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I just joined your server as a lemmy.world migrant and I’m a bit hesitant to resurrect old threads. 🥹
I’m getting started with Cold Brewing and the recipe I’m following says steep for 10-12hours, while the comments here says 20hours.
Is there a chance of over-extracting using the cold brew method? I’m usually either using dark roast robusta or dark roast arabica.
Thank you!
No worries, a week old in a not overly active community means nothing ;-)
I’ve yet to overextract a cold brew, though I guess it’s possible. What you could do to try is getting those small tea eggs (you know, those egg-shaped metal thingies meant to infuse water with tea) and break down the coffee to water ratio onto single cup volume. That way if you overextract at last you don’t waste a whole carafe.
You could even run an experiment with 5 cups or so and sample them in 4h intervals until you reach your personal sweet spot.
Oh and it also makes a difference whether you’re extracting at room temperature or in the fridge. Some people here commented 12h @room, others 20h in the fridge, so that might also apply to your recipe.
I do mine in the fridge, so it seems that 20h is the way to go.
I love the tea egg suggestion! I’ll definitely try this tonight! I drown my failed attempts in milk and chocolate syrup, it never occured to me to make smaller batches 🤦
Thank you so much and will update with the results tomorrow.
I’ve definitely drowned a bunch of failures as well in the past… Some were so vile I had to dump them altogether, but most were salvageable with some creamer… I found that oat milk actually works better to lift them up than regular milk. Somehow it adds to the texture.
Update: Tried 15h, 20h, 48h (still in progress)
The 15h is certainly under extracted as there’s hints of sourness.
The 20h didn’t have any sour taste, but tasted quite bitter. I compared it with my store bought cold brew, which tastes great. I’ll try to experiment more on the grind size or different beans.
I actually DIY my plant milks as well as its super expensive here (developed cow milk intolerance lately 🥲 ). Been rotating between oat milk and cashew milk. I think I prefer cashew milk to my coffee though there are times I crave coffee + oat.
Oh wow, I never tried to extract anything beyond 24h, really cool! Looking forward to the 48h results, thanks a lot for sharing!
Will give cashew milk a try as well. I had almond, oat, soy and rice milk, but never cashew so far. I love the nuts though, so that sounds like a no brainer.
If you plan on DIY-ing cashew milk, I suggest to use “raw diced cashews” variety as it’s half the price of a regular cashews.
Update on the 48h. I actually forgot about it and steeped for another 10h. So a total of 58h. Surprisingly, it’s the best tasting of the 3 I did. I actually drank it black, it’s good without adding anything. Or maybe I developed a preference for over extracted coffee. Lol
Thank you so much for your advice, I would have been cursed forever with underextracted cold brew without it! I wish you all the best coffee in the world!! ☕☕
Sounds excellent! Maybe I’ll give that a try after my holidays, departing Tuesday and that might be cutting it a bit too close.
Going to experiment with the cashew milk as well when I’m back. Will probably have to order them online, all I can get in store is already roasted and often salted, so that probably won’t cut it.
Any starter suggestions for a noob?
Total noob as in you drink coffee but have no real preference, or you already know your likes & dislikes and want to get into making your own, or what exactly are you aiming for?
I like blonde roasts, occasionally a mocha. Right now I make my own coffee using a reusable filter in a keurig. What would be the first step to upgrade? Aeropress? Espresso?
Aeropress is a great step forward since it’s so versatile. You can brew with light/coarse and dark/fine grounds, and anything in between. You won’t be able to recreate an actual espresso since you simply can’t develop the required pressure over a large outlet (surface-wise), but with all the other variables (beans, roast, grind size, coffee to water ratio, water temp, steeping time) you can really maximize the use for a comparably low investment. Definitely my favorite brewer based on the many applications and recipes out there.
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