V60 Recipe: Iced Filter Coffee
Japanese Style Iced Coffee
Personally, this is my favourite way to enjoy a coffee on a hot summer's day. Different from cold brew, Japanese Style Ice Coffee uses hot water to extract all the delicious flavors from the coffee, then cools it down with ice to quickly lock in the flavors. This method of brewing ice coffee is unique from cold brew in that it allows for a lighter, cleaner, and sweeter tasting coffee, and can better extract the complexities of the coffee itself. This particular recipe what we use in our shop was dialed in specifically for our Lū’au blend coffee, but feel free to make incremental adjustments to your liking. The current recipe is developed on the foundation of James Hoffman's ice filter coffee recipe.
About the Coffee
COFFEE: Lū’au Blend
ORIGINS: Hawaii, Ethiopia, Colombia
PROCESS: Washed
ROAST: Medium-Light
BREW TIME: 2:30 - 3:00 minutes
MAKES: 350 / 12oz
What you’ll need
Hario V60
Hario V60 Filters
Carafe
Lū’au Blend
Kettle
Grinder
Scale
Timer
Ice Cubes!
Your fave coffee cup
Lemon peel (optional)
Step 1: Hot Water
Fill your kettle with hot water and set to boil.
If you don't have a temperature controlled kettle, wait till your water reaches a boil and set aside to cool for 30s - 60s.
Suggestions and Notes
For our water, we're looking for about 93°C - 95°C (or 200°F - 205°F).
Step 2: Weighing Coffee and Ice
Measure out about 25g of coffee.
In a clean carafe, measure out 110g-115g of ice cubes.
This recipe will make approximately 350g (approximately 12.3oz) of coffee.
Coffee Ratio: To brew our signature Lū’au Blend as an ice filter coffee, we recommend using a coffee:water ratio of 1g:15g (or 65g/1000g, if you're James Hoffman).
Ice Ratio: To lock in the flavors and cool down our coffee quickly, we recommend using about 30% ice. So if you're following our recipe, this means 115g/350g of our coffee will be ice.
Step 3: Grind Size
Grind your coffee. Here, we're looking for a medium-fine grind size, just a little finer than what you would use in a hot V60 brew.
We recommend grinding the beans slightly finer than usual to allow for a higher extraction and have a stronger coffee that, when diluted with the ice, will yield a tasty balanced coffee. Look for about the texture of kosher salt.
Step 4: Rinse your Filter
Place a filter in your V60, making sure the V60 is not on top of your carafe (do it in the sink or something). Saturate the filter with hot water and let it drain through.
This is just an extra step to rinse our any paper taste or bleach taste that may be in the filter. Also used to preheat your V60.
Usually, we would want to preheat the carafe too, but there is ice in there right now!
Step 5: Add the Coffee
Placing the V60 brewer on top of the carafe now, add your ground coffee to the brewer. Pick it up and give it a few taps to even out and flatten the bed of coffee.
Make sure you have a scale underneath the carafe and V60, and keep a timer handy if you have one.
Optional: make a little divet in the middle of the coffee bed to help the water saturate the grounds.
Reminder: we're going to pour about 240g of hot water.
Step 6: Bloom
At this point, you're ready to pour in your hot water.
Tare your scale and grab your kettle.
Pour your hot water starting in the middle, pouring in concentric circles outward until you reach 50g-60g.
Swirl the V60 a to make sure all the grounds are wet, and bloom for 45s.
Here, we're blooming with a little more than twice the weight of our coffee for a little longer than usual.
Step 7: Pour
Once you reach 45s, your water should have mostly drained through.
Now, start pouring again starting in the middle, slowly pouring outwards in concentric circles until you reach 140g.
Wait until your timer reachers about 1:10 - 1:15.
We are aiming to get about 60% of the hot water (approx. 140g) into the brewer before we reach 1 minute.
Step 8: Finish Pouring and Drain
As your timer approaches 1:15, start pouring in the rest of your water using the same motion until you reach 240g.
As your water draws down, give the V60 brewer a gentle swirl around the 1:45-2:00 minute mark to help knock off any grounds off the sides of the V60.
We are aiming for a 2:30-3:00 total brew time.
Swirling the brewer gently in a circular motion will allow you to knock off any loose coffee grounds stuck to the side walls of the V60, and give you a more even draw down.
Step 9: More Ice!
As you wait for the water to finish draining through the brewer, grab a big cup with some fresh ice cubes.
Remove the the V60 and give your carafe a swirl to melt any remaining pieces of floating ice.
Note: Aim for a flat bed of coffee when all your water has finished draining through. This is a great indication of an even extraction.
Step 10: Enjoy!
Pour into your cup filled with ice.
Enjoy an ice cold cup of delicious Kona coffee!
Optional: Rub the rim of your cup with a lemon peel and enjoy the fragrance of fresh citrus as you drink your coffee.
Disclaimer: the intention here is to make-up for some of the lost fragrance from iced coffee (compared to hot coffee). While the peel of the lemon does not impact the flavor of the coffee dramatically and adds a nice aroma, we avoid doing this for single-origin brews to allow the coffee itself be the star of the show.
Troubleshooting
I don't have a grinder. What do I do?
Don’t worry, we got you covered! If you’re ordering your beans from us online, indicate that you want your beans ground using the drop-down selector on the product page. If you purchased our beans in store, ask our friendly baristas to grind them for you, or bring your whole-bean coffee of choice to your local neighborhood coffee shop!
Why is my brew time is longer than 3 minutes? Why is my brew time is shorter than 2:30?
If your brew time is longer than 3 minutes, it may be over-extracted and taste bitter. This may be the result of beans that are ground too fine. One indication of this if your coffee bed after your brew looks like wet mud. Adjust by grinding a bit coarser. On the other hand, if your brew time is less than 2:30, your coffee might taste a bit acidic and under-extracted. Try grinding a bit finer and adjusting your grind until you reach the target 2:30 - 3:00 minute brew time.
My coffee tastes watered down. What should I do?
While our recipe ensures the coffee to be at the right concentration when its freshly brewed, serving it over more ice means it is inevitable that your ice coffee will be watered down as the ice melts. If your first few sips of your coffee taste watered down, try using a less ice cubes than stated in the recipe (just enough to cool down the hot coffee to room temperature will suffice). If you are able to, use colder ice cubes. Alternatively, try out more creative methods like using coffee ice cubes instead.