Homemade Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate for Homemade Iced Coffee
How to Make Cold Brew Concentrate at Home!
Cold brew coffee concentrate is where the very best iced coffee begins! Simple, slow-brewed, extra strong and flavorful—the perfect brew to keep on-hand in your fridge. I’ll show you how to make cold brew concentrate in 3 easy steps, including the ideal cold brew concentrate ratio of coffee-to-water.
It starts with your favorite coffee beans, ground coarsely, and then mixed with water. Then, all that you have to do is steep overnight, strain, and dilute to serve! Simple as that, you’ve got homemade cold brew coffee concentrate that you can enjoy in your favorite homemade iced coffee drinks.
What’s most important in this process is the cold brew concentrate ratio, or the amount of coffee grounds relative to the amount of water. Coffee concentrate is meant to be stronger, more concentrated, than a classic cold brew. That’s why it’s best served diluted with water, and why the coffee to water ratio will be a bit different for concentrate.
Whether you’re wanting to make DIY cold brew concentrate or just a classic cold brew, I’ll share the ratios for both so you can decide. Whatever you choose, homemade cold brew will always be far cheaper than store-bought or heading to Starbucks, and so easy to make with your favorite beans.
Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate Ingredients
- 3 cups cold water (24oz)
- 1½ cups coarsely ground coffee (4.5oz)
You can make this concentrate with any coffee that you like, beans or grounds. That’s the beauty of homemade—you can customize! If you’re using whole beans, I recommend a coarse grind for best results. If you’re using store-bought coffee grounds and can find a coarse grind, great! But if not, don’t worry about it—any coffee grounds will do. Feel free to adjust the ingredient amounts based on the size of the batch you’d like to prepare.
Cold Brew vs Cold Brew Concentrate
In reality, classic cold brew and cold brew concentrate are pretty similar, one is just more potent than the other. Both are made through the process of cold brewing: steeping coffee grounds in water for many hours, then straining to get the resulting brew. It’s a much slower process than hot brewing, but it results in a stronger, more flavorful coffee.
Cold brew is made with a higher coffee-to-water ratio than hot brewing, and hot brewing removes some of the flavor and some of the caffeine from your coffee. So even a classic cold brew will be more potent than your hot brewed coffee from the coffee pot!
But, for the most potent possible brew, cold brew coffee concentrate is your best bet. As the name implies, this is more highly concentrated than a standard cold brew, meaning it’s more flavorful and higher in caffeine content. (And, that’s is why it’s best served diluted with water!) The key difference is the cold brew concentrate ratio: a greater amount of coffee relative to the amount of water.
Cold Brew Coffee to Water Ratio
A standard cold brew to water ratio (using Starbucks cold brew as my standard) is 8oz water to 1oz coffee grounds. This equates to 1 cup of water to ~⅓ cup coarsely ground coffee.* For perspective, a typical hot brewing ratio is 8oz water to 1/2 oz coffee grounds.
*Conversions are based on standard measurements for ground coffee as ~10g per 2 Tbsp, or 1.5oz per ½ cup.
Cold Brew Concentrate Ratio
With that cold brew ratio in mind, you can make cold brew coffee concentrate simply by increasing the amount of coffee relative to water. Both of the ratios below will result in a strong, potent brew that is best served diluted with water at a 1:1 ratio. Use whichever ratio you prefer, based on how strong you like your homemade iced coffee drinks!
- For a potent, mid-level brew: combine 8oz water with 1.5oz coffee grounds. In cups, that would be 1 cup water and ½ cup coffee grounds. If you’re new to the coffee concentrate game, try this ratio first! Personally, this is my preferred ratio.
- For the strongest possible brew, give this cold brew concentrate ratio a try: 8oz water to 2oz ground coffee, or 1 cup water to ⅔ cup ground coffee.
How to Make Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Once you’ve got your ideal ratio in mind, the process of how to make cold brew concentrate is so easy! To start, add your desired amount of water to a large bowl, followed by your coffee grounds, stirring well to combine. Again, these can be store-bought grounds, or you can coarsely grind your favorite beans.
Next, simply cover the bowl and place it in the fridge overnight, for 12-24 hours. Similar to the ratio, the steeping time is up to you. The longer it steeps, the stronger and more bitter your brew will be! For perspective, Starbucks steeps their cold brew for 20 hours. Personally, I find that 14-18 hours works well for my cold brew coffee concentrate.
After steeping, strain your mixture through a lined fine mesh sieve. I like to line my sieve with a double layer of coffee filters, but you could also use a clean handkerchief, T-shirt, or nut milk bag. Pour in batches as needed, stirring gently to help the liquid strain. Finally, once all of the liquid has separated from the grounds, your DIY cold brew coffee concentrate is ready to enjoy or store! I pour mine into mason jars to keep in the fridge and use throughout the week.
How to Make Iced Coffee with This Concentrate (& More!)
Many people don’t realize just how many things you can do with coffee concentrate – including heat it up! First things first, if you’ve made a true cold brew coffee concentrate and not just a classic cold brew, it’s best to dilute it with equal parts water before serving. That means combine ½ cup coffee concentrate with ½ cup water, before making any iced coffee drinks or heating it up. Of course, if you prefer to drink your ultra-potent brew straight up, go for it!
