Name: Cold Brew Concentrate Recipe: Simple 1:4 Ratio
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 12 h
Total time: 12 h 15 min
Ingredients: 240 g (8.5 oz) Coffee, ground coarse, whole bean ground at home, or a bag sold in a cold brew coarse grind; 960 g (33.9 oz) Cold or room-temperature water, about 960 mL

Ingredients

240 g8.5 ozCoffee, ground coarsewhole bean ground at home, or a bag sold in a cold brew coarse grindEquator Coffees Cold Brew Blend, Fair Trade Organic

960 g33.9 ozCold or room-temperature waterabout 960 mL

US units are rounded. Weigh coffee and water if you can: a scale is how these ratios stay the same from batch to batch.

Steps

Weigh 240 g of coffee. If you grind it yourself, grind coarse, like coarse sea salt.

Put the coffee in a lidded jar or pitcher that holds at least 1.5 L. Pour in 960 g of water and stir until every ground is wet.

Cover and leave at room temperature for 12 hours.

Strain through a fine mesh strainer, then again through a paper filter or clean cloth. Let it drain on its own; don't press the grounds.

Pour the concentrate into a clean sealed jar and refrigerate. You should have about 480 mL.

To drink: mix 1 part concentrate with 2 parts cold water or milk over ice. OXO suggests 1:2 or 1:3, Toddy 1:2.

This is the base for every drink on the site. One batch makes about 480 mL of concentrate, enough for four 360 mL glasses at a 1:2 dilution, and it keeps in the fridge so you can make it once and build drinks all week.

Where the numbers come from

Ratio, 1:4 by weight. This is the calculator’s default concentrate ratio, and OXO’s own recommendation. OXO’s instructions work out to 1:4.2, Filtron’s to 1:4.2 and Toddy’s to 1:5.6, so 1:4 is the strong end of what the makers publish.
Steep, 12 hours. Inside the 8–24 hours the maker instructions give (OXO and Filtron 12–24, Toddy 8–24). In one study, caffeine levelled off at 6–7 hours at room temperature; the steep time Lab file covers what that does and doesn’t tell you about flavor.
Yield, about 480 mL. The grounds keep roughly 2 g of water per gram of coffee, so 960 g of water gives 960 − 2 × 240 = 480 mL. That retention figure is an estimate, and makers’ published yields run from 1.3 to 2.1 g/g, so your yield may differ.

Storing it

Keep it sealed in the fridge and plan to use it within about a week; the storage Lab file has the sources. For a different batch size, use the scale link above.