Cold Brew Coffee - who's doing it?

askthecoffeeguy

Ok so not so long ago I was selling into stores had 50 clients in Melbourne and was making cold brew coffee using the cold drip slow filter process, but things slowed down a bit since I've moved to Queensland, and I sold off most of my glass towers I used for preparation.

I did coffee catering for about 1000 people at an event last weekend, however, and I thought it would be a good time to crank out the cold brew again !

Couldn't bring myself to assemble the tower for a once off event though, so I made a batch using the immersion method, with a hot water 'bloom' to get things started !

I found and article that interviewed 50 of the world's top baristas about their cold brew methods, so I used an amalgamation of their methods to inform my technique, using a single estate Honduras coffee roasted for filter, and it produced a smashing result which I was very happy with !

Thankfully I even had a little leftover from the event, which I have been enjoying daily over ice with milk!

Anyone else on the cold brew coffee train?

If so what's your process? And are you happy with the results?

Pat

K_Bean_Coffee

Hi there Pat Many years ago I used to make my own cold drip towers with all sorts of thingies. Then I moved on to off-the-shelf towers and of course, as you know, I started selling them as well. That was in the early days of K Bean. At home right now I use either cold immersion or a Hario cold drip tower. A very cool thing about cold brew is that you can get great results with a whole range of very basic and inexpensive techniques. I actually have a short blog on cold drip coffee here: https://www.kbean.com.au/k-bean-coffee-machines-blog/cold-drip-coffee-machines-melbourne I love cold brew and recommend it to everyone !

Simon

I just honestly could not get into cold brew... to those who love it go nuts haha! I just never really understood or enjoyed it... and I've tried a few cold brews and cold drip from around the place. Maybe I need to give it a go elsewhere, but just could not get into it or the taste. I've made a Japanese iced V60 style drink and that was lovely haha

Brett H

I had a home-made tower (picture somewhere on this site) for a while but just didn’t drink enough of it to keep the dream alive! Perhaps this summer...

askthecoffeeguy

Unfortunately (for the industry) there's lots of shoddy operators out there, serving what I would class as an inferior product, when it comes to ordering filter coffee out - whether it be pour-over, cold brew, or some other manual brew method. Ive been disappointed so many times ordering filter coffee out out that I seldom do so any more. Ive had great pour-over at Industry Beans, Proud Mary, and (dare I say it) Market Lane - although admittedly not for awhile, as Im sadly not in that neck of the woods any more. Chemex is definitely my go-to drink of choice at the moment, probably tied equally with cold brew - theres so many variable at play when making a good filter coffee of any description, its no wonder so many places get it wrong! Still, Im thankful for my home setup, and for being able to roast at home to suit whatever style im drinking! Was in Melbourbe recently and great coffee in five randomly (well... mostly random) locations - cant say Ive experienced the same thing on the coast! Pat