adding coffee beans in secondary fermentation

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ameadrat

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I'm working on a clone for Founders Kentucky Bourbon Stout. I have the bourbon fiqured out. I also have a free source from Starbucks. Has anyone added coffee beans in secondary? I'm thinking 1 lb of whole beans to a 2 1/2 car boy. Any thoughts?
 
Adding whole beans is a complete waste of time. Since there is very little surface area, you'll get almost nothing from the beans. Also, most of the flavors in coffee require hot water to extract. So, add the ground coffee after flameout or brew it.

There's an article on coffee in beer in the Sept. 2007 issue of BYO.
 
Take 2 ounces of coffee beans, grind them fine and wrap them in a couple of coffee filters. Let them steep in 8 oz. of cold water overnight (boil the water first, then let cool).

Then add 1 ounce of the coffee extract to your bottling bucket or keg for 5 gallons.

I'd use a nice strong coffee bean.
 
Thanks for your advice. Bike n brew. I still have 8 bottles left and it is still more than a hint although it is headed in that direction. Since Founders is my #1 micro, i will admit they are given to understatement.

I used 1/2 lb of starbucks cafe verona and four ounces of heavy toasted french oak soaked in a pint of echo springs. One cup of bourbon very dark and oaky was returned to the bottle. I made a RIS and it was about 1040 residual left when I had my 8 gals of wort. to the remainder(5 GAL WORT) I added 4 lbs of rock sugar which raise the OG TO 1074. It was 1030 at the rack to secondary. But I had equipment problems which would have made it 1090 OG if I hadn't paniced. So we will see in about a month. At 6 hours I only had partial conversion.
 
david_42 said:
Also, most of the flavors in coffee require hot water to extract.
hate to come in the newb and correct someone, but here goes...
google cold water coffee or words to that effect. I do not have one of the fancy brewers, but this makes the best coffee I ever had, and I didn't associate coffee with heartburn, till I started using this, and my heartburn went away. it returns when I go back to regular coffee. Something about acids in the bean that hot water extracts, but cool does not...
sorry for the hijack, but wanted to tempt some folks who obviously like drinking the best to try a new trick. if it works lemme know

Norm
 
There was just a podcast - it must have been on Basic Brewing Radio - regarding the use of coffee. You can add to secondary, IIRC. It's worth a listen. You would want to grind the beans, although I'd be inclined to grind them very coarsely. I've used coffee once, it was a mess. A pound per 5 gallon is going to be a lot, altough if doing a cold-extraction, it might be OK.
 
I added 1/2lb of whole coffee beans(Starbucks as descibed above). Sunday I racked my brew to bottle fermantation. First, it is still not blended but
bottle fermentation will solve that in about one month. It has a strong coffee flavor, There goes using anything but whole beans.
Second, I should have used a fresh pint of bourbon instead of one already oaked. This produced a more mellowed bourbon flavor, it could almost be mistaken for brandy.

Thanks to all who contributed
 
Any chance you want to share the recipe?

I have some future family in the Grand Rapids area and dig most of the Founders offerings, including ther Old Dirty Bastard, which I cloned, and probably was my favorite beer to date.
 
i've been making a coffee porter for a couple years now and i just coarsely crush 4 oz. of 8 o'clock brand arabica beans and dump them into the secondary for a couple weeks the aroma and flavor are very pronounced.i don't worry about steeping them and this works bvery well for me.
 
Movinfr8 said:
hate to come in the newb and correct someone, but here goes...
google cold water coffee or words to that effect. I do not have one of the fancy brewers, but this makes the best coffee I ever had, and I didn't associate coffee with heartburn, till I started using this, and my heartburn went away. it returns when I go back to regular coffee. Something about acids in the bean that hot water extracts, but cool does not...
sorry for the hijack, but wanted to tempt some folks who obviously like drinking the best to try a new trick. if it works lemme know

Norm

your absolutely right though. IMO cold brewing the coffee for beer, and as Edwort described above it the best way to put it in a beer. Cold brewing it ensures that: you get the coffee flavor, as beens have very little surface area, coffee grounds don't get in your beer, the acids and oils from the hot brewed coffee don't get in your beer. Oils are known to either go rancid or completely kill the head on your beer.
 
Add whole coffee beans. Recipe is as follows as to kentucky bourbon stout clone, I am getting closer. I have been trying to get the whiskey coffee blend right. for the bourbon flavor, add a pint to about 2 cups of Dark toast French Oak(this gives vanilla flavoring) or Dark toast American Oak(this gives a more spicy flavoring) to a fiver. In a 2 1/2 carboy I used 1/2 lb of starbucks Cafe vienna to secondary ferm. This gave a wonderful beer with my coffee. The brew was a parti-gyle from a basic RIS that I added 4 lbs of rock candy in the boil brought me back t0 1080. Actually was prefered by
a Group of slow food usa people over Founders breakfast stout. Currently have a fiver of oatmeal stout in secondary with 1/3 lb of cafe vienna and 2 cups of heavy toast american soaked in bourbon. Will be bottling tommorrow 2 months in secondary. Will have a better idea about how close I am to founders Kentucky Bourbon Stout tommorow.
 
