Typically I’d make a pour over or espresso, but my A/C is out and I can’t even think about hot coffee. What is your favorite way to make iced coffee in a Chemex? I’ve got light roasts from Costa Rica, Burundi, and Ethiopia right now.
Japanese iced coffee!
- Take half your total pour over water weight and put that amount of ice in the bottom of the Chemex.
- Grind the usual amount of coffee for your Chemex brew.
- Brew with whatever method you usually do but half the water weight for each pour (so you end up with the same amount of water as usual when you add the ice)
Instantly cold but full strength because the ice doesn’t water it down when it melts!
Thanks for the tip! I tried this and ended up with an uneven extraction and slightly bitter cup—although that may be more due to the ratio than the brewing method. I typically brew pour overs at 1:17, but the recipe I found online was 1:4:7 ratio (48g coffee to 212g ice and 340g water). Since coffee extraction is non-linear, I don’t understand how brewing with half the hot water yields the same extraction (based on the dynamics of coffee extraction). What brewing ratio worked produces a more balanced cup for you?
EDIT: I should add I ground medium-sized (3 on a Fellow Ode Gen 1) and used 99° C water.
When I do japanese iced, I usually grind a tiny bit finer, and pour as slowly as I can. Just so the brew time isn’t halved. Not sure how proper that is, but it seems to work.
I follow James Hoffmann’s Japanese iced coffee recipe for V60 which for me yields a sweet, fruit tea-like cup with light roasts.
Tetsu Kasuya’s recipe of stuffing the brewer full of ice cubes and slowly letting them melt over the grounds would be hella fun to try though…
I’d also recommend Hoffman’s method, I grind quite a lot finer than I normally do, use closer to 1/11, and bloom for about a minute plus a slower pour.
Also I hold back 2-3 ice cubes and put them directly in my cup after serving. So instead of getting a lot of small almost melted cubes you have a few big ones making it nicer to drink.I believe it’s because I mostly drink delicate light roasted Ethiopian coffees that are a bit harder to extract for ice coffee.
I tried the Hoffman method today and it’s quite good (provided you pour the iced coffee over additional ice before drinking). I didn’t quite get a sweet fruit tea-like cup (like I usually do with a hot pourover light roast), but I certainly got more of the origin characteristics I was looking for.
I usually do the 4:6 method when brewing pour over. Yeah it’s older but I feel I get a more consistent cup even when I’m half asleep making it. Allowing most of the water to drain between pours seems to help with that. I’ve also done some wet WDT if the brew seems to stall to help make sure I meet my target brew time.
This is 100% the best way to quick brew iced coffee with any machine. I’ve made passably solid iced coffee in a drip machine that had the capability to turn the heating pad off.
Use a lot more ice than you’d think, by volume it’s very airy.
I like the George Howell method: https://georgehowellcoffee.com/pages/brew-guide-chemex-six-cup-for-one
It’s super easy and I’ve gotten great results using it for years now.
EDIT: Since I didn’t fully read the title I mentioned my favorite hot method bonk. But for iced I use the same method except that I grind a little finer, use half the full weight of water as ice in the Chemex, then do the 3 pulses at half the regular amount of the recipe.
I’ve done full strength but half the water brewed then into a blender with ice and it turns out ok
All of this has made me wonder about doing a hot bloom on my cold brew kit. In other words, pour a small amount of hot water onto the grounds to start with to get some aromatics and nice characteristics, which will filter down quite quickly given the coarse grind, as well as serving to wet the grounds, then set up the cold drip and put it in the fridge. Hmm…
Just set this up. 30g coffee, course ground, 50g boiling water poured onto the grounds then a pre-wetted aeropress filter placed on top to help with dispersal. Dripper set up on top with 180g ice (i.e. the ice that I had ready) and 220g cold water set to one drip ever 2 seconds. All put in the fridge. I’ll see how it turns out and whether the pre-bloom adds anything.
