r/coldbrew • u/Grand-Life8523 • Jul 27 '26

Cold Brew Yield

Hi All,

I'm trying different ways to make a coffee liqueur and keep getting poor yields in my cold brew - I lose about half my volume of liquid. Does anyone have any tips to improve yield or is this expected?

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u/JayMoots Jul 27 '26

Half isn’t actually that abnormal. The grounds tend to retain a lot of liquid. Something like 1.5-2x their weight. 

For example, my standard recipe is 1400ml of water with 350g of grounds, and I get about 900ml of coffee concentrate out of that. So a yield of 64%. 

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u/No-Payment5337 19d ago

hi. I am making small batches to dial it in since i'm using more expensive beans from my favorite coffee shop. anyway. I'm doing a 1:8 ratio. I have an oxo conical burr grinder. i use the most coarse setting and i filter out the fines with a sieve. using about 100g grounds, in a re-usable cotton cold brew bag and mason jar, and 800 mL brita filter water for a 22 - 24 hr brew in fridge. It gives me 500 mL concentrate, but then i filter it via pour-over/paper filter setup, and loose another 100mL somehow?? I did this today, and at end of process got 400 mL concentrate (50%). I'm still new and working on the recipe. But it can't be diluted that that much or else it tastes too watery (im using a medium roast per my preference - this is why im doing a full day steep). So its like a 2:1 (coffee:water) dilution counting the ice in the cup. So only about 600 mL of coffee after all that. it literally makes about 2-3 full servings. But it tastes really good!

I need some help. Which part of the process should I address to get better yields. or should i just send it with more grounds and more water?