coffee Toddy?

I was thinking of doing a coffee stout/porter. for this, it seems i can do 1 of 2 things, either put in some amount of ground coffee into the last few mins of the boil or at FO, or i add a coffee toddy to secondary.

i know a brewer from my place of work and he says adding ground coffee to the boil is not a good idea, so the coffee toddy into secondary seems best, but i dont understand how to do it. can someone explain how to do it?

Its very easy!


You do not want to add coffee ground directly to the wort or beer, it will extract some of the oils in the roast coffee beans that impart a bitter/harsh taste that is not very pleasant. This is why brewers will mainly add cold press coffee into their beer, steeping the coffee at cold temps will extract the flavor, but not the bitterness from the beans.

Here is how I do it. You will need a quart mason jar with a lid. Boil a cup of water and pour it into the mason jar and cap it, turn it upside down to ensure the water makes contact with the lid as well to help with the sanitation of the jar. After a few minutes, stick it in the fridge and let it sit there overnight to let the water cool down. The next morning, add a 1/3 cup of coarse ground coffee beans to the water. Shake a few times to incorporate and stick it back in the fridge for 24h. Use a cheesecloth or coffee filter to separate the coffee grounds from the liquids and you then have cold press coffee.

You can add this at any point (boil, fermentation, secondary) but I prefer to add it at kegging. Some add it at the end of boil for sanitation reasons but I feel confident enough that the boiled water and alcohol in the beer will be enough to keep the other things at bay. If I were bottling the beer for long term storage, I would add it at the end of boil just in case.

Report back and let us know how it turns out!

sounds easier than i thought, but just to be clear, im adding the cold press coffee to the beer, not the coffee grounds right?

Sorry the last time i looked this subject up i couldnt tell if the coffee grounds were going into secondary in a steeping bad or if it was the liquid coffee that was was added...

Yep, just add the filtered cold press coffee to the beer. I just did an Espresso Imperial Stout and what I did was steep 5oz coarse ground coffee beans in the keg for a day. This made the coffee flavor way too forward so next time, I'll try the cold press method and add gradually until I get the flavor I want.

any problem with steeping longer than 24 hrs? i forgot about mine for about 5 days before adding to secondary, haven't kegged it yet but i'm hoping i didn't f it up.

I think it depends how much you steeped with. I did 5oz because I wanted a strong coffee flavor but didn't think it'd be THAT strong.

LoneTreeFarms said:

any problem with steeping longer than 24 hrs? i forgot about mine for about 5 days before adding to secondary, haven't kegged it yet but i'm hoping i didn't f it up.

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Only one way to find out. Taste it!

It should have a strong but mellow coffee flavor and aroma. It should not be bitter.

Going to do this soon. Anyone care to share results?

I am thinking of either cold toddy pressing and add at end of boil (adding at near or below 160 degrees during wort chill) or adding to secondary. I am thinking of doing a little bit of both to try and get a coffee forward milk stout. If anyone is still reading, let me know how it turned out!

I cold steeped for 3 days and added to secondary for 10. Kegged it and it came out great.

jhay_x7 said:

You do not want to add coffee ground directly to the wort or beer, it will extract some of the oils in the roast coffee beans that impart a bitter/harsh taste that is not very pleasant.

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I disagree with this statement. I did a coffee saison, added the lightly crushed coffee beans at 24 hours before bottling, and it turned out amazing. Won a 3rd place in Belgians, and every judge at the table asked me "How did you get that flavor in such a light beer?"

If you're going the whole bean route, don't leave them more than 24-48 hours before bottling/kegging and you should be fine. I've tasted great results with toddy as well.