Nowadays, coffee consumption has been a cold brew that makes use of only cold water when making your favorite beverage. This cold brew produces all the aroma and flavor that you may find in a regular hot cup of any coffee, although it consists of cold water and requires more time to dissolve and extract all its taste.
Once prepared, the question remains how long does cold brew last for it to be healthy in consuming while being out of your premise. However, most people like using a refrigerator but, it may not solve the problem since some microbes develop even at shallow temperatures.
In this article, we will discuss how long it takes for the cold brew to last and some ways of increasing the duration of the lasting. Besides, we will look at some best material containers that make the cold brew last for a more extended period.
How long does cold brew last?
For a better understanding of how long the cold brew lasts, let’s first begin by understanding what cold brew is. Therefore, cold brew coffee means steeping the coffee grounds into a mass of cold water.
Once put in cold water, some chemical reaction occurs, which in turn changes the taste of the coffee, thus producing brewed coffee, which is more taste.
To make cold brew, you need to coarsely grind 1/3 cup of roasted bean coffee and put it into the jar filled with water as you put it into the refrigerator for about one hour. If you want brew coffee, pour off the top 2/3 slowly and gently as you leave the grounds at the bottom part of the jar. Alternatively, you can use a strainer or a metal coffee filter.
Usually, the simple answer on how long it takes to last is about three to seven days. However, lasting cold brew depends on several parameters.
The more time the coffee stays in the refrigerator, the stronger and bitter it becomes. A jar of cold beer usually lasts for three days, where on the first day, the mixture is very smooth compared with the third day.
The third day the brew becomes very more durable than the first day. When you go camping with enough cold beer in an ice chest for a week, the coffee becomes pretty darn good. However, it is not as good as the first day, where it becomes powerful.
There are some methods which may increase the number to a few weeks or, at the same time, reduce the number of days to a few hours. To begin with, let us see how we can preserve the cold brew coffee better.
How Long does Cold Brew last in the Fridge?
Once you remove the ground from the batch altogether, the cold brew coffee remains suitable for drinking up to two weeks inside the fridge. However, this is just an estimation using the coffee only without creamers, sugar, and milk or flavor additives.
When the batch added with any other substances, the duration of lasting reduces tremendously. Many of the people who consume cold brew make a concentrate with many coffee cups that go bad smoothly before maximum consumption.
Besides, cold coffee brews resemble the iced tea in a manner that they have a relatively long shelf life. However, coffee produces a mold at a slow rate compared with iced tea.
It is good to keep the cold brew concentrate in a fridge since its product does not have preservatives when you try to make it at home, unlike when you buy them, thus high expectation of it to last longer.
How can one preserve the cold brew coffee better?
Better preservation of cold brew coffee makes it to last for a longer time. For you, therefore, to preserve your brew better, first, you must take the pot that contains the brewed coffee in the initial phase very far away from any source of the fire. It enables you to have the boiling temperature in the coffee without having the necessarily dangerous influence of the heat.
The next consideration in the preservation of the cold brew involves pouring the coffee into very secure and safe containers. In this case, thermoses are suitable containers used due to their ability to hold a considerable amount of heated liquids inside. At the same time, they have high competent insulation.
Therefore, brewed coffee that remains for more than two hours without insulation gets oxidized quickly, which mostly affects the flavor and aroma of the beverage, thus giving you a lower-quality experience whenever you want to consume your brew.
Note that besides a thermos, some other containers may make your brew to last longer. Let’s look at them.
Different Container Materials that will Make a Cold Brew to Last Longer
Nowadays, tetra pack container coated with an aluminum material inside the walls is the golden standard in the preservation of cold brew coffee. The containers come with a very thick recycled paper that has seals on all sides and corners. When you put the cold brew into the box, the vessel has a new machine that absorbs the remaining air preventing the cold from further oxidations.
Through this method, the cold brew will be capable to last for up to three months on the shelf. Besides this using an aluminum container, you can adopt the use of vacuum glass bottles similar to the one used for sodas and beers.
It is vital to note that the advantages of these techniques are that they consist of a neutral glass surface that does not react with small particles and capable of keeping the cold brew fresh for a more extended period. The period may even go beyond six months, and at the same time, you may always note that cold brew coffee consumption from the glass bottle is still very fresh, like on the first day.
Additionally, most people keep their strawberry extracts inside the freezer in the form of ice cubes, which may also be suitable in the case of cold brew coffee. But is this possible with ice cubes? It is simple. You let your cold brew to settle for some time as you fill your ice cube tray and put it back to the freezer.
It will probably give you a perfect shape ice cube used in many coffee beverages in the future.
Conclusion
When it comes to coffee making, cold brew is the brand new trend that has made the world crazy. Many people are trying to switch primarily from hot coffee beverage to the cold brew ones who make everybody struggle in finding the solution of preserving them better.
Therefore, you should ensure that the favorite cold brew has proper preservation for you to enjoy always its best and fresh taste and aroma. Besides, it is good to take care of yourself by consuming only well preserved and recommended cold brews which are healthy for you and your family.