How do you add coffee to a stout?

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RobE

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I plan on adding the coffee to the secondary for my mocha stout but I've heard of cold brewing coffee, hot brewing, or just adding the beans. I'm trying keep the bitterness low. Any recommendations?
 
I put beans in near the end of the boil the one time I did it.
It was very bitter! Might have something to do with the amount of coffee and hops though.

I think the cold brewing would be more consistent though. I may try that next time.
With the overly bitter beer I got, time made it into an awesome beer.
 
I did a porter i added coffee too and cold brewed the coffee for 48 hrs, it came out very smooth and not bitter at all. I took a bottle to one of my home brew meetings and another guy brought a coffee stout that he added the coffee at 10 and it was bitter. he made the same recipe a few months later and cold brewed the coffee and the bitterness was not there..
 
Nice. I think I'll cold brew it and put it in the secondary about a week before bottling.
 
RobE said:
Nice. I think I'll cold brew it and put it in the secondary about a week before bottling.

I added mine at bottling no secondary, I just reread my post and realized I didn't say that.
 
planning to make a coffee cream stout and debating between cold brewing the coffee and then adding it to the secondary fermenter, or just adding the coffee grounds straight to it. which will produce a better tasting beer?
 
I've never used coffee, but is be tempted to add a strong cold brewed coffee into the keg or bottling bucket. This way you can add a little at a time and not over do it.
 
I'd add coffee, and not coffee grounds. Grounds are so finely ground that I don't imagine how you could keep them out of being in the final beer. Crushed beans would work in secondary, if they weren't crushed too fine so that you could siphon off of them.

Really strong french-pressed coffee would be great, though. I'd just use coffee.
 
yeah our plan is either to cold press some coffee and add it before bottling, or grinding some beans coarsely and adding them to the secondary a few days before bottling. probably will go the cold press route though, that way we can maybe make some of the batch with coffee and some without to see the difference.
 
I coarsely ground about 0.7 oz of Caribou coffee, placed them in a fine mesh hop bag, and added to secondary for 24 hours just prior to bottling. Worked pretty well, hop bag keeps the grounds out of the finished coffee.
 
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