Clone Beer Founder's Breakfast Stout Clone

Well, I made this recipe as close as possible to the BYO clone recipe as I could. Mash was low by 2 degrees. Made almost 6 gallons at 5.9%. Used Wyeast California Ale. It sat in the primary for 5 weeks, temp control was a little high (78 for about 4 days). My goal was 62/7, 65/7, and 68/7 then bottle. I got 62/7, 65/7, 68/3, as high as 78/3 (fridge shut down) then swamp cooled to 72/5, then into my closet at 70/10, then added 2 oz of Kona steeped at 190 for 20 min and sugar at bottling. After 7 days carbonating, its excellent! Looking forward to watching this mature.

Very strong coffee flavor too!!! The real challenge is going to be not drinking this with breakfast

Just finishing up bottling a batch of this carbed it to 2.2 vol...omitted the cold steeped coffee at bottling...instead dry nibbed with 1 oz for 1 week..finished at 1.020

TangoHotel said:

^^this. My chocolate stout was miserably bad. It was very cocoa bitter, where I think nibs may have had better results. However it was tolerable with the addition of some coffee.

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mine too, wow, bad! hopefully this breakfast stout is better I think I'm going to add the coffee and all the baker's chocolate at flameout, then dry "hop" with the second addition of coffee and nibs.

I just bottled this yesterday after adding a little over 2oz of cold steeped Kona. I used 1 1/2 cups of water to 1/3 cup of coffee and steeped it for 24 hours. I then let the concentration sit at room temp (covered with sanitized plastic wrap) overnight. It came out very thick and coffee heavy with a slightly harsh alcohol taste that will mellow with time. I used 3.25 oz of priming sugar for a 5 gallon batch (2.0-2.1 levels of CO2). This beer is pitch black and will be awesome in a few months.

Thanks to all for the input in this thread as it helped out immensely.

I bottled this two weeks ago and couldn't resist the urge to crack a few open this meeting at my HBC meeting. Coffee additions were 2 oz at flame out of just a basic espresso coarse grind and then 2 oz of cold brewed starbucks Sumatra at bottling. Chocolate additions were 2 oz each of bakers dark chocolate bars and hershey's 100% cacao special dark powder at 5 mins. Great overall beer, it will do extremely well with a little more age, I just could help but open a few. Very coffee forward at this point in its life but I think the coffee will fade and the chocolate will come balance things out. I enjoy the robust coffee up front, but I know others may not so if you're not a coffee fan than I would dial down the bottling addition or skip it entirely. Cheers!

RyRae said:

the coffee will fade and the chocolate will come balance things out.

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Yep. I brewed mine in March and when I drank one this week, it was the first time where I thought, "yum, great chocolate taste."

Vigo_Carpathian said:

2 oz ground coffee that is cold brewed into one cup of room temperature water. Use a bag for the grounds and set it in the water for 24 hrs. Remove the grounds and add liquid to secondary.

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I got my volumes from some gourmet cooking website and I used 1.5 cups per 1/3 cup of coffee. It was pretty strong and concentrated at 4.5 cups used.

bottled this yesterday after 4 weeks primary in my ghetto swamp cooler (@60-62 F). had about 2.5 pints left (short on bottles) so drank that while brewing a kolsch. wow! this is a great beer. will probably brew again in a couple weeks just to keep a winter supply.
I missed the OG and FG (low on both) but it is still great. can't wait for this to condition and carb.
swmbo probably loves it even more than me.
we call it big muddy chocolate coffee stout (all our beers are named after Missouri rivers)
cheers!

Any issue using Wyeast American Ale 1272 yeast for this recipe?

barhoc11 said:

Any issue using Wyeast American Ale 1272 yeast for this recipe?

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That yeast lends a loud citrusy note when fermented at certain temps.

I wouldn't personally use it in this recipe but if your feelin bold and think the roasty flavors will overpower it. I say go for it.

I just bottled my Canadian Breakfast Stout clone using this recipe as the base. I added a bit of oak to secondary (to mimic the maple syrup barrels that Founder's used) and split the 3 gallon batch into three 1 gallon batches:
1) control - nothing; primed with corn sugar
2) maple syrup - primed with 100% grade B maple syrup
3) maple flavor - used 20 g of natural maple flavor (not extract) in 1 gallon at bottling; primed with corn sugar

I leave for a 3 week vacation in 3 weeks, so I'll let you know how it is in 6 weeks!

Is there a Founder's KBS thread here somewhere? I searched an notice that there aren't at least that I could find. I believe that the grist is much different from the regular breakfast stout. I know zymurgy vol33 issue 4 has an article or possible recipe, ill check for it when I get home. Only specs I can get online are 11.2%abv, and 70 IBUs. I wonder how much of the ABV is coming from bourbon.

I brewed the BYO version of the FBS a few years back and loved the results. I didn't have my nitro setup then either. My friends from GR all rave about the KBS though, so that's now on my brew list for this year.

TD.

TrickyDick said:

Is there a Founder's KBS thread here somewhere?

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https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/kbs-clone-recipe-zymurgy-185487/

wobrien said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/kbs-clone-recipe-zymurgy-185487/

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Thanks!

I just brewed this tonight and am disappointed because i overshot my mash temp. I had to run to the store to grab the coffee as soon as I started the mash. Came home after 45 minutes and saw the temp at 160. I added cold water and stirred but I think the damage had already been done. We'll see how she turns out.

