Brew Guide: Flash Brew Iced Coffee
Flash brews are my go-to warm weather coffee drink to make at home. Bright, cold, full of flavor, and probably the most refreshing drink on a hot day. But what is a flash brew? What makes it different from a classic iced coffee?
What is a Flash Brew?
Flash brewing is a method of brewing coffee where the goal is to brew the coffee hot, and chill it with ice as soon as possible to lock in volatile aromatic compounds that would normally be lost while a coffee is cooling down naturally. These “volatile compounds” are what gives coffee and full and complex flavor, usually translated through acidity and sweetness in the coffee. Leaving coffee to cool off on its own, a lot of these flavors are lost through oxidation. This is something you can notice when you brew a hot coffee in the morning and forget about it until its cold and take a sip. The coffee might taste flat, a little bitter, and just generally stale - not something you want to continue sipping on.
Won’t brewing over ice just water down the coffee? - Yes! That’s why flash brewing recipes account for how much ice will melt in the drink. This is done by reducing the amount of water you brew with, and replacing it with an equal amount of ice to brew the coffee on top of. So - if you usually brew with 300g of water, we might reduce that water amount to 200g and replace it with 100g of ice.
What do I Need to Make a Flash Brew?
If you already have a coffee brewing setup at home all you really need is ice! A separate server from what you will be drinking out of is nice to have though. Most flash brew recipes you may find out there use a pour-over brewer like a Hario V60 , but can also be done with nearly any other brewer - so long as you can reduce the amount of water you brew with and add ice into your server.
For this recipe you will need:
Hario V60 with Filters
Server
Scale
Kettle - A gooseneck is helpful but not necessary!
21 grams of coffee - ground at the fine end of medium
185 grams of water just off boil
110 grams of ice
The Recipe
Heat your water
We want to get our water as hot as possible without being boiling to help to bring out as much flavor as possible! We’re brewing with less water going through the coffee than what is ideal, so we need all the help we can get.
Grind your coffee
We’ll be using 21 grams of coffee for a one cup serving. Grind the coffee at the finer end of medium - if you have been grinding coffee for regular pour-overs - reduce your grind setting by a few clicks to get a finer grind setting for this brew.
Weigh out your ice
Add 110 grams of ice into your server, and set it aside.
Rinse your filter paper
Grab your V60 and filter paper and rinse the filter with hot water into a separate vessel than your server. Rinsing the paper helps to get rid of any dry papery taste that could affect your coffee. Using a different vessel makes sure that you don’t melt any of your ice!
Start your brew!
Add your coffee to your V60 and place on top of the server filled with your ice. For the actual recipe we’ll break it down to the timings of our pours:
0:00 to 0:20 - Add 50 grams of water, swirl V60
1:15 to 1:25 - Add 55 grams of water (total weight 105 grams)
1:50 to 2:00 - Add 40 grams of water (total weight 145 grams)
2:20 to 2:30 - Add 40 grams of water (total weight 185 grams), swirl V60
Let coffee drain, aiming for all of the water passing through by around 3:00
Swirl your server
Swirling your server after brewing helps to melt all of the ice into the coffee, and cools the brew down a bit faster. Keep swirling until all of the ice is melted.
Pour your cold coffee over ice
We brewed the coffee a good amount stronger than normal so that it wouldn’t taste diluted when you pour it over more ice. Who would want an iced coffee without ice in the cup anyway?!
Make adjustments if needed for your next brew!
If the coffee is tasting bitter, try making your grind setting coarser. If the taste is overly acidic, try making the grind setting finer.
Want to talk more about flash brews? Have a recipe you recommend us trying out, or a brew that you made that knocked your socks off? Reach out to us at talk@defer.coffee to continue the conversation!
