Making Cold Brew Coffee in a French Press

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The best method for making cold brew is to immerse coffee grounds directly in water using a glass container. It seems logical then that a French Press coffee maker would fit the bill quite nicely. I did some testing and here is what I discovered:

How to make cold brew coffee in a french press?

French press coffee makers are made of glass and have a built in filter system that does not contact the coffee during brewing, minimizing off flavors from the brewing method.

To make cold brew in a French press, measure out your coffee. In this example I am using a small pot from Ikea.

Place the grounds in the coffee pot and cover with filtered water. Put the lid on with the filter in the uppermost position. Make sure the lid is positioned so that the pour spout is closed off, minimizing the amount of oxygen that enters the vessel during brewing.

Allow the mixture to sit for 12-24 hours at room temperature, or in the fridge if you prefer (I recommend the fridge).

When brewing is complete, slowly press down on the plunger until you meet light resistance. Open the lid to allow pouring.

If you used coarsely ground coffee from a burr grinder (i.e. coffee with an even particle size) then you should be able to pour and enjoy.

TIP: I tend to pour slowly so that any residual coffee sediment not filtered out stays at the bottom of the pot.

If you used ground coffee from an electric grinder, or a finer grind, you will probably want to double filter your coffee to remove sediment.

Now, paper filters do absorb some coffee oils so keep that in mind when deciding whether to do any additional filtering. Coffee oils impact the flavor profile. There is no right or wrong answer, it is personal preference–clear coffee or a trace of coffee oils but with sediment as the trade-off.

In the photos above, the left photo used pre-ground supermarket coffee (usually medium grind) pouring right away and just normal pouring technique.

The right hand photo shows the result when I let the coffee settle for a minute after plunging, and then poured slowly, leaving the last tablespoon or so of coffee in the french press.

Quite a difference don’t you think?

What are the advantages of using a French press?

• The filter is larger, allowing the flavorful coffee oils to remain in the brew
• Easy, all in one solution that is readily available
• Inexpensive equipment

What are the disadvantages of using a French press?

• May be coffee sediment in your brew
• Double filtration to remove sediment may remove coffee oils (especially with paper filters)

Overall, this is a method that I use myself interchangeably with the mason jar technique. Both are cold brew by immersion and both make a great cup of cold brew if you remember my 4 golden rules of great cold brew coffee.