AHS Vanilla Porter split into 2 batches?

mhot55 · 01-11-2008, 12:00 PM

Brewed the AHS VAnilla Porter, and got to wondering. I want to split this batch and make a coffee porter as well. I have 2 bottling buckets, so my plan was to add coffee and vanilla to the separate buckets at bottling time. The vanilla porter recipe calls for 1oz of extract added tp the bottling bucket so this seems best. My question is what is the amount of coffee i need to add? I am using a coarse grind on Kona coffee, cold pressed/steeped for a day or two. I've seen using 2-3 cups (12-18 oz.) per 5 gallons of this cold pressed method, using 2 times the amount of recommended beans and adding this to the secondary or bottling bucket. Obviously i would use 1/2 the amount for a 2 1/2 gallon batch. Any ideas? Sound good? How about a Vanilla-Coffee Porter, or is this just too many flavoring to add into a beer (if coffee and vanilla are good together should i decrease the amounts if they are combined?)

brewt00l · 01-11-2008, 01:05 PM

Lots of advise on adding coffee on the forum....run a search.

Personally, I like adding cold extracted coffee to the secondary to taste.

mhot55 · 02-28-2008, 04:32 PM

I did split this into 2. A vanilla porter and a coffee vanilla porter. I used some adjustments, which i am learning not to question AHS's directions regarding flavoring potential. I used 1 scraped vanilla bean (soaked in 2 oz rum) in the secondary and 1.5 oz vanilla extract in bottling bucket. AHS's recipe only called for 1 oz. extract at bottling. I wanted a vanilla backround but was worried it would be too subdued which is why i added the bean. this i htink was a good idea, but the extra .5 oz of extract brought the vanilla to the forefront. In retrospect, the bean and anywhere from .75- 1 oz. of extract would've been perfect. However, all-in-all, this still tastes great.

As for the COFFEE-Vanilla Porter, i cold steeped @ 16 oz. of water in a coarse grind of coffee beans (Kona) utilizing a french press and refrigerated for 2 days. This gave me a yield of @12 oz. of coffee which i passed through a filter into the final 2.25 gallons on vanilla porter. Outcome is similar to above, coffee presence seems to be in the foreground, maybe even slightly dominating the rest of the malt. Tastes nearly identical to a Manhatten "Coffee" Soda. It does taste great, but i would make a few corrections next time- i.e. as well as lessening the amount of vanilla extract, i believe 6 oz. of the coffee for the 2+ gallons would've been perfect.

There is the possibility that these 2 strong flavors will mellow over time (bottled on 1/31- it's only been 3.5 weeks. But they turned out great anyway, it's just that drinking alcohol isn't exactly "gut" friendly, and these brews go great with cookies and cake and ice cream...i'm a fat bastard!