Calculate exactly how much coffee to brew so your iced coffee stays perfectly strong after ice melts. Enter your brew volume, ice amount, brew strength, and brew method — and get back the adjusted coffee dose, actual brew water needed, and your compensated brew ratio so every glass hits the right strength.
Coffee Dose Needed
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Brew Water Needed
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Water from Ice Melt
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Compensated Brew Ratio
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Recommended Brew Temp
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As ice melts it adds plain water to your drink, weakening the coffee concentration. The amount of dilution depends on how much ice you use, the temperature of your coffee, and how long the drink sits before you consume it. Brewing a stronger concentrate beforehand compensates for this added water.
On average, about 20–30% of the ice melts into liquid when you pour hot or room-temperature coffee directly over it and drink immediately. If you let the drink sit or use warm coffee, that figure can rise to 40–50% or more. The calculator defaults to 25%, which suits most serve-immediately situations.
A brew ratio is the proportion of coffee grounds to water — expressed as 1:X where X is the parts of water per part of coffee by weight. For regular hot coffee, 1:15 to 1:17 is a common range. For iced coffee made by brewing hot directly over ice, a stronger ratio like 1:10 to 1:13 is typical so the final diluted drink hits your desired strength.
For light roasts, 199–205°F (93–96°C) extracts best. Medium roasts do well at 194–200°F (90–93°C). Dark roasts benefit from slightly cooler water, around 188–194°F (87–90°C). Cold brew is an exception — it uses cool or room-temperature water with a long steep time of 12–24 hours.
For most hot-brewed iced coffee methods (autodrip, pour over, AeroPress), a medium-fine grind works well. French press and cold brew use a coarse grind. Moka pot uses fine. The grind doesn't change because you're brewing over ice — only the dose and water volume need adjustment for dilution.
Yes. Select 'Cold Brew' as your brew method and 'Concentrate' as your strength. Cold brew is typically brewed at a 1:4 to 1:8 ratio and then diluted with water or milk to taste. If you're serving it over ice, the calculator will still account for ice melt on top of your chosen concentrate ratio.
Brew strength refers to the concentration of dissolved coffee solids in the final cup — controlled by your coffee-to-water ratio. Roast level describes how long the beans were roasted, affecting flavor profile and recommended water temperature, but not directly the ratio. A light roast brewed at 1:16 and a dark roast brewed at 1:16 have the same concentration but very different flavors.
A kitchen scale in grams is the most accurate method. Volume measurements like tablespoons vary significantly depending on grind size and packing. The calculator outputs your dose in grams, so a simple digital scale (accurate to 0.1g) is all you need to nail the recipe every time.