brew up one or two batches over the week.
-a nutmilk bag is just a fine mesh cloth with a cord to tie it. You can probably get away with anything where the mesh is smaller than the coffee grounds.
The main reason this is a great technique is it’s really hard to stuff up. if you leave it in there way too long? It just gets stronger. Didn’t have enough beans? It’ll be weaker but still damn good.
Muslim cloth would probably work too right? if not use coffee filters at the bottom if you are getting some grounds falling through
Is that like a muslin cloth, that professes that Muhammed (peace be upon him) is the messenger of Allah?
damn auto correct….
Huh, it’s been a while since I cold brewed coffee. These days I just use freeze dried coffee and cold water.
Previously I just used to throw the coffee grounds and water into a jug and pour the mix into my aeropress when I felt like some coffee.
I think the next step is just to acclimatise myself and just chew coffee beans. Then it’ll be the ultimate low prep technique 😀