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WhiteMtnHausBier · 01-04-2012, 01:38 PM

Tis the season for stouts...or so I've heard. I have access to everything from light to dark, south american to african coffee beans through my work as a barista.

Anyways, has anyone or does anyone know anything about adding roasted coffee beans to the brewing process? Dry hopping, in the boil, in the steep, primary, secondary?

What I'm looking to extract is a slight coffee bitterness of a medium/city roast, as well as that nutty caramel flavor notes that can come from lighter/medium roasts. Not to mention doing a collaboration brew with my local roaster would be excellent because we each share a passion for gourmet beverages.

saluki_brewer · 01-04-2012, 01:46 PM

I recently did a breakfast stout and racked on top of whole coffee beans in the secondary for a couple weeks with good results. I used about 4oz of a medium roast Costa Rican bean. It is slightly heavy on the coffee flavor, but I'm hoping it may fade over time. If I did it again, I might use slightly less.

There are also several other ways I've heard of doing this such as cold brewed coffee added at bottling, ground coffee at flame-out, and coffee grounds in the secondary, but I can't speak to those methods.

509inc · 01-04-2012, 01:47 PM

How about at serving?

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/coffee-randall-216661/

Andrewtherooster · 01-04-2012, 01:48 PM

What I would suggest is to get a light-to-medium coffee roast for the coffee flavor, and use roasted malts for your roastiness. Regardless, high-quality coffee is a must.

This is what I do: With a muslin bag, steep 4-8oz. of coarsely ground coffee (amount dependent on how big the stout is) in 2-3 cups of water overnight. Remove the grounds from the liquid and let it drain. Add the liquid to the bottling bucket and bottle the stout.

WhiteMtnHausBier · 01-04-2012, 01:49 PM

a coffee randalizer would be nuts! Perhaps when I have a keg setup...

WhiteMtnHausBier · 01-04-2012, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andrewtherooster

What I would suggest is to get a light-to-medium coffee roast for the coffee flavor, and use roasted malts for your roastiness. Regardless, high-quality coffee is a must.

This is what I do: With a muslin bag, steep 4-8oz. of coarsely ground coffee (amount dependent on how big the stout is) in 2-3 cups of water overnight. Remove the grounds from the liquid and let it drain. Add the liquid to the bottling bucket and bottle the stout.

I like this idea, what if I used something like a Chemex to steep the beans? It's just a simple and very efficient coffee maker.

I'm more into the idea of using the beans during the brew process rather then adding already brewed coffee into the wort. Something about making coffee and beer at the same time, in the same process seems unique rather then just adding it in at the end already brewed as an adjunct.

Andrewtherooster · 01-04-2012, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WhiteMtnHausBier

I like this idea, what if I used something like a Chemex to steep the beans? It's just a simple and very efficient coffee maker.

I'm more into the idea of using the beans during the brew process rather then adding already brewed coffee into the wort. Something about making coffee and beer at the same time, in the same process seems unique rather then just adding it in at the end already brewed as an adjunct.

You could do that and it would probably turn out well. I know a lot of people do this differently. I like doing it the way I mentioned because I get no bitterness/astringency from the coffee, but it sounds like you might want some of that. Go ahead and try it, I say--brew up some coffee and toss it at the end of the boil--and let us know how it turns out.

WhiteMtnHausBier · 01-04-2012, 02:03 PM

Can you recommend a few good hop varieties for a russian imperial stout? Perhaps weaker on the bittering side because I am trying to pull that from the beans.

Andrewtherooster · 01-04-2012, 02:15 PM

You could use any high-alpha variety, such as Warrior, Galena, Nugget, etc., in lower amounts at the beginning of the boil. I would still shoot for 50-60 IBUs for a Coffee RIS. Some may tell you more.

If you don't have brewing software, you can use a site like Hopville . the free online community for homebrewers to create your recipe and browse other people's recipes.

Andrewtherooster · 01-04-2012, 02:18 PM

By the way, here's a link to my coffee stout recipe and a write-up on how it is:

Bagheera Coffee Stout | Primitive Brewing