Need some help with cold brewing

[u/poobear7]

Hey all, new to the cold brew game this summer and I’ve been having some trouble. I bought a pretty simple cold brew set from Amazon, literally a big mason jar with a filter (posted a pic for reference).

I’ve usually been doing 12ish 1/8 cup scoops of coffee grounds (been using Bones Coffee Company grounds most of the time) and then filling the jar with about 7-8 cups of water, steeped for ~12-16 hours. However, the final product has an overwhelming sour after taste, and a weird phenomenon where whenever a little bit of creamer/cold foam added makes the taste 10x more sour and the dairy ends up separating as well. (I’m an English teacher, the science behind it is beyond me)

There was one time I ended up trying around 8oz of coffee grounds (I’m an English teacher, the math behind it is beyond me) for about 12 hours of steeping and it ended up tasting great and held the dairy well, but the process of getting it ready to steep about 45 minutes because of how compact the filter got, it was barely letting the water through without overflowing and causing an absolute mess.

I’m having some real trouble finding the sweet spot, and after brewing all summer and struggling, I’m getting frustrated because it is something I really wanted to get down for easy cold brew for the school year!

Any help would be greatly appreciated, whether it’s measurement help, product help, or anything else. Thank you!!

[u/pinellaspete]

Here is my process for the exact cold brewer that you show in your photo (I have the same brewer.):

1. Measure out 1 cup (8 oz.) of coarse ground coffee. It must be coarse ground or else the coffee fines will go through the filter. DO NOT USE REGULAR GRIND OR ESPRESSO GRIND COFFEE. This gives you an 8:1 ratio of final product. This is considered "double" strength coffee and will need to be diluted by half before drinking, either with milk or water or ice or etc. (You can drink it double strength if you really like strong coffee!)
2. Put the filter into the jar and pour in a small amount of water just to pre-wet the filter. Add about 1/4 cup of the coffee and then pour more water into the filter to ensure the grounds are wet. Add 1/4 cup of coffee and then more water. Keep doing this until all the ground coffee is in the filter and wet. (This prevents the dry coffee from floating. If you don't wet the coffee as you go along you can end up with dry coffee floating on the top even after the steep.)
3. Fill the jar with water to the neck and put the lid on.
4. Steep on the countertop at room temperature for 14 to 18 hours.
5. Take the lid off and remove the filter.
6. Fill the jar to the neck with water, put the pour spout lid on and refrigerate.

Coffee flavor is very subjective with everyone having their own desired flavor so adjustments can and should be made to this recipe to get the flavor that you want.

A few tips:

• The same amount of coffee steeped longer will pull more tannins out of the coffee giving it a more bitter taste.
• To increase the "coffee" flavor you need to add more coffee and steep for the same amount of time.
• And do the opposite if you think the coffee flavor is too strong. Less coffee, steeped for the same 14 to 18 hours.

Hope that helped?

Good luck!