Last Updated on April 29, 2022 by John Moretti
Making coffee in a French press is one of the best immersion brew methods out there. This coffee is well-extracted and delicious. The best part about brewing with a French press brewer is that it is very easy to do. However, there is a problem. Brewing with a French press usually produces more than one cup of coffee at a time, so how do you keep the leftover coffee hot until you are ready to drink it?
To keep French press coffee hot decant the coffee into an insulated thermos, use an insulated French press brewer, wrap a layer of insulation around the brewer, keep the brewer in a microwave without turning it on, or brew a larger batch of coffee to increase the thermal mass to retain more heat.
There are several ways to keep French press coffee hot and ready to drink when you are ready to drink it. The trick, however, is to keep the coffee hot without overheating it, without allowing it to go stale, and without burning the coffee. Let’s examine the best methods for keeping French press coffee hot.
5 Tips For Keeping French Press Coffee Hot
Almost every coffee lover owns a French press. This brewer is one of the easiest and most effective ways to make an excellent cup of coffee. The French press makes good coffee every time, but it does come with some challenges as well.
One of the biggest issues facing French press users is how to keep the coffee hot. This problem arises because most French press brewers are relatively large and typically produce a liter of coffee per brew. This is too much coffee for one person to drink in a single sitting, so how do you keep it warm until you are ready for it?
The good news here is that there are several effective methods for keeping French press coffee hot until you are ready for it, all of which are easily accessible and simple to do.
Let’s explore the best ways to keep French press coffee good and hot, regardless of how much you brew.
1. Use A Thermos
Making coffee in a French press is easy, but it can be time-consuming. This means that it often makes more sense to brew larger batches of coffee and keep it warm, rather than brewing multiple batches or a batch every time you feel like a cup of coffee.
The very best way to keep coffee from a French press warm until you want to drink it is to decant the coffee into an insulated thermos.
Once the coffee has been brewed, pour the coffee that you want to save for later into an insulated thermos, which will keep the coffee very hot and ready to drink without having to reheat it at all. This is the best way to keep coffee hot and fresh over longer periods of time.
The only drawback to this first option is that you have a thermos on hand to store the coffee in.
2. Brew More Coffee
The simplest way to keep coffee hotter for longer in a French press, without even removing the coffee from the brewer, is simply to brew a larger batch of coffee.
The biggest contributing factor to the heat retention of a French press brewer is thermal mass. Simply put, the hotter water you put into the brewer, the longer the coffee will stay hot because there is more heat in the brewer and more mass to keep the liquid hotter for longer.
This is not a perfect method, and the coffee will get cold eventually, but brewing a larger batch of coffee will yield more cups to drink, and it will stay hotter at room temperature for significantly longer than a smaller batch would.
3. Keep The Brewer In An Enclosed Space
Another very simple method for keeping a French press hot without removing the liquid is to keep the entire brewer with the leftover coffee still inside in a small, enclosed environment.
The easiest way to make this happen is to place the brewer into a microwave, being sure not to turn on the microwave at any point. This works well for keeping French press coffee hot at home, provided your French press brewer fits within your microwave.
Keeping the brewer in this appliance will help to trap some of the heat in the brewer, keeping the coffee hotter for longer.
4. Wrap The Brewer
A low-tech yet very effective method of keeping French press coffee hot is to wrap the brewer in some form of insulation while the leftover coffee is still in the brewer.
This can be as straightforward as wrapping a kitchen towel around the brewer or placing a large oven mitt over the entire brewer.
Insulating the French press from the air around it will help to keep the coffee stored within significantly warmer for much longer.
5. Use An Insulated French Press
If coffee getting cold in your French press is a serious and common problem for you, then it may be time to buy a different type of French press brewer.
The modern world of coffee has gifted us the double-walled insulated stainless steel French press. This brewer is essentially an insulated thermos with a French press plunge filter within it.
Keeping coffee warm in this type of brewer is very simple, as it is naturally insulated the coffee and prevents it from losing temperature to the outside air.
Keeping coffee in this type of brewer will keep it warm for hours before you are ready to drink it. The downside is that this type of French press can be very expensive to buy.
Conclusion
Keeping French press coffee hot can be a challenge, but once you find a method that works well for you, you will never have to have cold coffee from your French press again.
All of these methods are simple yet effective and will keep your coffee hotter for significantly longer than simply letting the brewer stand out in the open air. Take the time to find what works well for you, or simply buy an insulated French press brewer.
