Cold Brew Ratio and Recipe: Concentrate or Ready to Drink

The most common cold brew ratio is 1:8, one part coffee to eight parts water by weight, which makes a concentrate you dilute before drinking. If you want cold brew you can pour straight from the jar, the Hario Mizudashi guides use about 1:12, steeped overnight in the fridge.

Below is a recipe for each, a table that scales them to the jar you have, how much to dilute, and how long it keeps. Every number comes from a roaster's or maker's published recipe, and each one is named.

The recipe

Concentrate (dilute before drinking)

1. Weigh coffee and water at 1:8. For a quart jar, that's 100 g of coffee to 800 g of water.
2. Grind coarse. Counter Culture describes its cold brew grind as "medium-coarse setting, like kosher salt."
3. Stir until every ground is wet, cover, and leave it 16 to 20 hours at room temperature. Ceremony Coffee recommends that window: "16 hours is going to taste a little brighter, 20 hours will be sweeter and rounder."
4. Strain through a paper filter. Don't squeeze the grounds.
5. Serve 1 part concentrate to 1 part cold water or milk, over ice, and adjust from there.

Ready to drink (no dilution)

1. Weigh coffee and water at about 1:12. Equator Coffees' Mizudashi recipe uses 100 g of coarse coffee to 5 cups of room-temperature water and calls the result "mellow, refreshing."
2. Steep in the fridge 12 to 14 hours (Equator). Prima Coffee's version, 80 g of coffee to 1,000 mL of water, steeps 12 to 18 hours in the fridge.
3. Remove the grounds and serve it as it is.

BrewMark's own cold brew concentrate guide follows the first recipe: 1:8, 16 hours at room temperature, diluted 1:1. If you'd rather make it in a French press, see cold brew in a French press.

Cold brew ratios, side by side

Recipes disagree because some brew a strong concentrate and some brew a drink. Here is what each source publishes, coffee to water by weight:

Ceremony's 55 g is its own example; the water is that dose times eight. Counter Culture's 1,600 g is its 300 g of hot bloom water plus 1,300 g of room-temperature water. Ceremony adds that if you want a stronger concentrate, "try brewing closer to 1:5 or 1:6."

So there are three useful zones. 1:4 to 1:5 is a strong concentrate that takes a lot of water or milk. 1:8 is the middle, the ratio most roasters start at. Around 1:12 is a drink.

Ratio table by batch size

Pick your jar, then read across. Water is in grams, which is the same as milliliters for water. Cups use 1 cup = 237 mL, the conversion the Seattle Coffee Gear Toddy guide uses.

The 7-cup row is the size of a Toddy batch; the Toddy recipe itself uses 340 g, which is the 1:5 column. For any other size, divide the water by the ratio, or let the brew calculator do it.

You get back less than you put in. The grounds hold water. The Toddy guide says its 1.65 L of water yields about 28 to 32 oz of concentrate, and OXO's 700 mL yields 16 oz. The stronger the ratio, the more you lose, so brew a little more than you think you need.

Steep time, fridge or counter

Cold brew steeps for a long time, and where you leave it matters.

• On the counter: OXO says 12 to 24 hours. Ceremony says 16 to 20. Perfect Daily Grind's recipe says "typically anywhere between 18 and 24 hours."
• In the fridge: OXO says 20 to 24 hours. The Toddy guide says 12 to 24 hours in the fridge, and that 18 to 24 hours "produces a stronger, more robust concentrate." The Mizudashi guides use 12 to 18.

OXO is the one maker here that gives both, and its fridge window starts eight hours later than its counter window. Cold slows extraction. If you move your jar into the fridge, add hours rather than more coffee.

Counter Culture's recipe is a shortcut: it blooms the grounds with 300 g of water at 170°F for three minutes, then adds room-temperature water and refrigerates for "at least six hours." The hot start is what lets it finish that fast. Ceremony suggests the same trick for a 16-hour steep, with three times as much hot water as coffee for the bloom.

If a batch tastes weak, the Toddy guide says to steep longer (up to 24 hours) or add coffee. If it's too strong, dilute more or steep less.

How much to dilute

Only concentrate needs diluting. The right amount depends on how strong you brewed it:

• Toddy (1:5): 1 part concentrate to 1 part water, milk or ice, per the Seattle Coffee Gear guide and Equal Exchange. For hot coffee, Seattle Coffee Gear says 1 part concentrate to 1 to 2 parts hot water.
• OXO (1:4): "a 1:2 or 1:3 ratio of coffee concentrate to water or milk." For 60 mL of concentrate, that's 120 to 180 mL of water or milk.
• Counter Culture (1:8): start at 1 to 1 for black cold brew. For an iced latte, 2 oz of cold brew to 6 oz of milk.
• Ceremony (1:8): less than half as much water as concentrate. Its starting point is 1 to 0.4.
• Perfect Daily Grind (1:8): one-third concentrate, two-thirds water or milk.

Notice the 1:8 sources disagree with each other, from 1 to 0.4 up to 1 to 2. That's taste, not error. Start in the middle (1 to 1) and adjust the next glass. Dilute by the glass, not the jar, so the concentrate keeps its flexibility.

How long cold brew keeps

The sources split by recipe, and it's worth taking each at its word:

• Concentrate: the Toddy guide says it "will stay fresh for up to two weeks in your refrigerator." Perfect Daily Grind also says up to 14 days.
• Ready to drink or lighter brews: Equator says Mizudashi cold brew is "best consumed within 3 days of brewing." Ceremony, at 1:8, says "for best flavor, consume within 2-3 days."

Keep it covered, in the fridge, with the grounds removed. If yours tastes flat before then, brew smaller batches more often.

Grind for cold brew

Cold brew wants a coarse grind. The Toddy guide puts it at "the coarseness of raw sugar or coarse salt" and warns that too fine "clogs the felt filter and slows or stops drainage." Hario's own Mizudashi page gives the one exception: grind coarse "for a lighter more delicate coffee, or finer for a cold brew with more body and strength."

The full grind discussion, with troubleshooting, is in cold brew grind size. Here is where to start on your dial.

Starting settings on popular grinders

Starting points from BrewMark's settings pages, which take them from each maker's own chart where one exists (rows marked * are estimated on the same dial). Every grinder drifts; adjust by taste.

To see cold brew next to every other method, use the master grind size chart. If you're choosing a grinder, start with the grinder finder set to cold brew. Cold brew uses a lot of coffee per batch, so a dial that reaches coarse easily matters more than fine-end precision.

Next steps

• Find your grinder in the grinder settings hub, or compare methods on the grind size chart.
• Brew a batch with the BrewMark cold brew concentrate guide, scaled with the brew calculator.
• Read what cold brew and immersion brewing mean.
• Batch tastes harsh? Work through how to fix bitter coffee.