Pour over · V60 · Iced
How to make iced coffee at home
This page makes iced coffee by brewing hot coffee straight onto ice, often called the Japanese iced method.
- Coffee
- 20 g
- Cup
- 280 ml
- Temp
- 94 °C
- Time
- 4:00
The ice is counted as part of the recipe, so the finished drink lands on your target strength instead of being watered down by accident. You need a pour-over cone, a filter and a scale. If you want the long, fridge-batch route instead, read cold brew vs iced coffee and use the cold brew calculator. This page does not cover cold brew, canned drinks or reheated leftovers.
The spec
| Part | Amount |
|---|---|
| Coffee | 20 g, medium-fine |
| Total water budget | 320 g (1:16) |
| Hot water | 200 g at 94 °C |
| Ice in the carafe | 120 g |
| Finished drink | about 280 g |
| Cup | 450 ml tall glass |
| Total time | 4 minutes |
The arithmetic: 200 g hot water plus 120 g ice is 320 g of water, which is 16 times the 20 g of coffee. The ratio is the same as a normal 1:16 hot brew. Only the way the water arrives has changed.
You need
- A V60 or similar cone, paper filter and server or carafe.
- A scale and a kettle.
- 120 g of ice cubes, weighed.
- A grinder.
- A tall glass, plus a few extra cubes if you like.
Ratio 1:16 · Grind: medium-fine · grind chart
Starting ranges come from your grinder maker’s own guide. Burrs, beans and calibration vary, so treat them as where to begin.
Steps
- 0:00, 120 g ice into the carafe.
Put 120 g of ice in the carafe on the scale and leave it counted: every target that follows includes the ice. Set the cone on top and rinse the filter with hot water, then discard that rinse from the carafe if it has melted any ice.
- 0:15, Bloom to 160 g: 40 g of hot water on the ice.
Add 20 g of coffee. Pour 40 g of water at 94 °C, to 160 g on the scale, and wait.
- 1:00, Pour to 240 g: 120 g of hot water so far.
Pour slowly, in circles, until the scale reads 240 g: 120 g of hot water so far.
- 1:45, Pour to 320 g: all 200 g of hot water in.
Keep pouring to 320 g on the scale, which is all 200 g of hot water.
- 2:30, Let the cone drain onto the ice.
Let the cone finish dripping. The ice is melting as the coffee falls onto it.
- 3:30, Swirl until the ice melts.
Remove the cone and swirl the carafe until the ice is mostly gone.
- 3:50, Pour over fresh ice and serve.
Pour over a few fresh cubes in the tall glass.
My notes for this recipe
Why chilling hot coffee needs arithmetic
Think of the 320 g as a budget. Only 200 g of it is hot and does the extracting. The other 120 g sits as ice and is added to the finished concentrate. So the coffee leaving the cone is much stronger than the drink you serve. In the carafe it is 20 g of coffee brewed with 200 g of water, a 1:10 ratio. After the ice melts it is diluted back to 1:16.
Grounds also hold water. A common rule of thumb is that they keep roughly twice their own weight, so 20 g keeps about 40 g. That leaves about 160 g of brewed coffee from the 200 g poured, and 160 + 120 gives roughly 280 g in the glass. The rule of thumb is authored, not measured here.
The common mistake is to brew a full 320 g hot and then pour it over ice you did not count. Then the drink is thinner than 1:16, and it keeps thinning as the glass sits. Count the ice.
Why the grind is finer than usual. Only 200 g of water passes through, so less water means less total extraction at the same grind. A slightly finer setting than your hot recipe makes up some of it. Treat that as a starting point and adjust by one step at a time.
Why the method keeps hot-brew character. The SCA reported a sensory study that compared cold-brewed with hot-brewed coffee. Cold brew had a slightly higher pH, and the hot brew was perceived as more sour (see SCA). The study compared different brews than this one, so read it as a hint: expect this drink to lean toward your hot coffee, with its brightness intact, rather than toward cold brew.
If it looks or tastes wrong
- Thin and watery. Ice was uncounted or too much. Weigh it, and keep hot water at 200 g.
- Sharp and sour. Under-extracted at the low water amount. Grind one step finer or pour a little slower.
- Bitter and harsh. Grind too fine, or the drawdown ran past 90 seconds. Go a step coarser.
- Ice gone before the pour finished. The carafe was warm or the ice was small. Use larger cubes and rinse with cool water first.
- Flat after ten minutes in the glass. More melt. Pour over fewer extra cubes, or chill the glass first.
These fixes are CupTune's judgement for this method, not tested results.
Evidence and limits
Only the SCA pH and sourness finding is cited. The 1:16 ratio, the 200/120 split and the guide's convention come from CupTune's own cold-versus-iced guide. The 94 °C temperature, 20 g dose, grind advice, step times and the water-retention figure are authored starting points. The final volume of 280 g is arithmetic, not a measurement. No one has confirmed these steps with a measured brew.
Questions
How much ice do I use?
In this build, 120 g of the 320 g water budget is ice. Weigh it, because cube size changes the count.
Can I use my usual hot recipe?
Yes. Keep the same ratio, but swap some of the water for ice. A rule of thumb is about 40 per cent as ice, which is what 120 of 320 g is here.
Can I make this in an automatic drip machine?
You can, but the ice goes in the carafe or a jug and the machine's volume must be set to the hot portion. Results will vary, because machines differ.