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Thought the fridge was king for 2 years, then a cafe owner in Boise set me straight
I used to brew a big batch in a mason jar in my fridge for 18 hours because everyone swore slow and cold was the way to go, but the last few batches came out weak and flat no matter what beans I tried, so when a cafe owner in Boise told me to just brew it on the counter at room temp for 12 hours I figured it could not hurt. Turns out the fridge was hiding the flavor the whole time, and my batches now taste way smoother and bolder with half the wait. Am I the only one who thinks room temp beats fridge brewing, or did I just get lucky with my ratio?
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skylerc8613d ago
18 hours in the fridge is actually on the long side for cold brew, and that's probably why your batches went flat. Most cold brew guides say 12 to 24 hours, but cold water pulls flavor way slower, so going that long can start to pull out bitter stuff while the good stuff stays locked in. Room temp speeds up the whole process because the water molecules move faster and grab the coffee oils and acids more easily, so 12 hours on the counter can taste stronger than 18 hours in the fridge. But here's the part people get wrong: it's not that room temp is always better, it's that your grind size and ratio have to match the temp. If you were using a coarse grind meant for fridge brewing, switching to room temp would over-extract it and make it bitter. Since yours came out smoother, you probably had a finer grind that the cold just could not get through.
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