Spice, Herb, or Vegetable Beer McAustin's Mocha Stout (w/cold-brewed coffee)

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mcaustin

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2006
Messages
173
Reaction score
2
Location
Anchorage
Recipe Type
Extract
Yeast
Wyeast Labs 1968 London ESB Ale
Batch Size (Gallons)
5
Original Gravity
1.056
Final Gravity
1.018
Boiling Time (Minutes)
60
IBU
33.8
Color
30.4
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
13 (~66 deg)
Secondary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp)
14 (~66 deg)
Additional Fermentation
~2 weeks aging in keg
6 lbs Dark DME

Steeped 45 min:
1 lb 60L Crystal
1 lb UK pale malt
.50 lb roasted barley
.25 lb chocolate malt
.25 flaked oats

1 oz Norther Brewer (60 min)
.5 oz Tettnang (60 min)
1 oz Fuggles (20 min)

8 oz lactose (15 min)
1 tsp Irish moss (10 min)
.75 cup special dark cocoa (5 min)

I added my cold brewed coffee to secondary (28 oz) see cold brewing instructions below:

Coffee--Cold Extraction
This is a way of getting a very smooth coffee flavor to add to your beer. Add 1 lb ground coffee to 28 ounces of cold filtered water in a sanitized container. Allow this to sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then run the mixture through a coffee filter. All or part of this extract may be added to your beer -- I used Starbucks Dark Italian roast.
 
I'm interested in brewing a coffee stout and, based on my capabilities, this extract recipe seemed like a good one to use. I have a few questions though.

What effect does 1/4 lb. of flaked oats have on the flavor and/or head retention?

I want to brew a coffee stout so I figured I'd just omit the cocoa. Was the lactose added to complement the cocoa, or should I keep it in the recipe to keep this a sweet stout?

Thanks.
 
I used the flaked oats to give it some of the mouthfeel of the oatmeal stouts that I've always been a fan of.

When I made this recipe, I really had kind of a beer/latte mixture in mind, so adding lactose seemed like a pretty natural step in the process. I does make the stout itself more of a sweet stout, as you stated. I have a feeling that the lactose would go really well with a coffee stout (no cocoa) as well. Cold brewing the coffee is the key to avoiding the coffee bitterness from getting into your beer.

If you brew it, I'd be curious to hear your thoughts when you're drinking it. This was probably my favorite beer that I've made so far, and my friends drank it up pretty quickly as well.
 
Finally brewed this on 9/6/08. I've got questions regarding the coffee going into secondary...

1) Does the coffee need to be boiled/sterilized somehow after it has been put through the filter? It just strikes me that this is juncture where contamination could easily occur.

2) Is it feasible to not use a secondary? Could I simply add the coffee to the primary after ~2 weeks?
 
1) Does the coffee need to be boiled/sterilized somehow after it has been put through the filter? It just strikes me that this is juncture where contamination could easily occur.

2) Is it feasible to not use a secondary? Could I simply add the coffee to the primary after ~2 weeks?

1) DO NOT boil the coffee! You will completely negate the whole purpose of cold brewing it. Just make sure that you sanitize everything that the coffee will contact and you should be fine. from what I've read, since the beer is fermented at this point, it probably has enough alcohol to not be overcome by possible contamination.

2) I suppose that you could not use a secondary. I have traditionally used secondary vessels for all of my beers.

Let me know how it ends up!
Austin
 
UPDATE:

I asked earlier if I could skip secondary, and you said it was more or less a judgement call. I judged to go with your side. It needed a clean-up, and it was the perfect opportunity to rack the beer onto the coffee. I was VERY happy I did this (although it meant I had to go buy another carboy).

Speaking of the coffee...my cold brewing of the coffee F-A-I-L-E-D. It ended up that the coffee grounds just ended up absorbing the water. Basically it was coffee sludge. I couldn't get even 1 cup of coffee out of it. Clearly I needed the idiot directions or I left it in the fridge too long. Anyway, I hot-brewed 4 cups and used that instead, hoping that the bitter taste would appeal to me...

