Cold brewing / Room temp brewing

[teaisme]

Hey just have some questions.
This is for the people who like to cold brew. What do you cold brew, how long do you brew it for, how much leaf do you use?
Does anyone know why many suggest to cold brew in frig and not at room temp? Does this prevent any possible bitterness?
Please let me know I would like to cold brew larger quantities of tea (a litre or two or three) and was wondering if anyone had some good ratios before I start my guessing.

[Chip]

I have no rules for cold brewing. I have done it at room temp, in the fridge, on ice. As you change one variable, you sometimes need to change another.

[depravitea]

I've recently been doing a lot of glass-brewing. I'll use an average size drinking galss and throw about 2 teaspoons of tea in. Like Chip was saying, there are really no rules. Different water/tea ratios and water tepms will change the taste of your tea, not to mention steep time.
When it comes to glass brewing, (for me) step times go out the window. I drink till the water is low, then put in some more. Usually my water is about room temp, perhaps leaning towards warm.
I started a thread on glass-brewing about a week ago, there is some really interesting information, and I bet most of it can be applied to cold/room temp brewing. Let me know if you have questions or suggestions, alternative brewing methods are becoming a big interest of mine!

http://www.teachat.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=10480

[TEAcipes]

My general rule of thumb is to double the amount of leaves. But that's really it...

[chefmike]

My standard is 20 grams tea to 2 quarts cold water in a covered pitcher in the fridge. I like to do it before bed so it has a good 8 hours to sit. Strain it off in the a.m. and your good to go.

[Oni]

Check out hibiki-an for instruction, they mention all of the existing methods of cold brewing tea, I use 7 grams to 1 l water.

[teaisme]

Thanks people very much for the suggestions.
Do any of you heat up your cold brew tea afterwards because you feel that it tastes better then when you hot brew directly?

[woozl]

I use 8 to 10 g/liter.
Overnight.
Very hot today....2 liters of Jin Shan silver tips gone by 2pm...mmmm

[Chip]

Thanks people very much for the suggestions.
Do any of you heat up your cold brew tea afterwards because you feel that it tastes better then when you hot brew directly?

What an interesting notion ... I have done this for peppermint, but have not for actual tea. Would be interesting to see, but I am guessing it would seem very mild, perhaps too mild.

[chefmike]

On a side note, I read somewhere that cold brewed iced tea doesn't have caffeine. The tea needs to be steeped in hot water to release the caffeine? Not sure if this is true or not. Anyone else hear this myth?

[pb2q]

On a side note, I read somewhere that cold brewed iced tea doesn't have caffeine. The tea needs to be steeped in hot water to release the caffeine? Not sure if this is true or not. Anyone else hear this myth?

I get an unmistakable caffeine effect from cold-brewed tea. In fact, for a given tea it's more noticeable cold-brewed, but that's probably due to the steep duration.