Cooper’s Cask Coffee specializes in single origin coffees. These carefully selected beans from amazing coffee farms around the world deliver flavors unique to the region. Our cupping process allows our master roasters to find the perfect level of roast to bring out those flavors and more.
We also use these beans to create our specialty barrel aged coffees.
The final step between the farm and your cup is the brewing process. Let’s look at how to brew whiskey coffee that gets you the most flavor.
Bonus: imagine enjoying a delicious bourbon coffee in the morning that won’t get you in trouble. In for the win!
Best Brewing Methods for Barrel Aged Coffees
When the barrel aging process infuses amazing flavors, and the roasting process makes them shine, the brewing puts them together in your cup. We’ve tested almost every brewing process imaginable to understand how they affect the complexity of our barrel aged coffees, and we’ve boiled the best down (pun intended) to these three.
Method 1: French Press
The French press brewing process involves grinding your barrel aged whiskey coffee beans to a coarse size. You put them into the French Press glass beaker, pour hot water over them, and let them steep for 2 to 3 minutes.
Once the right time has passed, put the French press lid on the beaker, push the plunger down, and watch the grounds move to the bottom as whiskey-flavor-infused heaven rises to the top.
Why do we recommend the French press?
The French press brewing method allows you to have complete control over how much flavor is extracted.
Water Temperature
You have to use external equipment to heat the water. This allows you to manually control achieving the sweet spot of 195 degrees to 205 degrees.
Steeping Time
We recommend 2 to 3 minutes for optimum flavor. However, you can go as long as 5 minutes to allow as much extraction as possible. If you let any coffee steep in a French press for more than 5 minutes, you risk the grounds becoming over-extracted and the brew turning bitter. But 2 to 5 minutes? You’re golden, and you’re in control.
Method 2: Pour Over
A pour over setup includes a carafe/pot to collect the brew, and a dripper that sits on top of the carafe.
Like with a French press, you have to heat the water using external equipment, like an electric drip kettle. You put a filter (paper or screen) into the dripper, and then pour your medium-coarse grinds into the filter.
When the water’s at the right temperature, you pour a small amount of it over the coffee grounds, letting it soak in for about 30 seconds. This is called making the grounds “bloom.” The coffee soaks in the water and swells, giving it more surface area for extraction.
After 30 seconds, slowly pour the rest of the heated water onto the grounds in a steady spiral that leads to the outer edge, and then spirals back to the center..
Why do we recommend the pour-over method?
When it comes to how to brew whiskey coffee, the pour-over gives you both manual control to a degree, and the choice of filtering.
Water Temperature
Just like with the French press, you use external equipment to get the water to optimum temperature.
Steeping the Coffee
Though you can’t control the steeping time with a pour over system, you can decide what kind of filter you wish to use. If you employ a screen filter, you get the coffee flavors and natural oils during the extraction process, giving you a richer cup with more mouthfeel. If you use a paper filter, it will retain the oils giving you a smoother cup.
Method 3: AeroPress
The Aeropress coffee brewing process works similarly to a French press, but instead of pushing the screen down through the brew, you push the brew through the grounds and filter, similar to how a syringe works.
You start your AeroPress by putting a fresh filter into the perforated filter cap and attach that to the bottom of the water chamber (the cylinder body). Load the amount of super-fine ground coffee into the chamber. This grind allows for maximum surface area to come in contact with the hot water, so that maximum extraction can occur.
Use external equipment to heat the water and once it’s at the right temperature, pour it into the chamber. Place the plunger in the top, your coffee container at the bottom, and press down on the plunger. Voila, you just made delicious coffee for 1 to 2 people.
The Aeropress brewing process can take under 60 seconds to complete, for a hot cup of whiskey barrel aged coffee (or bourbon barrel aged coffee, rye whiskey barrel aged coffee, or even rum barrel aged coffee).
Why we recommend the AeroPress brewing process.