And it did! I tried a sample today after 2 weeks in the bottle. This stout is fantastic! The best way I can describe it is exceptionally balanced. The cocoa, coffee, bitterness and alcohol are not fighting amongst themselves for superiority, but rather dancing together for a well-rounded final product.

In eBay speak: A++++++++ would brew again!! :rockin:

Thanks for the recipe!
 
I'm glad that it came out well and that you're enjoying it! :mug:
I think that I need to brew this one again sometime soon (converted to AG now though). It's one of the favorite recipes that I've come up with.

I mentioned your cold brewing coffee issue to my wife (she's the coffee expert here, I just drink it), and she asked if you maybe didn't realize that the coffee grounds float? My only other thought would be that maybe you needed some more water? I actually let her make the cold brewed coffee after I brewed the beer :D
 
Hmmm...

What I did was use a Rubbermaid food container and put the coffee in it and then added water. So as you explained it, I should have:

1) had a much bigger container and
2) added the water first and then floated the coffee on top of it?
 
I'm not real sure that a much larger container is/was needed... I'm pretty sure that my wife made it in a pitcher. Here's another example of how to do it, but with pics and a better description than I gave. Eat / Cold-brewed iced coffee
 
I have this beer on my "to do" list but I have an IBU question. I plugged everything into BeerSmith and I get 45.8 (Northern Brewer 28.9, Fuggles 9.3, Tettnang 7.6) Am I missing something?

Edit: Also, BeerSmith says some of the grains require mashing. Do you mash all the specialty grains?
 
Don't know how I missed this one, I love cold brewed iced coffee, so much better that hot brewed, gotta do something like this.
 
This looks great.. but I really would like to boost the OG and get a little more ABV in this brew. I was thinking maybe adding 2 lbs of Dextrose, how would this effect the ABV, head retention, and overall appearance? Anyone have an opinion?
 
Just brewed this recipe on Saturday. Came out with an O.G. of 1.062. It's bubbling away nicely in my closet. I'm pretty excited to see how this one turns out.
 
I'm doing a version of this on Sunday, with some slight changes for All-Grain:

McWood's Mocha Stout
6lbs American 2 Row
4lbs Simpson's Golden Promise
8oz Black Barley
8oz Crystal 40
8oz Flaked Oats
6oz Chocolate Malt
0.5oz Northern Brewer (8.9%AA), 60min
0.25oz Northern Brewer (8.9%AA), 40min
0.5oz Willamette (4.8%AA), 20min
8oz Lactose, 15min
1tsp Irish Moss, 15min
6oz Cocoa Powder, 5min
28oz Cold-press coffee in secondary
11.5g Safale S-04 dry yeast, rehydrated

60min mash @ 152*F, mashout @ 170*F. 60min boil. Expected OG 1.056, Expected FG 1.015.
 
Just brewed this one up before the holidays. Got it sitting in the secondary now.

Made a couple of changes to it, based on personal preference and availability.
- Used 3/4 cup Hershey's unsweetened cocoa
- Used a medium-roast coffee (Caribou Coffee's Caribou Blend)
- Used White Labs WLP005 British Ale yeast

Had a boilover when I added the DME, stupidly forgot to take the pot off boil before adding it. Lesson learned. Didn't lose too much though. OG came in at 1.060.

I'll be kegging this one sometime around 1/16 (14 days in the secondary). I'll let you know how it turned out!!
 
I've been lazy and letting it sit in the primary since 12/12. I still need to rack it to secondary and add the coffee concentrate.

Any thoughts on NOT racking it to secondary and just pouring in the coffee concentrate?
 
I've been lazy and letting it sit in the primary since 12/12. I still need to rack it to secondary and add the coffee concentrate.

Any thoughts on NOT racking it to secondary and just pouring in the coffee concentrate?

You should be able to add the coffee at bottling/kegging time. It's only a flavor addition.
 
So I just kegged and force-carbonated this one today. I made it pretty much to the recipe, except I used a British ale yeast, Hershey's cocoa, and 28oz cold-pressed mild-roast coffee.

A few initial impressions:
- Nose is almost all coffee. Not much of the malt or chocolate comes through in the aroma.
- Head retention is good, with moderate lacing on the glass as I drink it.
- As far as taste goes, the coffee flavor is pretty overwhelming. Can't taste any chocolate, and only a mild amount of hop bitterness comes through.
- Mouthfeel is very satisfyingly creamy
- A bit of lingering sharpness is left on the tongue after drinking.

