So, how do I make good, strong, black coffee at home?

Yes

first time cold brewer here, used the oxo kit

>10 oz dark italian roast, coarse grind
>3.5 cups water

it's firewater. cold espresso. a little goes a very long ways. never buying $5 cold brews AGAIN.

for repeatable results you will need:
-a digital scale (~10 bucks amazon)
-a digital thermometer (~5 bucks amazon)
-a 6 cup chemex (paper or cloth filter will do. metal filters work as well, but they leave sediment)
-ideally a pouring kettle (with a flow restrictor even better), but a measuring cup with a spout can certainly do the trick
-a burr grinder
-your coffee of choice
for a 6 cups chemex, i like to use 45 grams of coffee and 750 ml 9grams) of water.
what i do is either weigh out 750 grams of water or fill a measuring cup to 750 ml. toss that into a kettle, bring to a boil.

i rinse my paper filter while its in the chemex under hot water (i use the spray attachment on my sink) and keep the hot water in the chemex until i'm ready to brew.
grind your coffee (for a chemex i aim a little finer than a flat bottom drip setting, your grinder's particle size will vary).
pour your boiling water into your pouring vessel, this usually brings the temp down a bit to where i want it to be. i aim for 202-200F. if its too hot, you can just stir the water around until it gets closer to a proper brewing temperature.

because youve already weighed/measured out your water, theres no need to brew on top of a scale to keep track of your water weight. so use up all of the water in your pouring vessel (minimal water is lost to steam when boiling)
saturate your coffee grounds slowly. this should take about 45 seconds.
once the first drips start to hit the bottom, your coffee bed is saturated and you can start your pour.

pour in a spiral going outwards from the middle, but don't touch the edge of the filter. sprial back in and out. keep the water level about an inch from the top. this stage here should take about 4 minutes, so dont pour too fast.
if your water drained out too fast, make your grind finer. too slow, make grind coarser. i've used this method with a TDS meter and hit ~20% extraction yields consistently.

you should try some properly roasted coffee that has something interesting about it (like a naturally processed ethiopian). it makes for a fantastic cold brew. slightly finer than french press grind setting, 454g of coffee and add water so your total yield is 1 gallon. filter through 2.5 micron mesh to remove trace sediment. you'll find way more flavors than an italian roast which is just carbon flavor as opposed to fruit or sweetness that can be found in a light-medium roast.

Good shot today.

>
>>~16:1 ratio
>By weight or volume?
>what water temperature?

Water must go in at 205f or below and must come out at 195f or above.

Why not just use a scale, use 2x or 3x the coffee weight for the initial pour to bloom, wait 30 seconds for the bloom, and try to finish the pour by 3:00 and the brew by 4:30-5:00 like is usually recommended for a Chemex?

Also, if you start at 200f you have no chance of staying above 195f by the end of the brew process.

Also, I'd use 16.6666666:1 water to coffee ratio.

>buy bean
>put them in the kettle
>press the go

ez

STRONG

>le good coffee is "strong" coffee meme

And a french press with freshly roasted beans and decent burr grinder to grind them fresh. Ideally a scale to measure out exactly that nice 1:14 to 1:17 ratio of coffee to water by mass.

t-thanks for this, user. batch #2 will be brewed this weekend. i'll try to find a roast that you would enjoy & report back.

i'm really, really enjoying these digits