Advice pls: Adding coffee to secondary

fongsong · 12-13-2011, 03:21 AM

I have made a coffee mead
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f30/macachinilla-macadamia-mochachino-vanilla-215995/

But it has no where near the coffee flavour that I want. I'd like to add some more, I can think of two alternatives
1. Add some ground coffee
2. Cold brew some coffee and add it

I'll probably go with option 2.

My concern is how to avoid contamination. Any advice?
I can sanitise the containers and boil the water but no doubt the coffee itself will have contaminants on it. I really don't want to introduce something that will grow and spoil this batch.

Do you think if I boiled the cold brewed coffee it would change the taste much? Would this be best?

Thanks

CM4OSU · 12-13-2011, 03:46 AM

Whereas my experience with mead is little to none, my experience with coffee is significant. I would definitely cold brew the coffee, I bet the oils would really throw things off. As for contamination, you could microwave the beans for a little bit but not long to damage the beans.

Bugeaud · 12-13-2011, 05:19 AM

Well, cold brew is the obvious way to go, but watering down your mead? If you'd like to avoid that, than you could add whole coffee beans. A wouldn't suggest ground as it will make it really silty and the ground coffee will be really hard to remove. About contamination, if your really that worried just thoroughly wash the coffee beans, but it's really nothing to be worried about. The coffee beans or w/e at first didn't contaminate it, so what are the chances it will now that your yeast is inactive?

fongsong · 12-13-2011, 02:44 PM

Thanks for your replies.
At first I was concerned about watering it down but I checked my notes and it was only 180ml in 5l so it won't be too much.
I was thinking that previously I had added the coffee during fermentation which would have killed bad things. But, yes, it was added to secondary, so no more likely to do anything now than before.
Thankyou

Pickled_Pepper · 12-13-2011, 04:59 PM

What about espresso? I have one of those little bialetti espresso makers, but I bet you could just as easily run up the road to a Starbucks or Java the Hut (insert name of local coffee house) Take a sanitized container with you when you go...ask the (whatever you call the coffee person) to just dump a shot into your container. Leave it covered in your container until it cools and then pitch it in the secondary.

Just a thought.

Bugeaud · 12-14-2011, 04:09 AM

Quote:

What about espresso? I have one of those little bialetti espresso makers, but I bet you could just as easily run up the road to a Starbucks or Java the Hut (insert name of local coffee house) Take a sanitized container with you when you go...ask the (whatever you call the coffee person) to just dump a shot into your container. Leave it covered in your container until it cools and then pitch it in the secondary.

Well the whole cold brew thing is to try to minimize the sort of bitter flavour that comes from hot brewing coffee, so it would kind of invalidate the original cold brewing, wouldn't it?

Pickled_Pepper · 12-14-2011, 10:32 AM

yep. I didn't say it was the perfect plan. haha I guess I just drink so much of the bitter stuff I didn't consider people actually not liking it.

**biochemedic** · 12-15-2011, 01:25 AM

Just recently made a coffee oatmeal stout with cold brewed coffee...1 oz of coffee brewed with 32 oz of water in to slightly over 5 gal of beer gave a very nice but strong coffee aroma and flavor. We'll see how it bottle conditions, but I was thinking I might cut back to 0.75 oz coffee next go around...

WaterViper15 · 12-21-2011, 01:00 AM

hey fongsong

I'm moving to Hong Kong next month from the states and am an avid home brewer. Where do you buy your supplies in Hong Kong? Heard its pretty hard to find anything for home brewing!

I'd really appreciate any help you can give me on the subject!

**kscarrington** · 03-24-2012, 08:43 PM

I will be adding cold brewed coffee to a porter in a couple of weeks. Did you add it at bottling or in the secondary? If secondary how long?

Quote:

Originally Posted by biochemedic

Just recently made a coffee oatmeal stout with cold brewed coffee...1 oz of coffee brewed with 32 oz of water in to slightly over 5 gal of beer gave a very nice but strong coffee aroma and flavor. We'll see how it bottle conditions, but I was thinking I might cut back to 0.75 oz coffee next go around...