I only left this one in the secondary for 14 days, which is pretty short for a stout. I'm thinking a bit more keg aging may even the tastes out a bit more.
 
I also kegged and force-carbed this one today. I did not add the coffee until I kegged it this morning and I sampled the beer before the coffee addition. I've made a coffee stout before that had too much coffee in it (it did mellow out after time), so I only added about 1/4 of the coffee concentrate that was stated in this recipe (thinking I would add more if needed). I think it's just about perfect with this smaller amount of coffee.

Man, this is great stuff.

LTownGarage - I brewed a coffee stout before that I initially thought had too much coffee flavor. It did take a few weeks, but it turned out great. I just did not want a repeat of that experience this time, so I used less this time around.
 
Smoo and LT-

I actually have a keg of my Mocha Stout on tap right now too. As Smoo said, the coffee will typically mellow out with some time. My wife and I really like the strong coffee flavor though. As far as the hop bitterness coming through, I never intended for it to have much hoppyness (is that a word?), but rather have them there for balance so it's not crazy sweet.

I have thought about ways to get more of chocolate flavor, and I think what I'm going to do next time I brew this is to use cocoa nibs instead of cocoa powder. If you have a place to get nibs, I really think they'd be the way to go. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the Mocha Stout, it's one of our favorites. All I've really changed with the recipe since I originally posted it was to convert it to all-grain.

Mcaustin
 
McAustin - The bitterness comment was actually a good thing! :) The coffee flavor is overpowering it a bit right now, but I'm willing to bet that it's going to balance out over the next few weeks. I think I should have left it in secondary a bit longer, maybe another week or two. It was my first stout, and it seems that patience truly is a virtue when it comes to beers that use darker grains. I can tell that this beer is going to balance out very well.

I agree with you about the chocolate nibs. I'm going to try this one again after a few batches, but will substitute a darker chocolate with higher cacao percentage than Hershey's next time around. I'm also going to use an espresso roast next time too.

Great recipe! Thanks for posting it.
 
Here's the latest all-grain version of my Mocha Stout that I brewed last:

Grain:
9.0 lbs 2-row
1.5 lbs Crystal 60L
1.0 lb barley, flaked
.75 lb roasted barley
.50 lb chocolate malt

Hops:
60 min 1 oz Northern Brewer
20 min 0.75 oz Fuggles

Other:
15 min 8.5 oz lactose
5 min .75 cup Hershey's special dark cocoa

And, of course, the cold brewed coffee previously described in the recipe. We most recently used Kaladi Brothers (it's an Alaskan roastery) Caprese roast.

It's still on tap (barely) and tastes great. I reduced the hops some since my intention was never to have much hop characteristic to it. I am hoping to track down some nibs up here to use next time I brew this one. I hope everyone that's tried out this recipe is enjoying it!
 
Add 1 lb ground coffee to 28 ounces of cold filtered water in a sanitized container.

I followed your directions too, and the stuff that I ended up with is not something I would let near my beer. Basically sludge.

I followed the link you listed in a later post. That article suggested 1/2 cup of grounds for a quart of water. That's about 1.5 oz of ground for 32 oz of grounds. Did you mean 1 oz of grounds instead of 1 pound?

I've tweaked your recipe just a bit, and it's in primary right now. Can't wait to try it!
 
Did you mean 1 oz of grounds instead of 1 pound?

Nope, we use a pound of very coarsely ground coffee and fill our pitcher with water in it. Then it gets filtered and we generally end up with 28-32 ounces of cold-brewed coffee. I add all of the coffee to my 5 gallon batches when I keg them.

The filtering/straining takes a little while, but it's worth it. :mug:
 
Here's the latest all-grain version of my Mocha Stout that I brewed last:

Grain:
9.0 lbs 2-row
1.5 lbs Crystal 60L
1.0 lb barley, flaked
.75 lb roasted barley
.50 lb chocolate malt

Hops:
60 min 1 oz Northern Brewer
20 min 0.75 oz Fuggles

Other:
15 min 8.5 oz lactose
5 min .75 cup Hershey's special dark cocoa

And, of course, the cold brewed coffee previously described in the recipe. We most recently used Kaladi Brothers (it's an Alaskan roastery) Caprese roast.

