Coffee and vanilla beans?

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beyondthepale

beyondthepale

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So, here's the deal. My brother, who is a barista/roaster at a local coffeeshop, is throwing a party after the national barista competition. He has asked me to brew a beer with some of their coffee, and I've decided on a porter as the likliest beer for this purpose. But I have some questions that I hope some experienced brewers here can answer for me. The first one is, how much should I use? Papazian's book reccomends starting with a half a pound, but I think more than that would be better. I'm brewing this for a bunch of insane coffee freaks, and I want it to be a prominent aspect of the beer. I was thinking of using maybe a pound, but I also don't want to overdo it. Also, what about "dry hopping" with coffee beans? And lastly, what sort of grind should I use, a fine grind, or should I just crack the beans?


My second issue is vanilla beans. I'm considering using some to accent the porter. Anyone here used them before? ( I'm sure some of you have!) How many? What's the procedure?
 
beyondthepale said:
So, here's the deal. My brother, who is a barista/roaster at a local coffeeshop, is throwing a party after the national barista competition. He has asked me to brew a beer with some of their coffee, and I've decided on a porter as the likliest beer for this purpose. But I have some questions that I hope some experienced brewers here can answer for me. The first one is, how much should I use? Papazian's book reccomends starting with a half a pound, but I think more than that would be better. I'm brewing this for a bunch of insane coffee freaks, and I want it to be a prominent aspect of the beer. I was thinking of using maybe a pound, but I also don't want to overdo it. Also, what about "dry hopping" with coffee beans? And lastly, what sort of grind should I use, a fine grind, or should I just crack the beans?


My second issue is vanilla beans. I'm considering using some to accent the porter. Anyone here used them before? ( I'm sure some of you have!) How many? What's the procedure?
Click to expand...

You'll probably get a few answers on teh vanilla beans, some people have used them before. I can never get it quite right.

As for coffee, hopefully Sam75 chimes in on this cause he put crushed beans right into his fermenter.
Personally I think a half pound would be too much, even for coffee freaks.
Keep in mind you'll get a roasted coffee-ish flavor in the porter from the dark grains anyway. Coffee will accentuate it but it would be easy to over-do and ruin the beer.
 
Dude said:
You'll probably get a few answers on teh vanilla beans, some people have used them before. I can never get it quite right.

As for coffee, hopefully Sam75 chimes in on this cause he put crushed beans right into his fermenter.
Personally I think a half pound would be too much, even for coffee freaks.
Keep in mind you'll get a roasted coffee-ish flavor in the porter from the dark grains anyway. Coffee will accentuate it but it would be easy to over-do and ruin the beer.
Click to expand...



Well, I was thinking of toning down the grains a bit. Perhaps more chocolate malt and less black patent...
 
The BYO recipe for Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout calls for 3 oz. of coffee, brewed and added to the secondary. This stout has a pleasantly strong espresso taste, so I'm not sure I'd use any more coffee than that for a porter...half a pound sure seems like a lot.
 
El Pistolero said:
The BYO recipe for Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout calls for 3 oz. of coffee, brewed and added to the secondary. This stout has a pleasantly strong espresso taste, so I'm not sure I'd use any more coffee than that for a porter...half a pound sure seems like a lot.
Click to expand...


Hmm... Well, now I don't know what. And I'm brewing tomorrow... Perhaps I will just try a half a pound, steeped after the boil, and add a small amount to the secondary. It isn't going to be a dark roast, so it shouldn't overpower the beer. Or so I would imagine...

Would a vanilla bean or two help "round out" the flavor profile a bit, perhaps softening the sharp edges?
 
can you get your hands on 'coffee malt'. i've used this before in a porter and it gives a real nice coffee flavor. i would add brewed espresso (but with lighter roast), 4-6 oz. probably, added to the secondary. a vanilla bean would be nice, as would aging it on oak chips if you can get them.
 
OTOH, the Rocky River Chocolate Jitters recipe called for 20oz(!) of brewed coffee added to the secondary, which seems like an awful lot. I brewed this recipe and used espresso instead, and can't remember at the moment, but wound up using 4-6oz of espresso I think, closer in line with what El P is suggesting.

I add coffee at bottling time to taste. This has the disadvantage of not resulting in any bulk aging and distribution of the coffee flavors, but I also have a good idea of how much coffee flavor there's going to be. It's easy to add flavor, but removing it is a pain!
 
Well, here's how I've decided to do it:

8.5 # pale LME
2 # Crystal malt, 80^L
12 oz. chocolate malt
8 oz. wheat malt
2 oz. Northern Brewer, 7% AA (one for bittering, one for flavor)
6 tsp. Bakers' cocoa
WLP001 California Ale


8 oz. Barefoot Coffee Roasters' "Sweetness" espresso blend, ground and added after boil, steeped 10-15 minutes


I considered, but decided against a shot of molasses in the boil, I still may add a vanilla bean to the secondary.


Thanks for all the advice, we'll see how it works out...
 
Well, it's in the fermenter, the yeast is pitched, nothing left to do but wait. I think it'll be ok, I ended up only using half the coffee, I might need to "dry hop" it, but I'll let it ferment out a week or two and see where it ends up... Nothing to do now but relax with a nice glass of wine...:ban:
 

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