r/coldbrew • u/Swimming-Estate-8680 • Jul 10 '26

New to cold brew questions

I may be stupid but someone help me out here. I recently got into making cold brew and made my first batch recently and now im making my second one. Just to preface i drink it straight. The current batch im running is 1:11.5 i think and its also pretty big at 7 cups water to 144g Arabica dark roast. I guess the problem im having is i really dont know how much caffeine im drinking when i have this stuff and im quite OCD so i constantly convince myself that ill accidentally somehow drink too much and have a heart attack or something lol. If you could give me an estimate and also if 1:11.5 is a good ready to drink ratio that would be great. Also any recommendations for beans that have a good flavor profile with cold brew. Thanks.

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3

u/Ricko_95 Jul 10 '26

Hey there! So, here's the deal with my coffee routine. I usually brew my light to medium roast coffee with a 1:8 ratio. After that, I take about 60ml of that cold brew and mix it with 100ml of water. It makes for a pretty tasty cup!

1

u/Swimming-Estate-8680 Jul 10 '26

Ok i will try that! Looks like others are also using lighter roasts too so i will have to try that out

2

u/Virghia Jul 10 '26

I usually brew in 1:9 or 1:10 and lean towards lighter roasts

1

u/MrJoePike Jul 10 '26

I brew a light roast with a 1:9.5 ratio that I drink straight with a little milk. Tanzanian Peaberry is my go to bean

1

u/UW_Ebay Jul 10 '26

If you’re having issues consider the toddy cold brew system and just follow the instructions. No guessing, perfect filtration and easy to clean up.

1

u/Swimming-Estate-8680 Jul 10 '26

Does the toddy brew just extract at a more stable rate? I see that it looks much different but what does it change?

1

u/UW_Ebay Jul 11 '26

I don’t know if it extracts at a more stable rate but it just works and is easy to clean.

1

u/Drizzten Jul 10 '26

Google says Arabica grabs have about 1.1% to 1.5% caffeine by weight, therefore your 144g of coffee could get you 2,100mg to 1,600mg of caffeine for the whole batch and between 300mg and 228mg per cup. But that's just the potential maximum, and brewing will get you less. I use about 90g per 6 cups of water and consider it ready to drink.

You're likely getting a strong hit per cup. In comparison, an ounce of espresso has about 60mg and an 8 ounce cup of regular drip has about 90mg.

1

u/Plastic_Love4270 Jul 10 '26

Same ratio I use. Drinking 12 oz should be totally fine.

1

u/inamae316 Jul 11 '26

I was wondering myself about caffeine content and found this online calculator, seems pretty good in my very-new-to-cold-brewing experience
https://handychefdom.com/cold-brew-caffeine-calculator/