This is how to brew whiskey coffee on the go. It’s small, with two sizes: single cup, or two-cup. That makes it easy to pack, so you can take it with you traveling, camping, anywhere you want great coffee.
Extraction Time
You can control the extraction time. However, it’s easy to overbrew your coffee because of the super-fine grind. Basically, once you attach the AeroPress plunger cap, you make the coffee for the best flavor possible.
Why the AeroPress Is #3
We love the AeroPress. It’s handy, it’s fast, it’s easy to clean—and you don’t have to worry about having too much coffee (and wasting some amazing coffee down the drain).
However, the AeroPress only uses paper filters, so you don’t have the choice to get all those delicious, great mouthfeel oils into your cup.
Related topic: understanding coffee brew methods.
How We Make Whiskey Barrel Magic
You now know how to brew 3 different versions of whiskey coffee. How does Cooper’s Cask Coffee make this delicious style of brew? Glad you asked.
Roll Out the Whiskey Barrel
The infusion process that creates our unique whiskey barrel aged coffee requires retired whiskey barrels. We use retired Uprising American Single Malt Whiskey barrels from the Sons of Liberty Spirits Company.
Using unroasted, green single origin Sumatra coffee beans—chosen for their flavor profile—we put them into these retired whiskey barrels and let them rest there for a month or more. This doesn’t cause fermentation; instead, it allows the aromatic essences, redolent in the barrel’s oak wood, to infuse into the beans.
Then, we roast them to peak perfection for an amazing cup, featuring a flavor profile with taste notes of tropical fruit, woody earth, and mild sweet tobacco, along with the sweet taste of vanilla and caramel provided by the charred oak barrels.
There’s zero alcohol (hence, you won’t get in trouble!), but all the flavor.
Our Other Barrel-Aged Coffees
Knowing how to brew whiskey coffee is great. Now you can choose the barrel aged coffee you want! We offer several other versions for your palate’s pleasure:
- Rye Whiskey Barrel Aged Coffee. Made with single original Ethiopian beans aged in rye whiskey barrels.
- Bourbon Barrel Aged Coffee. Single origin Colombia beans age in 100% authentic retired American Kentucky bourbon barrels.
- Rum Barrel Aged Coffee. Our Rwanda coffee beans spend 1 to 2 months aging in award-winning Tomas Tew rum barrels for a truly unique experience.
- Cabernet Barrel Aged Coffee. Single origin Costa Rica beans take on the characteristic of retired cabernet barrels for a sweet flavor with notes of dark fruit and chocolate.
- Pinot Noir Barrel Aged Coffee. Grade 1 Rwanda beans deliver a rich, honeyed sweetness. The Pinot barrel aging adds a heavier body with hints of caramelized crème brulee crust.
Related topic: how to make your own naturally flavored coffee.
Discover the Tastiest Barrel Aged Profile for You
If this is your first foray into barrel aged coffees, why not try several? Our Barrel Aged Coffee Box Set and Wine Barrel Aged Coffee Boxed Set offer you the opportunity to try them all. Plus, our Gear page has pour over sets, AeroPress sets, grinders, heating kettles, vacuum coffee storage and more to make every coffee experience your best coffee experience.
We offer free shipping on orders over $50 in the lower 48 states.
You Do You for Brew
You’ve got the low-down on how to brew whiskey coffee any day, anywhere. If you have more questions, contact us and we’ll share our coffee-nerd expertise and happily make suggestions for how to get the best cup for your situation.
If you love your Cooper’s Cask Coffee, be sure to get a subscription for your favorite barrel-aged coffee or single origin coffee. This way you’ll never run out of the coffee you love.
We always offer a 100% money back guarantee. If your order doesn’t wholly satisfy you, you can return it for free or exchange it for another delicious roast. With 7,000 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon, we’d like to think we’re doing something that makes coffee lovers happy!
Small batch, big satisfaction. Cooper’s Cask Coffee.
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