Coffee Milk Stout recipe advice

I'm planning on brewing a coffee milk stout this weekend and I was hoping I could get some critiques on my recipe. I'm kind of going for something in between a sweet stout and an American stout with a good hint of coffee. I was wondering mainly about the hops and the amount of lactose, but I also wouldn't mind hearing comments/suggestions about the grainbill, coffee, etc. Here's the recipe:

HOME BREW RECIPE:
Title: Coffee Cream Stout

Brew Method: All Grain
Style Name: American Stout
Boil Time: 60 min
Batch Size: 5 gallons (ending kettle volume)
Boil Size: 7 gallons
Efficiency: 77.5% (ending kettle)

STATS:
Original Gravity: 1.062
Final Gravity: 1.019
ABV (standard): 5.73%
IBU (rager): 40.47
SRM (morey): 40

FERMENTABLES:
8 lb - United Kingdom - Maris Otter Pale (74.4%)
0.25 lb - Belgian - Special B (2.3%)
0.75 lb - American - Caramel / Crystal 40L (7%)
0.5 lb - United Kingdom - Chocolate (4.7%)
0.5 lb - United Kingdom - Black Patent (4.7%)
0.25 lb - United Kingdom - Roasted Barley (2.3%)
0.5 lb - Lactose (Milk Sugar) (4.7%)

HOPS:
0.6 oz - Nugget for 60 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 14, IBU: 38.78)
0.5 oz - Willamette for 5 min, Type: Pellet, Use: Boil (AA 4.5, IBU: 1.69)

MASH STEPS:
1) Infusion, Temp: 154 F, Time: 60 min, Amount: 14 qt, Strike Temp = 166.3 F
2) Infusion, Temp: 212 F, Time: 10 min, Amount: 6 qt, Mashout
3) Sparge, Temp: 185 F, Time: 10 min, Amount: 14 qt

OTHER INGREDIENTS:
4 oz - Coarse Ground Coffee, Time: 0 min, Type: Flavor, Use: Boil (Flameout)
1 each - Whirlfloc, Time: 15 min, Type: Fining, Use: Boil

YEAST:
Fermentis / Safale - Safale - American Ale Yeast US-05

WATER PROFILE:
Ca2: 88
Mg2: 0
Na: 4
Cl: 66
SO4: 64
HCO3: 29

Gypsum: 3 grams (1.25g to mash 1.75g to kettle)
CaCl2: 4 grams (1.6g to mash 2.4g to kettle)

Thanks in advance

Bump

I'm curious, are you adding the coffee to your boil or are you going to cold brew then add to your beer?
I'm thinkin about doing a coffee stout so id love to year how this turns out.

I just made a coffee milk stout and from what I read the cold brewing/steeping the coffee grounds is the way to go. Boiling the coffee will impart too much bitterness and not enough flavor/aroma. If thats what you are looking for than I would say cold brew. I'll let you know how mine turns out.

I'm planning on adding the coffee at flameout after the wort drops below 200F, then letting it steep for about 10-20 minutes. My only concern is that fermentation might scrub all the coffee flavor and aroma out.

I thought about the cold brew method, but it just weirds me out from a sanitation standpoint. I'm sure it's fine and I'm just being paranoid though. Tally, let us know how yours turns out and if mine is lacking in coffee I might try to add some cold brewed coffee at bottling.

I've gone the cold-brewed route (added at transfer to keg) on a mocha stout. It turned out great.

How much water and coffee do you all use to cold brew?

Recently made a coffee version of our sweet stout. I have one of those Toddy cold brew systems and used it to extract 12 oz of freshly roasted beans, and added all of the resulting coffee concentrate to the bottling bucket. I can't describe how delicious it is! I meant to Starsan the coffee flask before I ran the coffee into it, but a forgot. No problems, though. With alcohol already present it's less of a worry.

peterj said:

How much water and coffee do you all use to cold brew?

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I use 2 oz (by weight) course ground coffee and 8 oz water per gallon of beer in the keg or bottling bucket.

I made the brewers best oatmeal stout kit and cold brewed 16 oz coffee, added to the keg. Turned out great.

LLBeanJ said:

I use 2 oz (by weight) course ground coffee and 8 oz water per gallon of beer in the keg or bottling bucket.

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So to clarify the amount, this would be 10 oz of coffee beans ground coarsely, brewed into 40 oz of water, for a five gallon batch?
I'm looking to add coffee in the secondary of a double chocolate stout that's done fermenting, but still sitting in primary for now...
Hoping to get a good coffee flavor (already has some from the dark grains in the minimash/extract) and aroma that's not too overpowering. I've heard some one else say they only added 2 oz total coffee (grounds, not sure in how much water) for a five gal batch.
Also, I like the idea of just adding to the bottling bucket, instead of secondary - negates the risks that come with transferring, and the only reason I was going to secondary was to add the coffee. Maybe that's the difference in amounts - 2 oz in the secondary for a few days or a week may impart about the same flavor as adding the 10oz just before bottling?...