Generally, the most popular use for cold brew concentrate is making homemade iced coffee drinks. It’s already cold, extra flavorful, and ultra-potent so it won’t get overly diluted served over ice. (Or, serve with my homemade coffee ice cubes for maximum flavor!) From a classic iced coffee like the recipe below, to fancy flavored lattes, there are so many fun options.
But, don’t let the name deceive you. “Cold” simply describes the slow, not-hot brewing process—it doesn’t mean you have to enjoy your brew cold. If you’d like, after diluting with water, heat it up over the stove or in the microwave for a warm cup o’ joe! A simple, versatile brew, with the flavor and caffeine content of a true coffee lover’s dreams.
Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate
Ingredients
DIY Cold Brew Concentrate
- 3 cups water, (24oz)
- 1½ cups coarsely ground coffee, (4.5oz)
Adjust recipe amounts based on a ratio of:
- 1 cup water : ½ cup ground coffee
- 8 oz water : 1.5oz ground coffee
For a stronger brew:
- 1 cup water : ⅔ cup ground coffee
- 8 oz water : 2oz ground coffee
- i.e. 3 cups water + 2 cups coffee grounds
- Measurements based on standard conversions for ground coffee as ~10g per 2 Tbsp, or 1.5oz per ½ cup.
Instructions
- Add water to a large bowl. Pour in coffee grounds and stir to combine.
- Cover and steep in the fridge for 12-24 hours*.
- After steeping, strain through a fine mesh sieve, lined with a double layer of coffee filters (or a clean handkerchief, T-shirt, or nut milk bag). Pour in batches as needed, stirring gently to help the liquid strain.
- Once strained, transfer DIY cold brew into a mason jar or airtight container and store in the fridge.
- Best served diluted at a 1:1 ratio with water, depending on how strong you like it. (For example, mix ½ cup water with ½ cup concentrate.)
- Yields 2½ cups (20 oz) cold brew concentrate.
Notes
Note on steeping time:
The longer your cold brew steeps, the more bitter the flavor will be. Keep in mind, you’ll likely dilute it with water when serving because cold brew is stronger than regular brewed coffee! For reference, Starbucks steeps their cold brew for 20 hours.Option for homemade iced coffee recipes:
If you’d rather not make your own cold brew concentrate, you can also just use regular, hot-brewed coffee to make homemade iced coffee! Simply brew coffee and allow to cool before storing in the fridge, or save any leftover coffee from the pot and refrigerate to use later.Basic Iced Coffee Recipe
Basic Iced Coffee Recipe
Ingredients
Basic Iced Coffee
- ½ cup cold brew concentrate
- ½ cup water
- ice cubes, to serve
- 2 Tbsp cream/milk of choice
Instructions
- Combine cold brew concentrate with water (or just use 1 cup leftover cold coffee).
- Pour over ice, add a splash of milk or cream if desired, and enjoy!
Notes
Check out this cold brew coffee concentrate story!
9 Comments on “Homemade Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate”
Looks good and I’m going to try it!
So glad you like the recipe, thank you! We’d love to know how your cold brew turns out and how you like it 🙂
Can I just use a French press to filter?
Hi April, good question! We’ve never tried using a French press to filter this cold brew recipe, but (based on my Googling) I know that it is possible to filter a batch of cold brew in a French press. However, you’d probably have to reduce the recipe amounts & make a smaller batch that will fit inside of your French press.
To make cold brew in a French press, just add the grounds & cover them with water, then let it steep for 12+ hours – but don’t press down the plunger yet. After it steeps, you’d press the plunger and pour it out. We’d love to know how it turns out if you do give it a try! 🙂
I’ve been told you don’t stir the grounds you let them naturally sink to the bottom and once they do then that means the caffeine was extracted but maybe there’s more than one day lol. I like your ratios provide seems simple and easy for me to follow. Didn’t quite get the 1:8:6 as an example type of ratio formations other sites prove. I feel like and I’m supposed to know the tablespoons or cups off that lolol. I like simple! I love cold brew but been having a hard time getting it to wake me up like Dutch bros coffee shop by me espresso brain boost wise body no problem. I like my body and brain to be both awake. So any suggestions what could be doing wrong and if need more strong than this or less strong welcome thanks in advance and thanks for providing this info!!!
I currently get 4-6 shots of espresso rated at 45mg caffeine a shot or double shot 90mg caffeine. How they rank less than average on a single shot from what online says should be 60mg caffeine I don’t get lol.
You look like a lovely nice person!
Good to read – but what a terrible miss mash of units! Must be a US site. What is so much easier is to do – grams of coffee to millilitres of water. That way it is simple, based on weight not volume, and you don’t have to get the variations in amounts that volume (cups, tsp, tbsp) gives. Have a look at the ChefSteps site – they make it clear how much easier it is.
Hi Mark, we’re glad you found this post useful! But yes, we are based in the US, and it is a pretty terrible mish-mash of units, isn’t it? I hope to be able to return to this post soon so I can update the measurements to grams and milliliters – it is a far simpler and more reliable system of measurement. Thank you for your feedback! 🙂
Cold brew always ready to go!
Yes we love this recipe, Joe! We think cold brew concentrate makes for the tastiest iced coffee 🙂