Coffee Porter

bonzombiekitty · 10-14-2009, 05:08 PM

I'm planning to start brewing a porter and a different thread gave me the idea to try a coffee porter (a couple breweries around here do them as seasonals and I love them *is excited Joe Porter is in bottles this year*).

If I'm gonna do this, should I brew the espresso separately and then add it into the boil? Or should I just crush some espresso beans and throw them in the bag with my specialty grains? My concern is that if I put them in with the grains, I'll be pulling a lot of bitter taste from over used beans.

Anyone do this before?

Elaelap · 10-14-2009, 05:31 PM

I just made a coffee porter using EdWorts Robust Porter as a base. For the coffee, I coarsely ground 2 cups of starbucks coffee and put them in in a pitcher with 4 cups of water. I let it cold steep for 24 hours, then added it directly into the primary. I just tasted the beer and it came out great, with a hint aftertaste of coffee. I've read several different ways of adding the coffee, but decided to go with cold steeping since it seems to negate some of the bitterness of the coffee.

**Walker** · 10-14-2009, 05:34 PM

I've added coffee to a stout before. I was afraid that boiling the brewed coffee or even the beans themselves would lead to that nasty "crap, this coffee has been sitting on a burner too long" flavor so I opted to add the freshly brewed espresso to the fermenter just prior to bottling the beer.

In fact, I used the espresso as the liquid for my priming solution and just dissolved the necessary corn sugar in it, added it to the bottling bucket, and racked the beer in.

Bottle and wait

My $0.02

George1965 · 10-14-2009, 11:24 PM

I finished brewing/drinking a 5 gal. batch of coffee porter not too long ago. After primary during racking to my bottling bucket I added about 16 oz of French pressed/brewed starbucks to taste. After three weeks in the bottle it tasted great. This method allows you to add more or less to taste. I also cooled the coffee in the fridge prior to adding it to the bottling bucket. It just seemed like a good idea to cool it.

**Grinder12000** · 10-14-2009, 11:34 PM

I added 4 oz of ground (flat bottom) Sumatra at flame out and then 4 oz of Kona as a dry hop. Awesome in a stout.

The kind of coffee does make a difference. One note - the coffee will fade with time.

**Hang Glider** · 10-15-2009, 01:58 AM

My process was closer to Grinder's but it's the brewer's call - just keep notes.
BrewYourOwn has a lengthy article about this and the end result is ...

do it how you want.

Torchiest · 09-06-2010, 01:53 PM

Reviving this thread, since I'm going to do a "mocha" porter today.

I had planned on adding 4oz of coffee at flame out, but I'm intrigued by the idea of cold-brewing, since I've done that before just to drink and it tastes quite a bit different from regular hot brewed coffee.

Has anyone tried multiple methods of adding coffee? Was there a significant difference between methods? Since this is going to be a very strong beer, I was also thinking about adding cocoa and coffee to it when I transfer it to secondary.

Any thoughts or experiences with any of this welcome.

Sithdad · 09-06-2010, 02:30 PM

My personal experience:
Cocoa: Added cocoa powder to primary via a slurry. Resulted in wax showing up in the bottles (naturally occurring in cocoa) and affects the taste of the beer. I suggest adding the cocoa to the boil as it would help mix it in or use nibs in the primary.

Coffee: I added cold steeped coffee to the bottling bucket. Results in a very smooth coffee flavor.

Torchiest · 09-06-2010, 04:04 PM

Yes, in the past, I've always added cocoa to the boil and skimmed the little bit of fat off the top, with generally good results. I really like the idea of adding cold-brewed to the bottling bucket though.

Torchiest · 09-06-2010, 09:43 PM

Well, I brewed the porter. The concept I had in mind was an imperial mocha porter. The hop calculation was a bit tricky, and after tasting the worst, I'm a little concerned that the bitterness might be too intense between the hops and the cocoa AND the coffee. I'm considering adding some lactose at bottling to smooth it out, but I'll make the call in a couple months. It tasted a bit funky just now, but we'll see.