Commercial cold brew runs in eight steps: weigh and grind the coffee coarse, combine it with cold water at a set ratio, steep it in the cooler, filter it, dilute the concentrate, bottle it, date it, and keep it cold. Steeping in the cooler, not on a counter, matters: cold brew isn't acidic enough to keep at room temperature, so it's a refrigerated drink from the steep to the café's fridge, and its use-by date comes from the maker's own shelf life study. Filtering well, through a coarse screen and then a fine filter, keeps the bottles clear and stops the extraction. In the example below, an Oʻahu cold brew maker runs a batch.
The short version
- Eight steps: weigh, grind, combine, steep, filter, dilute, bottle, date.
- Grind coarse and weigh coffee and water at a set ratio.
- Steep in the cooler, not on the counter.
- Filter twice: a coarse screen, then a fine filter.
- Cold brew is a refrigerated drink, start to finish.
- Date every bottle from your shelf life study.
- TaroStack records each batch with its coffee lot. More below.
The eight steps
| Step | What happens | What to record |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Weigh | Coffee and water weighed at the recipe's ratio | Coffee lot, weights |
| 2. Grind | Ground coarse | Grind setting |
| 3. Combine | Coffee and cold filtered water in the steep tank | Water temperature |
| 4. Steep | Covered, in the walk-in cooler | Start and end times, cooler temperature |
| 5. Filter | Through a screen, then a fine filter | Time |
| 6. Dilute | Concentrate diluted with filtered water | Volumes |
| 7. Bottle | Filled cold, capped | Bottles |
| 8. Date | Lot and use-by on each bottle, into the cooler | Lot, use-by |
Making it by the hundred gallons is in how to make cold brew in bulk, and the 15-day date in cold brew shelf life.
An example: a batch from steep to bottle
Kaimana Cold Brew, the made-up cold brew maker on Oʻahu I use in these examples, steeps in 40-gallon tanks in a shared kitchen's walk-in:
| Step | What happened |
|---|---|
| Weigh and grind | Coffee lot KC-0918, 40 lb ground coarse |
| Combine and steep | 40 gallons of cold filtered water; into the walk-in at 4 p.m., 36°F |
| Filter | 18 hours later; screen, then fine filter |
| Dilute | Concentrate 1 to 1 with filtered water |
| Bottle | 600 bottles of 12 oz, filled cold |
| Date | Lot KC-0919, use by Oct 4, into the cooler |
The steep runs overnight in the walk-in, at 36°F the whole time, which is what keeps the batch safe while it steeps for 18 hours. A batch left on the counter would be poured out. When a co-packer would bottle it for you is in cold brew co-packer.
Get the run sheet
Download the cold brew production run sheet. Two sheets: a blank run sheet to print for each batch, with the eight steps, the check at each and its target, and spaces for the actual reading, the time and initials; and the same run filled in from the example. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The run sheet covers one batch. Two tanks steeping on different days, a coffee lot for each, and 600 bottles with a 15-day date at cafés across the island: when a café asks about one bottle, the trace has to run from its lot to the tank and the beans.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack records each batch with its coffee lot, so a bottle's lot leads back to its tank and beans.
Batches by lot. Each steep takes the coffee off stock with its lot, and records how many bottles it filled.
Bottles by lot and date. Each batch gets its lot and use-by, and orders take the oldest first.
Where it went. Each café's order records the lot it got, so one recall report runs from a coffee lot to every café.
| The job | Clipboard | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Which beans went into a tank | A note on the tank | Batches by lot |
| Which bottles go out first | Dates on tape | First-expired-first-out |
| Which cafés got a lot | Invoices | One recall report |
Recipes, batches, lots and recalls are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.