How to Make Cold Brew Coffee at Home (Small-Kitchen Method)

What you need to make cold brew

The minimum kit is a wide-mouth quart jar or pitcher, a fine mesh strainer, a paper coffee filter or a clean cotton cloth, and a scale or measuring cups. A kitchen scale makes the ratio repeatable, but a measuring cup works if you stick with the same coffee and the same container each time.

Coffee is the part that changes the result most. Use a coarse grind, close to the texture of raw sugar or coarse sea salt. Fine grounds over-extract, turn the brew bitter and clog the filter. If you buy whole beans, ask the store to grind them coarse, or use a burr grinder on its coarsest settings. Medium and dark roasts give the chocolatey, low-acid cup most people expect from cold brew, while light roasts taste fruitier and sometimes thin.

The ratio: concentrate or ready to drink

Cold brew is usually made as a concentrate and cut afterward. A ratio of 1 part coffee to 4 or 5 parts water by weight gives a strong concentrate. For example, 100 grams of coffee with 400 to 500 grams of water. Dilute it about 1 to 1 with water, milk or ice when you serve it.

If you would rather skip the dilution step, brew at roughly 1 part coffee to 8 parts water by weight. It tastes closer to regular coffee over ice, but you need a bigger container for the same number of cups, which matters in a small fridge. Concentrate saves shelf space because a quart jar of it makes about two quarts of drinkable coffee.

As a worked example, 4 ounces of coffee (about 115 grams) with 2 cups of water makes a modest first batch. Taste it once diluted, and change only one thing per batch: the ratio, the steep time or the grind. Changing everything at once makes it hard to know what fixed the flavor.

Step by step in a jar

Add the ground coffee to the jar, pour in the water, and stir gently so every ground is wet. Cover the jar and leave it for 12 to 18 hours. Room temperature on the counter extracts a little faster, and the fridge is slower and gives a slightly cleaner flavor. If you taste it at 12 hours and it is weak, give it a few more hours. Past about 24 hours it usually turns woody and bitter.

To strain, pour the brew through the mesh strainer into a second container, then pour it again through a paper filter or cloth to catch the fine sediment. The second pass is slow, so let it drip while you do something else instead of pressing on the grounds, which pushes bitter solids through. Pour the finished coffee into a clean bottle or jar with a lid.

When a dedicated cold brew maker is worth it

A jar is fine for occasional batches. If you drink cold brew most days, a purpose-built pitcher with a built-in mesh filter removes the double straining step and usually stands upright in a fridge door. Look for a slim pitcher that fits your shelf, a fine filter that holds back sediment and a lid that seals tightly so the pitcher does not leak or pick up fridge odors.

Our guide to cold brew coffee makers for small kitchens compares compact pitchers and brewers by capacity and footprint. If you also make hot coffee by hand, the manual brewers guide covers a French press, which can double as a cold brew vessel: add coffee and cold water, steep, then press the plunger down slowly to strain.

See cold brew coffee makers →

Storing and serving cold brew

Keep cold brew in a sealed container in the fridge. Concentrate holds its flavor for roughly a week to 10 days, and diluted coffee is best within a few days. Use glass or another non-porous material because plastic can hold onto old coffee smells. Label the jar with the brew date so you do not have to guess.

Space is the main constraint in a small fridge. Tall, slim bottles use the door shelf, while a square or rectangular pitcher stacks better than a round jar. If you make a double batch, split it between two bottles so you only open one at a time, which keeps the second one fresher.

For serving, pour over ice and top with water or milk, taste, and adjust. A handheld frother or a small electric frother can whip a little milk or cream into a cold foam. Cold brew also freezes well in ice cube trays, which gives you coffee cubes that will not water down an iced drink.

Compare small milk frothers →

Frequently asked questions

How long does it take to make cold brew coffee? Plan on 12 to 18 hours of steeping, plus 10 to 15 minutes for straining. Starting it in the evening means it is ready the next morning.

Can I use regular ground coffee? You can, but pre-ground drip coffee is usually fine, so it over-extracts quickly and clogs filters. Coarse or French press grind gives a cleaner result. If all you have is fine grounds, shorten the steep to 8 to 12 hours and strain through a paper filter.

Why is my cold brew weak or sour? Weak cold brew usually means too little coffee, too short a steep or a grind that was too coarse. Try a 1 to 4 ratio and a 16 hour steep next time. Sourness points to under-extraction, so steep longer rather than adding more coffee.

Does cold brew have more caffeine than hot coffee? It depends on the ratio. Concentrate is high in caffeine per ounce, but once you dilute it to drinking strength it lands in the same general range as a regular cup of coffee.