Everything Cold Coffee

If there is one thing I love, it is cold coffee. I am not the one to just drink cold coffee in the summer either. Currently it is seven degrees outside and I am writing this blog with an iced latte next to me. This passion for cold coffee has driven Storyline to master some cold brewing techniques. I use that verbiage purposefully. Cold brew is one of many brewing methods. As well as flash brew, iced coffee, and cold drip. 

That last one, cold drip, is what I am most interested in. Before we dive deep into cold drip coffee I want to share what us here at Storyline believe is the secret to our amazing cold brew. We bloom our cold brew with boiling hot water. 

Just like your morning pour over ritual starts with blooming the grounds. We do the same to our cold brew batches on a much larger scale. We take a large pot of boiling water and pour that over 5 lbs of coarsely ground coffee. What this does is it releases almost all of the acidity in the coffee. (Don't believe me, next time you do a pour over bloom it and then taste it) This gives our cold brew a pop of flavor that cold brew is sometimes lacking. We then quickly follow up the bloom with iced water and simply follow a 1 gallon to 1 lb ratio. We let this brew for 18 hours. 

Next is our second secret. We hop it. We dry hop our cold brew for one hour using hops that pair well with the flavor notes of the cold brew we are making. 

We then pull all the grounds and hops out and filter the cold brew. So total it has brewed 19 to 20 hours depending. Hate hoppy beers, don't worry. We did a blind tasting with customers and almost everyone preferred the cold brew with hops over the one that was not. 
This takes me to the next point. Cold drip coffee. What is cold drip coffee well you have probably seen a tower like this one on display at a shop. 
How it works is simple. It drips ice cold water at 1 drip per second over coarse ground coffee. The result is a faster, stronger, more flavorful cup of coffee. Which brings me back to the entire reason I explained everything about our cold brew process. We are in the works of creating a process to bloom this coffee and create a cold drip coffee we can sell to you all. Let me know your methods or ideas when it comes to cold brew, flash brews, or cold drip coffee. 
Quick summary:
  • Bloom your cold brew
    • Blooming is what releases most of the acidity in coffee 
  • Dry hop your cold brew
  • Cold drip is 1 drip per second of ice water
    • Faster 
    • More Caffeine
    • Better flavors  

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