FYI, a heck of a lot of cooking products use instant coffee for flavor. Take your coffee flavor ice cream for instance...
 
am drinking an oatmeal stout whose wort I bought from homewine supply dundee mich.
It was a 1058 at yeast add. I added 1/3 lb of whole beans. out side of some oatmeal that was in the rack. there was no fine powder. the coffee beans and the oak held the junk in place however I bottle ferment so i always stir to get the yeast off the bottom.
In one week it is headed and the sediment is a fine layer on the bottom. The coffee flavor is very distinct and no mess. I am very close to founders breakfast stout in flavor
I would not do it any other way than whole beans. However, each to his own. My next brew is my house scottish ale which gives me good body and a parti-gyle with 1050 so i am going to coffee and oak the Parti-gyle to see how close I can get the oak and coffee in that 2 1/2 gal batch to the flavor of Founders Kentucky bourbon stout. It will mean adding about 4 lbs rock sugar.
 
Since I'm perfect, I did not even notice I switch the base beer from founders base of oatmeal stout to RIS. Having admitted mistake, and I'm still perfect, my friends all one of them like the switch to RIS. The note on the amount of coffee beans is 4 oz to 5 gallon car boy. I made my gentleman coffee in June and the coffee taste is less pronounced now.
I won't bottle until November one carboy. The 2 carboy will be bottled in January. This ages beautifully. Note in January I fill a pint canning jar with
dark toasted French Oak and xo brandy; cover and in June after I put batch in car boy, I drain the pint and add oak and coffee to carboy. Note one pint for each carboy. Use a good 10 percent RIS or a good oatmeal stout recipe.
I prefer the RIS. So I quess I'm still a perfect rat
 
hate to come in the newb and correct someone, but here goes...
google cold water coffee or words to that effect. I do not have one of the fancy brewers, but this makes the best coffee I ever had, and I didn't associate coffee with heartburn, till I started using this, and my heartburn went away. it returns when I go back to regular coffee. Something about acids in the bean that hot water extracts, but cool does not...
sorry for the hijack, but wanted to tempt some folks who obviously like drinking the best to try a new trick. if it works lemme know

Norm
:mug: took the words right outta my mouth :rockin:
I became a Barista when I moved to Seattle, catered weddings, funerals and other occasions. I too migrated to what they call Toddy, one can google Toddy coffee, and bypass all the results that are recipes for coffee with shots of alcohol. You will find a Toddy coffee kit. One must grind the beans very coarse, more course than for a French Press, otherwise the filter gets clogged. It sits in cold water for 10 to 12 hours, and the end product is a concentrate of pure delicious flavor, no acid and full of caffeine. A side story, my wife went for her breast exam after a year of drinking Toddy Cold brew coffee, the doctor asked her if she drank coffee, and her reply was yes. The doctor said, most of the breast exams she does on women drink coffee, they have little lumps in their breasts. My wife told her she drinks cold brewed. The doctor paused a moment and said it could be related to the acids... anyway I digress.

You are exactly right Movinfr8, when hot water touches coffee it pulls out acids, too long a shot and the espresso will be bitter and acidic, plus the ratio of coffee to water plays a big difference in the flavors and acids too. While it is true a whole bean has less surface area, soaking a bean in cold water for an extended period of time will leach out all the yummy goodness and leave the bitter and acid behind. So 75 grams in a hop bag with a few marbles to keep it from floating up in the krausen for 2 weeks or more will definitely put the coffee taste in the beer. Which is why I'm on here searching for if anyone bakes them and at what temp as to kill any yeasts or other unwanted bacteria going into a 3 to 5 day old ferment.
 
So, i simply added 4oz. of starbucks verona blend coffee to a hop bag sanitized in star san and dropped it in bucket for 2 days after 10 days in primary and fermentation was complete. Worked great. No acid or oil got out of the raw ground coffee which would have killed any head retention. I have a thick head and with great lacing.

Do not let the ground coffee sit in the wort for more than 48 hours. The coffee can start to put out off flavors and bitterness after too much time past 48 hours. I promise, 4 oz. of ground dark roast coffee in a hop bag for two days works as intended and gives a great coffee flavor. Not too much, not too little. Trust me. Ive done it and it works. Ill do it the same way again too.
 
last night after baking 50g bio espresso whole beans at 200C for 20 minutes, I let them cool and put them in a hop bag that I star-san'ed and wrung out, with a couple glass marbles (also star-san'ed), tossed them into the 7 gal conical FV, 4 days into primary, As per the instructions from the Bier supply's recipe. This morning, airlock is still burping a steady rhythm. :)
In August, when I did this Cooper's Stout kit with mods, I tossed 4 shots of espresso in from my La Pavoni. It was a very mild coffee flavor.
I'm looking forward to see what happens with the beans left in, through primary and secondary. The Bier shop said they leave them in and nothing detrimental happens.
 
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