Cold Brewing coffee - does it use more beans?

Question

Our Percolator is about to break down and we're in the midst of making a decision about our next coffee solution:

a universal percolator
a new percolator
a keurig (with our own coffee)
cold brew.

How coffee efficient is cold brew? I understand that one gets a concentrate from it and depending on the recipe it can vary greatly. However I want to know if we switch to cold brew and consume the same amount of coffee, will we be using more coffee (beans) as a result?

How feasible is it for a couple that consume 3 three cup servings+ each a day to have enough supply where we're making a brew once every say 5 days?

This is anecdoctal, but I would suggest trying to use your normal quantity of coffee and let it sit overnight, and see what you think of the flavor. Also, I've never heard of using cold brewed coffee for later reheating - only for making iced coffee because it doesn't transfer a lot of the harsher qualities of light-roasted coffee. — Matthew, Jun 02 '13 at 22:50

score 5 · Accepted Answer · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:33

Obviously, this will depend on your personal preferences and how you brew the coffee.

The canonical measurement is about 2 tablespoons of coffee per 6 ounce cup, or about 2 3/4 cups of ground coffee per gallon of water.

Typical ratios for cold brew coffee, such as suggested Chow are 1.75 cups of coffee to 3 1/2 cups of water for the concentrate, which would then be diluted by a like amount of water for drinking. That is a ratio of 1.75 cups of coffee to 7 cups of water, or about 3 3/4 cups of coffee per gallon of water (I am generously assuming the ratio is based on measuring cups, not "coffee" cups).

So the cold brewing method uses about 1.35 times more beans than the traditional methods.

You will have to decide if you prefer the flavor of the cold brewed coffee enough to justify the increased amount of beans required.

As to whether you can produce enough, that depends on what equipment you have, how much trouble you are willing to go to, and how much storage space you have. There is nothing about cold brewed coffee that would prevent you from producing the concentrate in large quantities. At the volume you specify (assuming you mean a 6 ounce "coffee" cup, and it is three cups between the two of you), you would need about 45 ounces of concentrate for a week, which is about 1.5 quarts (or liters).

Cold Brewing coffee - does it use more beans?

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