farrout

Recipes 

Hey all,
I brewed a dry stout kit a week and a half ago, and after checking the gravity I found out it is not nearly dark enough. it should be black, however it looks like a scotch ale or something along those lines. I'm sure my problem was that I didnt crush the grains good enough, but thats in the past. So I was wondering what could be done about this. I thought about buying some coffe beans, such as an expresso or french roast. Grind them up and place them in a cheesecloth bag and add that to the keg with the beer. I would assume that would beef up the coffee flavor and maybe darken it a bit more. is this a viable idea? any other suggestions?
Thanks guys.

BierMuncher

Recipes 

If all you want to do is add some coffee flavor and darken the beer, maybe the simplest thing is to boil up a real concentrated amount of instant coffee.

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Whisler85

Recipes 

use sinamar beer coloring

it is available at most LHBS, it is made from roasted barley, and it is 3200L, so a little bit goes a long way

i don't know what to do about the kit, but when making a dry stout that you want REALLY black without going overboard on black barley, it is a good idea to crush just the black barley into dust (leave all other grains at a normal grind)- this will give you the best color without increasing the roastiness or astringency of the beer

niquejim

Recipes 

+1 for sinamar

farrout

Recipes 

Don't you usually use sinamar in the boil? can it be added to the primary or secondary?

Whisler85

Recipes 

use it any time- i know people who have used it for swarzbier when they cant find de-bittered (carafa special) dark malts

just add it and mix- ur done

CreeDakota

Recipes 

Hows the flavor? Cold steeping espresso beans doesnt sound too effective to me. I think BierMuncher has a better idea with the Freezedried Coffee slurry addition. Maybe pull a small sample and test the color and flavour with an carefully measured addition. Note the ratio that worked the best and go for it.

Never used Sinamar so cant comment.