I have a stout fermenting right now, and I plan on adding coffee to the secondary. I am still not sure if I am going to use the cold-brew method or just dump some course ground beans in the secondary.
Anyways I like coffee but I do not want it to be too bitter or acrid. Is there a general guideline for amount of coffee used in either of these methods?
From what I've tried, the cold brew method worked better for my beers. It had a smooth coffee flavor.
I started out with about a cup of cold brew per five gallons. Now I do about two cups, because I love coffee. If you do go the cold brew way, just be careful because it's concentrated and a little goes a long way.
+1 on the cold brew and two cups, mine is excellent. I gave 10 out at work for the holidays and got great reviews from everyone. I added mine at bottling, I didn't secondary the stout, 4 weeks in the primary.
I add cold brewed coffee to my mocha stout when I keg it. As noted above, cold brew coffee will give you a very smooth, mellow and non-acidic coffee flavor to your stout. In my mind the beer's bitterness should come from the hops used rather unintended coffee bitterness.
I recently made a 5 gallon batch of coffee porter that came out amazing. I cold extracted one pound of coarsely ground Colombian blend overnight in 3 pints of water.
I brewed 10 cups of very strong coffee and added it to the primary after two weeks. Let it set for a few weeks more and added 8oz of lactose at bottling. Came out really good with both coffee and chocolate flavors coming out. My son liked it so much it was his next purchase for him back at his place.
The lactose smooths out the bitter quite a bit. Some use 16oz, but said it tends to make a sweeter beer that way. For me 8 oz was just right. My son added 8 oz at the end of the boil and will taste before bottling to see if it needs more.
I recently made a 5 gallon batch of coffee porter that came out amazing. I cold extracted one pound of coarsely ground Colombian blend overnight in 3 pints of water.
This is right in line with the method and amounts I've used for cold brewing coffee for my mocha stout. I believe it ended up with about 32 ounces of cold brewed coffee that I added to my beer.
So I ended up halving my batch...1 half being normal stout then adding the coffee to the second half during bottling. I used 8 oz of cold brewed coffee with approx. 1 litre of water. There is a strong coffee aroma and the flavour is intense without being bitter or overpowering. I wasn't expecting such a great head on the beer either, a nice dark head that sticks around for some time. My friends are very impressed and I will be doing this again! Thanks for all you help guys and cheers!!
I have made quite a few coffee stouts and I always "dry hop" whole beans in the keg and they turn out amazing the only thing I will advise you on is you can ALWAYS add more coffee
Amount of Coffee for stout...
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