How to Make Cold Brew in a French Press

Cold brew is one of my favorite ways to enjoy coffee, but a lot of people don’t have a designated cold brew coffee maker and just want a cup of smooth coffee at home. Luckily, you can make outstanding cold brew in a French press that’s probably sitting on your kitchen counter right now.

In this guide, I’m going to walk you through every single step of how to make cold brew in a French press. I’ll cover the equipment you need, the step-by-step brewing process, the advantages of using a French press, and even some tips for storing and filtering your cold brew. Let’s dive in!

What You’ll Need

The great thing about making cold brew in a French press is that you really don’t need much beyond the French press itself. Here’s the short list of everything you’ll want to have on hand before you get started:

Coarsely ground coffee. You’ll want a grind size that’s a bit coarser than what you’d use for French press coffee. Aim for something in the range of 1,000 to 1,200 microns.
Fresh, filtered water
Your trusty French press
(Optional) A means of filtering out the grounds after brewing, like a paper filter that you seat in a fine mesh strainer, a pour over cone, or a Chemex coffee brewer.

That’s it! No fancy cold brew pitchers, dripper devices, or anything else required. The French press has just about everything you need to make delicious cold brew right at home.

How to Make Cold Brew in a French Press

Now that you have your equipment gathered, let’s walk through the step-by-step process for making cold brew in your French press.

Start by coarsely grinding your coffee beans. As I mentioned, you’ll want to grind a bit coarser than you would for a batch of French press. Somewhere in the 1,000 to 1,200 micron range is usually best. This helps prevent over-extraction and bitterness in the final cold brew. As I’ll discuss later, you CAN get away with a French press grind, but it’s not ideal.
Add the ground coffee to your French press. The brewing ratio for cold brew is a bit different than hot coffee. I like to use a 1:4 ratio of coffee grounds to water by weight. This makes a cold brew concentrate that you can then dilute or just drink straight for serious flavor and maximum caffeine. A ratio of between 1:6 and 1:8 will make standard cold brew that you don’t need to dilute. I recommend 1:4 in a French press because your batch size will be limited. A concentrate lets you effectively double your coffee output.
Pour the cool or room temperature filtered water over the grounds, making sure all the grounds are thoroughly saturated. Use a spoon to give it a gentle stir, just to ensure there aren’t any dry pockets.
Now comes the waiting game. Place the lid on your French press, but don’t plunge it. Instead, transfer the whole thing to the refrigerator and let it steep for 24 hours, or leave it on the counter and let it steep for about 12 hours. The longer you let it brew, the stronger and more concentrated your cold brew will be. If you’re brewing in the fridge, you might run into issues with the unplunged French press being too tall to fit. I suggest either leaving the cover off and instead wrapping the top with plastic wrap, or take the filters off of the plunger and just submerge the stem so that you can keep the lid in place without any issues.
Once the steeping time is up, it’s time to filter out the grounds. Carefully remove the French press from the fridge and place it on your counter. If you had the plunger fully extended, slowly depress it all the way down to separate the coffee liquid from the grounds. If you had just the stem depressed, remove the stem, rinse it, screw on the mesh filters and crossplate, and then plunge slowly.
Now you have a few options for the final filtration step. You can simply drink the coffee you pour out as-is, but it might taste a bit grainy, and if you’re planning on storing it, those grounds that snuck through the mesh filter will continue to extract and could lead to bitterness. I strongly suggest filtering through a paper filter. You can pour the cold brew through a pour over cone or Chemex with a paper filter in place, or you can use your drip coffee machine—just add a filter, place the carafe below, and slowly pour your cold brew through the filter without turning the machine on.
And that’s it! You now have a batch of delicious cold brew concentrate that you can store in the fridge and dilute with water, milk, or whatever else you like when you’re ready to enjoy it.

Why a French Press Is Great for Cold Brew

There are a few key reasons why the French press makes an excellent vessel for brewing cold brew coffee:

Containment: The French press comes equipped with a lid that you can keep on during the long, slow steeping process. This helps keep debris, dust, and other contaminants out of your coffee while it brews.

Filtration: The built-in mesh filter of a French press is perfect for separating the brewed coffee liquid from the coarse coffee grounds. This means you don’t have to worry about clogged paper filters or other filtration issues that you might encounter if you just poured the entire slurry through a paper filter.

Storage: If you have a glass French press, you could rinse out the grounds and then store the coffee directly in the French press in the fridge.

Cons of Using a French Press to Make Cold Brew

Of course, the French press isn’t without a few drawbacks when it comes to cold brew:

Batch Size: The relatively small size of a standard French press (usually 8 cups or less) means you’re limited in the amount of cold brew you can make at one time. This may not be ideal if you have a big household or drink a lot of cold brew on a regular basis. I suggest brewing a concentrate if you’re making cold brew in a French press, as you’ll get more coffee out of each batch.

Fines Filtration: While the French press does a great job of separating the coarse grounds from the brew, it’s not as effective at catching all the fine sediment. This means your final cold brew may have a slightly gritty or muddy mouthfeel, especially if you let it steep for a really long time. You’ll need an additional means of filtration for the best results.

How to Store French Press Cold Brew

I wouldn’t recommend leaving it in the French press itself, especially if your press has a stainless steel brewing chamber. The metal can impart a slight metallic flavor over time.

Instead, I suggest pouring the cold brew into a clean, airtight glass container; something like a mason jar works perfectly. Make sure to seal it up well and pop it in the fridge. If you have a glass French press, feel free to use that for easy storage. Just make sure you clean out the grounds first.

Properly stored, your cold brew concentrate will keep for up to 2 weeks. Just be sure to give it a good smell and taste before drinking if it’s been in there for a while.

A Note on Grinding for French Press Cold Brew

If you already have a good burr grinder that you use for your regular French press brews, you can probably get away with using the same grind setting for your cold brew as well. The ideal grind size for cold brew is generally a touch coarser than what you’d use for a hot French press, usually in the 1,000 to 1,200 micron range, but French press isn’t so far off that it won’t work.

If you do use a French press grind size, I suggest testing your cold brew after about 8 hours on the counter or 18 hours in the fridge. It might be just right a little earlier than if you used the proper coarse grind size, so you may need to press and filter a little earlier.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does the cold brew process take when using a French press?

The total cold brew process when using a French press takes about 12 hours on the counter or 24 hours in the fridge. This long steeping time is what extracts all the delicious cold brew flavors at low temperatures. Prep time is nearly nonexistent, although the filtering process after you press your coffee will take about 15 minutes.

Can I use pre-ground coffee to make cold brew in a French press?

While you can certainly use pre-ground coffee to make cold brew in a French press, I highly recommend grinding your own beans right before brewing. Not only does freshly ground coffee taste far better, but the grind size of pre-ground coffee isn’t ideal for cold brew. Pre-ground coffee is usually in the 500 to 700 micron range for drip coffee, and cold brew is best with a 1,000- to 1,200-micron grind size. Using a finer grind can lead to over-extraction and a muddy, gritty mouthfeel in the final cold brew.

How long will French press cold brew keep in the refrigerator?

Properly stored, your French press cold brew concentrate can keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. The key is to transfer the brewed cold brew to an airtight glass container, rather than leaving it in the French press itself. This helps prevent any off-flavors or oxidation that could occur from prolonged contact with the metal French press carafe. As long as you seal up the cold brew concentrate in a clean glass jar or bottle and keep it chilled in the fridge, you can enjoy it for up to 2 weeks.