Ice drip is sometimes referred to as Kyoto drip. It brews coffee using droplets slowly melted from ice and is served chilled. You might have come across a specialty coffee shop with an impressive glass Kyoto tower in the corner. It does bring a sense of wonder watching one dripping away, collecting dews of coffee essence in a jar of life restoring elixir. These elegant brewers are sometimes called Yama towers (Yama is one of the main manufacturers for ice drip tower). They are so beautiful to look at that they sometimes are used as an interior design element.
Ice drip is more than just a pretty brewing vessel. The percolating nature of melting ice going through a bed of coffee ground creates a strong, rich concentrate that still has great clarity and nice presentation of acidity. It is sweeter tasting, more caffeinated and less acidic than hot brewed coffee. It takes 2 to 6 hours for a batch. And unfortunately, unlike its cousin cold brew, you can't simply set one up and walk away. You have to constantly keeping an eye on the progress.
The good news is, with a little bit of attention, you can also enjoy making ice drip in the comfort of your home. This post is going to talk about my ice drip recipe with a simple set up and loads of barista tips from moi to help you succeed at brewing an memorable summer coffee alternative.
40g of coffee
400g of a combination of ice and water (more on that later!)
Check out my other post for Japanese style iced coffee, too.
Gear: ice drip maker
The traditional Yama towers surely are serious investments. They are mostly made with glass parts and wooden support. The glass components require basic assembly and are fragile and not exactly easy breezy to clean. They can be pricy. However, smaller brewers are available nowadays, and more and more manufacturers are making more affordable models with different materials.
A basic ice drip set up include the following parts: a water/ice reservoir, a droplet regulator, a slurry cylinder (the brewing chamber), coffee ground screen, structural support and a catching vessel.
As long as you can find a replacement part that functions the same way, you can also create your own ice drip set up with tools you already own. A common tool hack is Aeropress. (shhh... you didn't hear it from me.) For my set-up, I'm adding paper filter beneath and on top of the coffee ground to serve as a screen and water diffuser respectively.
Water for ice drip
Coffee is 98% water. If you don’t like the water as is, you won’t like the coffee made from it. Use a soft water that has some mineral content for making coffee. If you use water that smells of bleach, the coffee will taste even worse. Make sure your ice and water are filtered. I'm using brewing water TDS of approximately 150ppm.
The ratio of ice and water depends on the brewing environment and batch size. The bottom line is that you would need your ice to last close to the end of the brewing cycle, but it also has to melt steadily enough that you're never out of water droplets.
For this recipe, the brew time is approximately 3 hours, I'm using 60g of water for blooming, 220g of ice and 120g of water for the brewing cycle.
Coffee for ice drip
You can use whatever roast level you prefer as long as the coffee is properly developed. However, since ice drip really give the finished coffee a nice acidity, I recommend trying coffee that has a succulent, juicy profile.
Does it work with dark roast? Yes, it will make a tasty cup for sure. But again, if you're feeling dark roast, a cold brew might be a even better method; Light roast on the other hand can taste off balance especially if it's not even roasted past first crack or are dropped immediately after.
Dose
We are using 40g of medium ground coffee. The dose is depend on the volume of your brewing chamber. Be mindful that coffee ground expand after absorbing water. So a little headroom is needed. If you have to adjust your dosage, simply adjust your coffee to the entire water/ice weight ratio to 1:10.
One of the common issues with ice drip coffee grind size is clogging. I strongly recommend shifting and discard the extreme fines in your ground coffee for this method. During the brewing, a little water pooling is acceptable as long as it remains shallow and your coffee output is approximately at the same rate as the droplets going in the slurry.
If your slurry is dripping too slowly, make your grind size a little coarser till you get an even drip rate.
... collecting dews of coffee essence in a jar of life restoring elixir.
Brew
1. Insert dry paper filter on top of your screen before dosing ground coffee.
Using paper filter reduces the amount of small coffee particles getting lodged in your metal mesh screen or ceramic filter.
2. Measure and dose 40g of medium size ground coffee (after shift). Firmly tap downwards on the brewing chamber to reduce void between coffee particles.
Be careful if working with glass made cylinders which often have fine and delicate tips.
3. Start a timer. Carefully and slowly saturate the coffee with 60g of cold water. Let bloom at room temperature till the timer reads 15 minutes.
Start slow and don't pour more than 40g of water in the first 5 minutes gives the water more time to penetrate dry coffee ground. This can help with the even saturation of water and reduce the chances of water passing through prematurely due to channeling. It's common to see some coffee dripping through closer to the 15 minute mark. This is completely fine and will not affect the final brew. You can also use a spray bottle for water application. However, it's more labor-intensive and I don't recognize any apparent improvement in cup quality.
4. Place another paper filter on top of the wet coffee ground.
5. Assemble ice drip brewer on a steady counter space. Add 220g of ice and 120g of water to the water resovoir. Adjust the droplet regulator to about 1 drop of water per 3 seconds.
6. Revisit the brewer periodically to make sure the flow rate is consistent.
I often observed the droplet regulator make incremental movements that slowly shut off or increase the drip rate. Monitor the brew closely can help you make adjustments in time.
7. Store finished concentrate in the fridge over night to further develop balance. Dilute with additional water to taste and serve with ice. Enjoy!
There are some suspended invisible particles in the finish coffee. These tiny coffee particles continue to brew during storage and really bring more flavor and balance after a night in the fridge.
Taste and dial in
The taste factors of this methods are mostly tied to the coffee quality. Insignificant roast development often result in a pronounced vegetal profile. There's very little adjustments to be made but to use a different coffee.
The necessary adjustments one needs to make with this methods are often based on visual cues from the brew. As aforementioned, if the coffee is dripping out much slower than the water drip rate or not at all. Coarsen the grind size or shift and discard the fines (smaller than 300 um) in the coffee.
If you observe large void in the wet slurry, use a straw or chopstick to release the built up air bubble and tap to level the slurry. Compression is not recommended as it might disrupt the momentum of the percolation.
If you experience slower melting rate due to cooler ambient temperature, adjust the water to ice ratio by replace a set amount of ice with the same weight of water, i.e. remove 20g of ice and add 20g of water; If the ice melts too quickly, do the reverse.
Conclusion
For anyone who enjoys a nice hot cup of pourover coffee, the challenges of iced coffee is that they often taste diluted and void of nuances. Even with a Japanese style pourover over ice, there might be an improvement on perceived acidity and complexity, but the balance, finish and texture is just not the same.
Ice drip can be the answer for that. If anything, the serving temperature amplify the crispiness of notes of stonefruits and citrus from the coffee. When done right, ice coffee can be a real marvel in the heat of summer or just simply on its own around the year.
The key to ice drip, is obsession.
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