Hi All,

Thought I'd share my experiences to date with my new Filtron cold brewer and also solicit input from posters. I've made two batches and results have varied. In each batch I used to the same single origin Ethopian (Yirgacheffe) coffee from Red Bird. I usually combine 5oz of cold brew with 10oz of water for consumption.

Method 1
Followed the Filtron instructions on the Blue Bottle Coffee site. I ground 1lb of beans with a grind consistent with what I do for drip. I added two liters of water to the ground coffee and let sit for 12 hours. The coffee was quite sweet, which I enjoyed. A few unfortunate notes:

- 1lb of ground coffee and two liters of water is way too much for the filtron.
- The filtron filter became plugged so I only received about 15oz of cold brew - major waste of coffee.

Method 2
Followed the Filtron instructions on the Stumptown site. I ground 12oz of beans with a grind consistent with what I do for french press. I added 56oz of water and let sit for 16 hours. The coffee was less sweet and had more chocolate type notes, which was still good, but I preferred sweet. A few notes:

- The Filtron filter didn't appear to be plugged, but I only received about 35-40oz of cold brew. I suspect the grounds hold a lot of water, which never makes it's way through the filter. Next time I may try to add closer to 70+oz so I can get closer to 56oz at the end.

Have you "played" (experimented) further with the filtron? I've just received mine yesterday but haven't had a chance to set it up, yet. I was thinking about trying 8 oz of coffee to about 36 or 38 oz of water? This will be my first time experimenting with cold brew. I just roasted a pound of fresh beans last night. I thought I would brew tomorrow night (Friday) after work. I'm thinking about brewing it in the fridge overnight.

Any advice would be appreciative.
Thx.

I did. My latest experiment went pretty well. I used 10oz of Ethiopian coffee, grinded coarsely, and filled the watter basin to the top line (I think it says 1lb). I let it sit 14 hours. This produced nearly 52oz of coffee extract.

Next try is 12oz of coffee, same time and water as above to maximize the extract produced.

The ratio is ~1:5 (coffee ounces / water ounces) so 8oz coffee/40oz water should be fine.

Thx. I'm kinda anxious to try it out, so I might start the brew tonight. I roasted a pound of Mexican Oaxaca from Blazing Bean the other night. Eight oz for the cold brew and the other eight for my morning coffee.

Now a roaster, that's what I'd like to try ... but I'm more of a go big or go home kind of guy. So hoping to get a Huky roaster or maybe a Mill City 1kg roaster.

I think roasting is the way to go. I've had my Behmor several years now. Hope it lasts a while longer.

Those would be nice :>), but $$, I'm thinking.

Bbdude wrote:Now a roaster, that's what I'd like to try ... but I'm more of a go big or go home kind of guy. So hoping to get a Huky roaster or maybe a Mill City 1kg roaster.

EXACTLY my problem, too. I'm not a fan of buying twice ... To the detriment of my bank account (and wife).

Would love to go somewhere and try a pro-consumer grade roaster to get my hands wet. La Colombe is here in Philly and offers training (as does Counter Culture), but nothing on pro-consumer roasters.

Even justifying costs by roasting for my friends is a long volume-based road. Figure a $5k 1lb roaster and ~$7 net profit per 12oz bag and you've got to sell ~700 12oz bags of coffee. 13 bags a week out of my home, while reasonable at say 2-3 hours of roasting a week, I don't think I'd be able to find that many customers.

2-3 years to pay of a $5k capital expense is a tough sell to the wife Maybe the roasters on here can find a way to justify it to us .... seems here in Philly the "small roaster" economy is saturated.

After extensive testing of the Filton/Toddy I might be able to improve your results and save you some money. Leave the 3rd wave stuff out of cold brew - trust me on this.

1) Stop using expensive Ethiopian beans and/or light roasted coffee and buy a bag of Pete's or other similar dark roast beans from the supermarket.

2) 1lb beans ground for french-press, fill water to the 2nd water mark (on Filtron), steep in fridge for 20 hours.

3) Serve ratio is 1:1 coffee to water.

Going to try that this weekend. Will report back. Nice avatar