Coffee Porter

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bonzombiekitty

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2009
Messages
530
Reaction score
7
Location
Philadelphia
I'm planning to start brewing a porter and a different thread gave me the idea to try a coffee porter (a couple breweries around here do them as seasonals and I love them *is excited Joe Porter is in bottles this year*).

If I'm gonna do this, should I brew the espresso separately and then add it into the boil? Or should I just crush some espresso beans and throw them in the bag with my specialty grains? My concern is that if I put them in with the grains, I'll be pulling a lot of bitter taste from over used beans.

Anyone do this before?
 
I just made a coffee porter using EdWorts Robust Porter as a base. For the coffee, I coarsely ground 2 cups of starbucks coffee and put them in in a pitcher with 4 cups of water. I let it cold steep for 24 hours, then added it directly into the primary. I just tasted the beer and it came out great, with a hint aftertaste of coffee. I've read several different ways of adding the coffee, but decided to go with cold steeping since it seems to negate some of the bitterness of the coffee.
 
I've added coffee to a stout before. I was afraid that boiling the brewed coffee or even the beans themselves would lead to that nasty "crap, this coffee has been sitting on a burner too long" flavor so I opted to add the freshly brewed espresso to the fermenter just prior to bottling the beer.

In fact, I used the espresso as the liquid for my priming solution and just dissolved the necessary corn sugar in it, added it to the bottling bucket, and racked the beer in.

Bottle and wait

My $0.02
 
I finished brewing/drinking a 5 gal. batch of coffee porter not too long ago. After primary during racking to my bottling bucket I added about 16 oz of French pressed/brewed starbucks to taste. After three weeks in the bottle it tasted great. This method allows you to add more or less to taste. I also cooled the coffee in the fridge prior to adding it to the bottling bucket. It just seemed like a good idea to cool it.
 
I added 4 oz of ground (flat bottom) Sumatra at flame out and then 4 oz of Kona as a dry hop. Awesome in a stout.

The kind of coffee does make a difference. One note - the coffee will fade with time.
 
My process was closer to Grinder's but it's the brewer's call - just keep notes.
BrewYourOwn has a lengthy article about this and the end result is ...




do it how you want.
 
Reviving this thread, since I'm going to do a "mocha" porter today.

I had planned on adding 4oz of coffee at flame out, but I'm intrigued by the idea of cold-brewing, since I've done that before just to drink and it tastes quite a bit different from regular hot brewed coffee.

Has anyone tried multiple methods of adding coffee? Was there a significant difference between methods? Since this is going to be a very strong beer, I was also thinking about adding cocoa and coffee to it when I transfer it to secondary.

Any thoughts or experiences with any of this welcome.
 
My personal experience:
Cocoa: Added cocoa powder to primary via a slurry. Resulted in wax showing up in the bottles (naturally occurring in cocoa) and affects the taste of the beer. I suggest adding the cocoa to the boil as it would help mix it in or use nibs in the primary.

Coffee: I added cold steeped coffee to the bottling bucket. Results in a very smooth coffee flavor.
 
Yes, in the past, I've always added cocoa to the boil and skimmed the little bit of fat off the top, with generally good results. I really like the idea of adding cold-brewed to the bottling bucket though.
 
Well, I brewed the porter. The concept I had in mind was an imperial mocha porter. The hop calculation was a bit tricky, and after tasting the worst, I'm a little concerned that the bitterness might be too intense between the hops and the cocoa AND the coffee. I'm considering adding some lactose at bottling to smooth it out, but I'll make the call in a couple months. It tasted a bit funky just now, but we'll see.
 
My process was closer to Grinder's but it's the brewer's call - just keep notes.
BrewYourOwn has a lengthy article about this and the end result is ...




do it how you want.
http://***********/stories/article/indices/38-ingredients/318-brewing-with-coffee
 
I cold steeped Starbucks house blend in the fridge for 24 hours .... triple filtered the coffee which rendered some kickass coffee concentrate about 1 quart. I added the concentrate to the last 10 mins of the boil as seen in the Lake Front recipe for Fuel Cafe. Snuck a taste during a hydrometer reading when I racked to my secondary 7 days in... coffee was upfront and through the taste.... hoping this mellows as it sits in the secondary but that being said it was freaking yummy.
 
My mocha porter turned out pretty well, but I think I let it sit in the fermenter just a little too long, and it went a bit odd. It's good, but the aftertaste is a touch off.
 
I am drinking this 7 weeks later.... good head on the pour... coffee aroma.... coffee continues and finishes with a smooth coffee finish... if nothing else I love to drink it !
 
Nobody used Franco belges coffee kiln malt? I am going to use about 8 oz in a porter as soon as my yeast gets here.
 
Clann said:
Nobody used Franco belges coffee kiln malt? I am going to use about 8 oz in a porter as soon as my yeast gets here.

I use this in a brown ale recipe I have...good stuff...
 
Another vote for cold-pressed and added to Secondary. Worked well for me. Supposedly keeping the beans out of the wort, and keeping hot water from contacting the beans prevents tannins, or head killing oils or something.nn
 
Another vote for cold-pressed and added to Secondary. Worked well for me. Supposedly keeping the beans out of the wort, and keeping hot water from contacting the beans prevents tannins, or head killing oils or something.nn

Does pouring it into the secondary increase the chance of any infection?
 
of course it does.. but its not usually a problem because the alcohol and hops are protecting the beer at that point and the coffee is vacuum packed.. Obviously do not handle the coffee or use unsafe water to steep.. Application of Common sense and you'll be fine
 
I'm drinking the first coffee porter i have ever tried (it's a commercial beer, Mill St. Coffee Porter) and it is f-in amazing!

