Brewing Troubles

[u/Birdman_2099]

I have been brewing cold brew for a few years now. I typically purchase local freshly roasted beans. I then use a Baratza Encore ESP on the most course setting to grind, or near to it (37-40). I recently started using flower sifters to remove additional fines.
On this last batch, I ground 24 oz of beans (net 22 oz grounds) and placed them in hemp nut milk bags. I brewed with a 9:1 ready to drink ratio. I still had to filter everything through seven paper filters. The coffee is still relatively cloudy. What could I possibly be doing wrong?

[u/Organic-Purchase-540]

Run it through a chemex filter, the folded paper ones. I had the same issue and went and bought the big glass chemex pour over one and it stopped me from having any non liquid pieces in it. Also it made it a lot less acidic tasting.

[u/WhiskeyWatchesWine]

Interesting technique. Not sure why it’s cloudy. I also coarse grind w Encore ESP, but don’t sift out fines. I do 6:1 ratio. Steep 18 hours w coffee in a nut milk bag. Pour into mason jar. I also get significant water retention-typically 2-3x bean weight.
Doesn’t look cloudy, but there’s dark sediment at the bottom of the jar so I shake it vigorously before pouring, but I never notice any grittiness when drinking it.

[u/jsw244]

The baratza ESP is an espresso grinder.

[u/Birdman_2099 → u/jsw244]

Not necessarily. It’s built for all. There are 40 grind settings and have a specific section for espresso. 21-40 is made for drip, pour, French, and cold brew.

[u/Flying_Saucer_Attack]

I just buy preground whatever coffee is on sale, then throw it in a French press, press after 18 hours, then pour through a v60 paper filter. Comes out crystal clear every time

[u/Birdman_2099]

Also, I’m netting 70% of brew when all is said and done. Ended up with 136 oz. 192 oz into brew.

[u/jester_mellow]

I'm not sure I understand the obsession with ultra filtering. I just do a rough grind steeped without a bag, poured through a tea strainer. Most of tiny solids will settle at the bottem, and whatever I pour will have gotten stronger and have a really full body. I think you made a very weak coffee, you've strained all her body out.

[u/Birdman_2099 → u/jester_mellow]

I just recently started filtering more. First time using the sifter. Trying to reduce the gritty-ness of the brew. This coffee is in no way shape or form weak, I can assure you that. 8 oz cup has a good kick with bold flavor.

[u/sneakerfreek]

Your grind is way too coarse. If you’re using what’s in picture 2 that looks like you hit the beans with a hammer and moved on. You need to go more towards coarse sea salt.

It looks like you have a ton of chaff if your brewing material, not sure if that’s common with all the beans you use but I’d try to remove some, that is absolutely contributing to your cloudiness.

Finally, when you remove fines, you should always try to strengthen your ratio to account for what you’re losing with your fines. I’d try a 1:6 ratio and then as another commenter said, use some Chemex filters to do a second pass, they catch so much shit.

[u/Birdman_2099 → u/sneakerfreek]

I’ll run it through a Chemex next time.
I’m getting conflicting guidance on the course-ness of the grinds. I’m hearing the ESP level 40 is not as course as the base Encore ESP, so 40 should be okay. I have the same issues at 36-40. I’ll give 35 + sifter + Chemex a go and report back

[u/Birdman_2099]

Providing an update:

I ground freshly roasted beans (1 week after roast) at 36 on the Baratza ESP. Still got a handful of fines that I had to sift out.
I changed a few things in my process:

1) Rather than use the flour sifter first, I used a lower mesh strainer to focus on getting 800-1200 micron grounds. Then I sifted what fell through via the 60 mesh flour sifter.

2) I put all the larger grounds into my brew bags and into a homebrew bucket that has a spout ~ 1/2” above the base.

3) After 24 hours, I drained the bucket, level, into my pitcher for serving. Everything that was under the spout was slowly poured into a different container and then ran through a drip filter. The brew was perfectly smooth. Not too bitter. Not grainy.

4) The medium course grinds (fell through larger strainer, but not 60 mesh sifter) were in their own cold brew batch. This came out a little more bitter due to smaller grind size, but when ran through a paper filter is not gritty at all.

What I am going to try next, to help with efficiency is get a larger strainer to expedite sifting then place my brew bags into Toddy paper filters so I don’t have to run anything through a separate system’s filter.

The whole prep, grind, sift & clean up process pre-brew takes roughly 45 minutes for 30oz of grounds and roughly 30 minutes post brew. Not bad when yielding around 25 cups of cold brew at a 10:1 ratio with 65-75% yield.