I read through this whole thread and don't recall anyone racking onto more nibs in secondary. i really like chocolate flavor in stouts (Southern Tier Choklat being the prime example), and am thinking about making this and adding more nibs to secondary. Can anyone think of a reason why that wouldn't be a good idea? And how much would you recommend adding in secondary if I were to add more?

jojobrewing said:

I read through this whole thread and don't recall anyone racking onto more nibs in secondary. i really like chocolate flavor in stouts (Southern Tier Choklat being the prime example), and am thinking about making this and adding more nibs to secondary. Can anyone think of a reason why that wouldn't be a good idea? And how much would you recommend adding in secondary if I were to add more?

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When I was making mine( Its been in bottles 3 weeks and its great!) I seem to remember reading somewhere that nibs in a secondary can give really bitter flavors. Lessons learned from this and another stout with chocolate I brewed:
1) Nibs - in a hop bag during the last 15 minutes of boil. Loose nibs connect to hot and cold break and make a bigger mess - or-
Soak nibs in a vodka infusion and add the liquid to taste to the bottling bucket at bottling.
2) bakers chocolate- pull a quart of wort at the end of boil, put it in a sauce pan and keep at a boil and melt chocolate into it. Then pour it into the primary once some cooled wort is in there and mix it in. Helps aeration and keeps you from losin chocolate to it attaching to the hot and cold break and sticking to your boil kettle.

When I brewed mine, I just cut up the 2 oz of bakers chocolate as small as I could and dropped it at the 15 min mark. With a decent heavy chefs knife you can almost shave the chocolate into pieces that melt rather quickly.

I didn't see this question in the thread, should I be concerned about sanitizing the cold brewed coffee? Sorry noob question, first time working with coffee.

I wanted to cold brew my Kona addition, but didnt cause I wasnt for sure how to at the time. For the cold brewed addition, some boil the water and then let it cool to room temp and then cold brew the coffee, others jus cold brew it. Im guessing It doesnt really matter, because youre adding it to post fermented beer with good alcohol content. You would have to introduce a huge infection IMO to overcome the alcohol.

FWIW, I didn't when I added cold brewed coffee and was fine. Doesn't mean you will be though

Does this beer need to age for so long or will it still taste good after fermenting 3 weeks and right to the keg?

sorry duplicate post

this beer benefits greatly from aging. you can drink anything fresh... but this beer won't be at its best. IMO: if you're going to go through the extra effort of making this beer, then give it some time to be all it can be.

Also benefits from a shot of Jameson lol kinda Irish coffeeish!

Regarding sanitizing cold brewed coffee, check out this link. Boil it with your priming sugar.

http://www.madalchemist.com/archives/experiment-boiling-cold-brewed-coffee/

Seems legit. I'm going to do this for a stout I'm brewing. Not taking any chances on letting bugs in.

I boiled 1 cup of water and added my bottling sugar to it and in a separate pan, boiled 1 cup of water (10 min as well) and allowed to cool to 190 and then steeped my Kona at 190 for 20 in a hop bag. Jus didnt want to boil my second addition of coffee at any time. Then added both and bottled.

Just brewed a version of this recipe, I am also going to be racking 1 gallon onto some oak chips or cubes soaked in Buffalo Trace Bourbon for a KBSish beer....I'll be back with reviews and recipes once it's finished.

Definitely update on amounts used as that is probably my next iteration of this beer (after the CBS clone attempt).

Im having a bomber of this tonight. Brewed on 6/15, bottled on 7/20. The steeped Kona still has a very strong presence, but its still good. Given the time of year, I cant find any Founders Breakfast stout and hope my beer will last long enough to compare!!

So the concensis is boiling cold brewed coffee to sanitize doesn't change the flavor much?

brevity said:

So the concensis is boiling cold brewed coffee to sanitize doesn't change the flavor much?

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I put the first coffee in to my boil w/15 min left. (after cold brewing night before). The second addition of coffee for the secondary I boiled water then let it cool before adding the grounds and cold brewing overnight before adding.

ShaKeyJ said:

I put the first coffee in to my boil w/15 min left. (after cold brewing night before).

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i wouldn't boil the coffee in the kettle, that would un-do the benefot of having cold-steeped the beans. adding at flamemout will help keep bitternerss under control. i added mine shortly after i started cooling, so the wort was around 190*F.

mtnagel said:

Definitely update on amounts used as that is probably my next iteration of this beer (after the CBS clone attempt).

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I'm using 1.5oz of medium toast French oak chips for a 1 gallon batch, I'm not going to be able to let this sit on oak for long so I'm putting quite a bit into the 1 gallon batch.

sweetcell said:

i wouldn't boil the coffee in the kettle, that would un-do the benefot of having cold-steeped the beans. adding at flamemout will help keep bitternerss under control. i added mine shortly after i started cooling, so the wort was around 190*F.

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What about the second coffee addition?

TD

This is definitely my next brew

I pulled a sample to test the gravity today and even as a young not all the way fermented beer, it tastes great, strong coffee and chocolate flavor.

I tossed in 2 oz of coarse ground espresso at flame out and then for the 2nd addition I sanitized my French press and then cold brewed 2 oz of Sumatra in 2 cups of water for 24 hours and then added it at bottling with no problems. Its the best beer i've ever brewed, its going to be tough to age it for a couple months.

Got this mashing now, wow that is a seriously thick mash, not really suited to my mash tunbut there you go. It will be fine