I am going to try this soon, so i was wondering what kind of coffee I should use? I have some finely ground espresso coffee (ethiopian I think) and I have some regular old Tim Hortons fine ground normal coffee grind.

I am going to cold steep it, in pre-boiled and chllled water, and was also wondering, do you filter the grounds out, or just let them settle in the secondary with the rest of the trub?

Thanks for any input! Going to go finish this Mill St and then hope the rest of the beer in the sampler pack is just as good (Had the ESB earlier, also friggin wonderful, for the record).
 
I filtered the grounds. I'm not 100% certain, but I think leaving them in could lead to unwanted bitterness. EDIT: Or maybe a burnt flavor, actually.
 
just cracked a year-old coffee porter I had made with the flame-out hot steep method, and another with the cold steep that my brother made.

his had wimped out big time, but I will certainly be making mine again. Flavor was still strong, and plenty of head (argument against hot-steep says the oils release cause head loss...)
 
just cracked a year-old coffee porter I had made with the flame-out hot steep method, and another with the cold steep that my brother made.

his had wimped out big time, but I will certainly be making mine again. Flavor was still strong, and plenty of head (argument against hot-steep says the oils release cause head loss...)

Was the coffee the same style and amount? Was it the same recipe? just wanna make sure because I will be making my first coffee porter and wondering which way to add it to the brew
 
good question -
the amount was the same, but the cold press (brother) was Seattle's Best something or another... and the hot steep was Starbucks French Roast.

That said, however, he was making what he liked, and I was making what I liked. Side by side wouldn't be fair on that - but essentially, on mine (hot steep) the flavor was still there. His was more mild when he made it, but even milder a year later. (we were together for this taste-rememberance -and he was not happy with his.)
 
I am somewhat worried about the water calculations for bitterness when figuring on adding cold steeped coffee at secondary, but I know yu don't want to boil coffee either.

What about splitting the difference? I am in the planning stages of a coffee porter and was thinking about adding 4 oz of course ground coffee right at flameout.

How do you figure out the about to use by the way? I want very subtle coffee notes, nothing forward at all.
 
I steeped a # of coarse ground light roasted coffee post boil at 170 for 20 minutes. Coffee flavor came through nicely but if you had more than two you were going to have trouble sleeping.

I went really light on the hops because I was afraid of the bitterness of the coffee but it ended up not being bitter enough so I will be less cautious next time.
 
Here is my recipie, if anyone has any ideas..


Coffee Porter
Robust Porter
6.5 gallons
All Grain
1.060~OG → 1.017~FG → 5.7%ABV 42 IBU 30.6°L SRM
Yeast
None

Fermentables
16 pounds
2 Row Base
36ppg, 2°L 13 pounds
81%
Chocolate
28ppg, 350°L 1 pound
6%
Crystal 60L
33ppg, 60°L 1 pound
6%
Barley (Flaked)
31ppg, 2°L 12.8 ounces
5%
Barley (Roasted)
27ppg, 500°L 1.6 ounces
1%
Black Patent
26ppg, 500°L 1.6 ounces
1%

Hops
2.5 ounces
Goldings (Kent)
5%, Pellet 1 ounce

Magnum
14%, Pellet 1 ounce

Hallertauer
5%, Pellet 0.5 ounces


Miscellaneous
4 ounces
Wort Chiller
Other

Coffee
Flavor 4 ounces


1 step infusion
75 minutes, 8.96 gallons
Strike
Target 145°F 4.8 gallons at 158°F
15 minutes
Infusion 1
Target 158°F 1.35 gallons at 212°F
1 hour
Sparge 4.16 gallons at 170°F

Boil
1 hour, 7.88 gallons
Magnum hops
14%, Pellet 1 ounce
60 minutes (+0)
Goldings (Kent) hops
5%, Pellet 0.5 ounces
30 minutes (+30)
Goldings (Kent) hops
5%, Pellet 0.5 ounces
15 minutes (+45)
Wort Chiller 15 minutes (+45)
Coffee
Flavor 4 ounces
0 minutes (+60)

Ferment
14 days, single stage
Start fermentation
63°F
14 days (+0 days)
Hallertauer hops
5%, Pellet 0.5 ounces
5 days (+9 days)
Notes


Sent from my iPad
 
good question -
the amount was the same, but the cold press (brother) was Seattle's Best something or another... and the hot steep was Starbucks French Roast.

That said, however, he was making what he liked, and I was making what I liked. Side by side wouldn't be fair on that - but essentially, on mine (hot steep) the flavor was still there. His was more mild when he made it, but even milder a year later. (we were together for this taste-rememberance -and he was not happy with his.)

Just when I had pretty much settled on cold brewing. The part that is swaying me is hat he was not happy with his.

I guess I have at least these two methods to try.
 
Cold steeping coffee is less aggressive at extraction than hot. The benefit you get is fewer bitter compounds are extracted, which allows the more subtle and complex flavour tones of the coffee to be tasted. However you will obviously require more coffee to get the same flavour intensity as a hot steep. Its simply unfair to compare the same volume of hot to cold.
 
Thinking of brewing this for the holidays. What do you think?

12LB 2 ROW
1LB MARIS OTTER
1LB CARAMEL/CRYSTAL 40L
12OZ CHOCOLATE WHEAT MALT

2OZ GLACIER (60) MIN BOIL
2 VANILLA BEANS IN SECONDARY FOR 5 DAYS

EST ABV: 7.9%
LOOKS TO BE IN THE GREEN ON BEERSMITH FOR A BALTIC PORTER STYLE. Thoughts????
 
Back
Top