It's still on tap (barely) and tastes great. I reduced the hops some since my intention was never to have much hop characteristic to it. I am hoping to track down some nibs up here to use next time I brew this one. I hope everyone that's tried out this recipe is enjoying it!


What was your mash temp/sparge water temp?
 
Add 1 lb ground coffee to 28 ounces of cold filtered water in a sanitized container. Allow this to sit in the refrigerator for 24 hours, then run the mixture through a coffee filter. All or part of this extract may be added to your beer -- I used Starbucks Dark Italian roast.

I just tried this method and ended up with about 1/4 cup of extract due to absorbtion from the grounds. I added more water to the grounds and will drain again tomorrow. Would there be any ill effects to letting the grounds sit in water for another 12-18 hours?
 
Picked up the supplies for this recipe the other day. Gonna be in the Primary by the end of the week. Sounds like a great beer. Looking forward to it.:mug:
 
brewing this today. pretty excited.

actually, just had my first boil over and lost about half a gallon after adding the DME....oops! hopefully it turns out alright! :(
 
brewing this today. pretty excited.

actually, just had my first boil over and lost about half a gallon after adding the DME....oops! hopefully it turns out alright! :(
spaga33, Just wondering how your stout is coming along. We brewed this beer on the same day. Mine is slowing down and getting ready to rack into the secondary.
 
I am currently brew-day on this recipe. Couple of questions...

1: I brewed the coffee already not knowing its a secondary addition. If I just dunp it in the carboy with the beer, is this ok? Will it make it more coffee-ish or less? Will it interfere with fermentation?

2: I forgot the 0ats until 20mins left on the mash as they were in a sepreate bag to my grist....I just put it in, do I need to leave the mash for an extra 40 mins or will a slow sparge be ok? I dont know how quick oats mash.
 
anyone? could really use some help.

This is a bit late for you...

Anyway, for future reference you could store the cold-brewed coffee for at least a couple of days but eventually it will go bad.

Couldn't tell you what the short mash time on the oats would do, but I'm sure you still made beer :cross:

To answer another old question from BSBrewer that I missed... the last time I brewed this, I mashed at 158 for 40 minutes and sparged at 168 degrees.


I hope everyone's enjoying this beer, it looks like quite a few people have given it a shot recently. I found it also makes great ice cream floats!
 
I am looking to bottle this in the next few days. I had an OG of .060 @ 69 deg. After 10 days in the primary showed a .028. It has now been 18 days in the secondary and am getting ready to bottle. I dont have a kegging set up yet (my next gift to myself). So my question is what is the chances I will get proper carbonation without pitching some new yeast? :tank:
 
I am looking to bottle this in the next few days. I had an OG of .060 @ 69 deg. After 10 days in the primary showed a .028. It has now been 18 days in the secondary and am getting ready to bottle. I dont have a kegging set up yet (my next gift to myself). So my question is what is the chances I will get proper carbonation without pitching some new yeast? :tank:

I have heard of people bottling after months and still getting a good carbonation. I think you'll be alright.


And the original extract recipe is on my to-do list! I am going to use nibs instead of powder, and I think I'm going to do a mini mash of of the grains. I cannot wait!
 
I picked up the ingredients for this one over the weekend and hope to have it in the carboy by the weeks end. As people have mentioned I decided to go with nibs, only my local store was out so I have gone with raw coco powder (ground nibs w/o any processing). I am hoping the increased surface area on the powder will lead to more chocolate flavor then just strait nibs. (I will also likely brew the coffee with some of the powder, a practice I have come to love with iced coffee anyways).

This will be my first beer (as I am typically a mead man). It seems much more my style then some of the simpler recipes. Hopefully come bottling time a friend will lend me his kegging equipment so I wont have to muck around with priming.

Wish me luck. I am very excited about venturing into the land of beer.
 
I have had some trouble in finding Lactose, any suggestions on what alternatives I have?
 
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