10 oz coffee to 40 oz water for five gallons should be fine, though I'm sure it would also be fine if you went with 6 oz water per gallon (30 oz for a 5g batch, though I'd just make it a quart for good measure). The coffee will absorb quite a bit of water, so you will have less liquid coming out than went in. I used 6 oz coffee for a 3g batch and it was perfect (for my taste anyhow), so that's where I came up with the 2 oz/gallon suggestion.

To cold brew, I just put the water and coffee in a plastic storage container with a lid and let it sit at room temp for a few days, giving it a nice shake every so often. You can also refrigerate it while it steeps, but you may want to let it go a bit longer, say a week. Use a French press or pour it through a coffee filter to separate.

One of the reasons I like to add the coffee at packaging is that you can add some (like maybe 1/2) of it and sample to see if it has the amount of flavor you want and if not, then add more until you get it where you like it. I suppose adding the grounds directly to the beer in secondary can achieve the same thing by sampling every couple of days until the flavor is where you want it and then racking off the grounds. Whether 2 oz is enough for a 5g batch, I couldn't say, but it might be if given enough time. I know people do it both ways, so do whatever seems easiest for you.

Thanks or the reply and info. I think I will prob go with adding to bottling bucket like you said, and prob with a quart (I think that is the size of my French press, so that would be perfect). I took a gravity reading yesterday, and split the hydro sample into 2 glasses, and added some brewed coffee (crudely scaling down from the 40 oz/5 gal) into one... It tasted noticeably better than the one without (of course, both were flat and warm, and not done fermenting yet!). Looking forward to the finished product!

LLBeanJ said:

10 oz coffee to 40 oz water for five gallons should be fine, though I'm sure it would also be fine if you went with 6 oz water per gallon (30 oz for a 5g batch, though I'd just make it a quart for good measure). The coffee will absorb quite a bit of water, so you will have less liquid coming out than went in. I used 6 oz coffee for a 3g batch and it was perfect (for my taste anyhow), so that's where I came up with the 2 oz/gallon suggestion.

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Seen below is 10oz of coarse ground coffee (two large cereal bowls full, 5oz each) and 32oz water in the jar... That seems like a lot of coffee for that amount of water! But I guess the cold steeping won't get as strong a flavor as hot steeping/boiling, no? I'm planning on adding the grounds to the water (after it cools - I boiled it to sterilize) and just sticking it in the back of the fridge for 5 days. I'll taste a sample before adding all of it to my 5 gal of stout, and see how strong it tastes. Maybe if its too strong, I'll remove half/only add half. Or maybe I'll bottle half the beer with no coffee and the other half sight the coffee to compare the difference (or maybe 1/3 none, 1/3 half-strength, 1/3 full-strength coffee... If I'm feeling ambitious!).

It is a lot of coffee (I remember thinking the same thing when I was doing this), so you may need to add some more water. If you end up with 16-20 oz. or so of liquid after filtering, you should be in good shape. The cold brewed coffee will be a very concentrated, so just be careful adding it to your brew so that you don't overdo it.

It ended up making about 32 oz total after I pressed it... So just about half was absorbed by the ground beans (I used 2 32oz jars of water, with 5oz of coffee each, to begin with). I tasted the coffee, and it wasn't too strong (I would have had no problem drinking it as an iced coffee or something), and even kind of smooth (guessing from the cold pressing instead of boiling). So I just went ahead and added the whole amount into the bottling bucket with my priming sugar and 5.25 gal of stout. I didn't sample the beer after mixing, only the hydrometer sample taken (seen in the other pic in the smaller glass, next to a glass and bottle of Young's Double Chocolate Stout), so hopefully it wasn't too much and won't be too overpowering! I used S-04, and it ended up at 1.016, so it has a bit of sweetness and fruity esters that I think the coffee flavor will balance out well. Very tasty even without the coffee, but hoping will be better with! Time will tell... Bottled 7/15, so a few weeks of conditioning and ill have the first taste.

I've been making a really good coffee milk stout for a while, a couple comments:

I use 0.5lb lactose as well, I think this is a perfect amount to impart creaminess w/o too much sweetness (I don't like sweet).
I cold brew coffee and add it to the keg along with the finished beer. I steep about 8tbs of course grind in my french press and leave it overnight. Then when I transfer to keg, I first boil the coffee for 10mins to sanitize, then cool it back down a bit and add it to the keg. I've found this amount of coffee is enough to impart a strong coffee flavor (I like it strong), while not overpowering the beer entirely.

Cheers!

landocal9 said:

Then when I transfer to keg, I first boil the coffee for 10mins to sanitize, then cool it back down a bit and add it to the keg.

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That's a pretty good idea. I've always been a little wierded out by the idea of adding unsanitized cold brewed coffee that's been sitting around growing who knows what for a day or two. I feel like you would probably lose a lot of the flavor and aroma if you boiled it for 10 minutes though. I would just put it in a pot on the stove and bring the temperature up to around 180F or so then let it sit for a couple minutes to pastuerize it. You don't have to boil to sanitize; pasteurization occurs starting at 140F.

That's good to know. Even after boiling I got a good amount of coffee flavor that was to my liking. Maybe it'd be stronger if I try your suggestion. Ill give that a shot on the next one