How to Make Cold Brew in a French Press, With the Ratio

The cold brew coffee ratio

Cold brew uses much more coffee than hot coffee, because cold water pulls flavor out slowly. Most recipes make a concentrate, then dilute it to serve. These ratios are by weight, coffee to water.

We’d start with 1:8. It’s forgiving, fits easily in a French press, and once diluted 1:1 it ends up close to the strength of a regular cup of coffee. It’s also the cold brew ratio in our coffee ratio and grind size chart. A stronger concentrate saves fridge space and stands up to lots of milk, and a ready-to-drink ratio skips the dilution step.

Using a different size press? For a 12 oz (3-cup) press, use 30 g of coffee and 240 g of water. For a 51 oz (12-cup) press, use 120 g of coffee and 960 g of water. No scale? 80 g of coarse grounds is about 1 cup, and 640 g of water is about 2 2/3 cups.

How to make cold brew in a French press

1. Grind coarse: grind 80 g of coffee coarse, like coarse sea salt. Fine grounds slip through the mesh filter and make cold brew muddy and bitter.
2. Add water and stir: put the grounds in the press, pour in 640 g of cold or room-temperature filtered water, and stir gently until there are no dry clumps.
3. Steep: put the lid on with the plunger pulled all the way up, so the filter sits above the coffee. Leave it for 12 to 18 hours on the counter, or 18 to 24 hours in the fridge.
4. Press slowly: push the plunger down gently and steadily. Pressing hard forces fine grounds through the mesh.
5. Pour it off: pour the concentrate into a jar or bottle right away, instead of leaving it in the press on the grounds. For a cleaner cup, pour it through a paper coffee filter too.
6. Dilute and serve: mix the concentrate about 1:1 with cold water or milk, pour it over ice and taste. Add more concentrate for a stronger glass.

How long to steep cold brew

Steep cold brew for 12 to 18 hours at room temperature, or 18 to 24 hours in the fridge, where the colder water extracts more slowly. Shorter steeps taste lighter and brighter, and longer ones taste stronger and more chocolatey. Past about 24 hours, many people find it starts to taste woody or flat. An easy routine is to start it in the evening and press it the next day.

Cold brew grind size

Use a coarse grind, about the same as for hot French press coffee, or a notch coarser. Coarse grounds extract evenly over the long steep and are easy to filter out. If your cold brew tastes weak, grind a little finer or steep longer. If it tastes bitter or muddy, grind coarser. A burr grinder gives the most even coarse grind, and our guide to the best coffee grinder for home covers good options. If you buy ground coffee, look for a coarse or French press grind.

How to serve and store cold brew

Keep the concentrate undiluted in a sealed jar in the fridge. It keeps for up to about two weeks, though it tastes best in the first week. Dilute only what you’re about to drink. Once diluted, drink it within two or three days, and sooner if you’ve added milk. If it smells sour or looks cloudy or fizzy, throw it out.

Mix it with milk for an iced latte-style drink, add a splash of simple syrup, or freeze some cold brew in an ice cube tray so melting ice doesn’t water it down. For a hot cup, mix the concentrate with an equal amount of hot water.

Does cold brew have more caffeine?

It depends mostly on how strong you make it. Caffeine dissolves faster in hot water, but cold brew uses more coffee and steeps for hours, so a glass of diluted cold brew often has as much caffeine as a cup of hot coffee, or more. The undiluted concentrate is much stronger, so treat it like a shot, not a cup. Because recipes vary so much, there’s no single caffeine number for cold brew.

Is cold brew less acidic?

It tastes less acidic, and it’s usually smoother and less bitter than hot coffee. But a 2018 study from Thomas Jefferson University found that cold brew and hot coffee have about the same pH, both around 5. Hot coffee did have more total acids, which may be why it tastes brighter. So cold brew is gentler on the palate, but it isn’t a guaranteed fix for a sensitive stomach.

Cold brew vs iced coffee

Iced coffee is brewed hot, then cooled or poured straight over ice, so it’s ready in minutes and tastes brighter and more aromatic. Cold brew never touches hot water. It takes most of a day, but it comes out smoother, rounder and more chocolatey, with less bitterness. Light, fruity coffees often shine as iced coffee, and medium to dark roasts shine as cold brew. Our Ethiopian coffee guide has a simple iced pour-over recipe.

Best coffee for cold brew

Almost any coffee works, but medium to dark roasts with chocolate and nutty notes give the classic smooth, sweet cold brew. Low-acid origins are a natural fit, and coffees from Peru, Brazil and Sumatra all make rich, mellow cold brew. Light, fruity coffees like Ethiopians make a brighter, almost tea-like cold brew, which some people love. Whatever you choose, use whole beans roasted in the last few weeks and grind them just before brewing. Our guides to light, medium and dark roasts and storing coffee beans explain why.

Where this guide comes from

This is a researched recipe, not a lab-tested one. The 1:8 ratio matches our coffee ratio chart, and the steep times, grind and storage advice come from roaster and coffee-site cold brew guides, checked in October 2026, along with Thomas Jefferson University’s 2018 study of cold brew acidity. Recipes vary a lot, so treat these numbers as a starting point and adjust to taste.

Cold brew with Regions coffee

Two of our coffees list cold brew among their best uses. Noche Oscura del Peru is our darkest roast, with deep smoke, bittersweet dark chocolate and very little acidity, and it makes a bold, smooth cold brew. Campfire Fusion is a medium-dark blend of Guatemalan and Sumatran coffee with milk chocolate, dried fruit and a touch of smoke. Our coffees are listed as coming soon, so tap Notify me on any coffee to hear when it’s ready.

Noche Oscura del PeruPeru · DarkCampfire FusionGuatemala & Sumatra · Medium-dark