Cold brew coffee stout

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scarlessmeanie

scarlessmeanie

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Okay, so I'm brewing a coffee stout tonight. I've got 4 oz. of coffee in 20 oz. boiled of water sitting in a sanitized jar in my fridge. Now, I know you shouldn't boil coffee, so I was wondering what everyone thinks about this:

Since I'm still doing partial mash stuff, using the coffee as part of the top off water? It seems to me like the only other way I could do it would be to add the coffee directly to the kettle at flameout. (Or during the last five minutes or so of the actual boil.)

I boiled the water I made the coffee out of and sanitized the jar, but I'm still worried about infections... Any help would be appreciated!
 
I made a breakfast stout and I added the crushed beans right into the fermenter which worked really well. The coffee flavor was strong at first but mellowed out after about 2 weeks in the keg. I did have a little Starsan left in the bottom of the fermenter before I added the wort so I was sure to douse the beans with it.
 
I made a coffee stout a few months ago. ( my best beer yet). And I added about 3/8 cup of cracked coffee beens in a hop bag to steep for 15 min after flameout. It worked amazingly well. The beer ended up with a nice coffee flavor that was not to much but you could still taste that it was there. (very balanced) Also I know a lot of guys who use it in the fermenter with great results as well.
 
I'm a big fan of using cold brewed coffee and adding to the secondary, after some of the alcohol has developed and could find off anything in the coffee.

I do make sure to sanitize the cold coffee brewer, but the ground coffee worries me. However, no problems yet and I've done this a few times.
 
Well, I brewed tonight and added the cold brewed coffee to the wort at flameout/whirlpool. We'll see how it works out. One of the brewers where I work said that's what they do, because it's "more microbiologically stable." We'll see how things turn out... ::Crosses fingers::
 
I make a russian imperial stout and I generally add almost a gallon of french pressed coffee. If your coffee tastes really bitter or unpleasant in a coffee cup I find that it will taste equally, if not more so, unpleasant in a beer.

I add my coffee to the secondary. The long aging time of the RIS lends itself well to lots of coffee flavor. I also drink a LOT of coffee, I'm sure others would want to add less.

Here is my beer:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Demon-Roast-Imperial-Stout-Coffee-Infused-Beer/
 
I've tried a few techniques for coffee. I've had the best luck with adding brewed coffee to the secondary. I generally add a full pot of super strong (like espresso strength) hot brewed coffee to the fermenter and then rack into it. I tried adding crushed beans once (for the NB peace coffee kit) and the coffee flavor was sorta nasty
 
I brewed this Mudhouse Stout back in November and it turned out pretty well. I added the coffee to the keg when I racked in.

http://***********/stories/recipeindex/article/recipes/114-stout/2311-mudhouse-stout
 
I add it at bottling. I use a ratio of 1oz coffee to 4oz water. Best trick I found is to make it in a growler. Then you just flip the growler upside down and 95% of the grounds stay in the growler. I'll actually flip it into a french press so I can get all of the grounds out. Or you could add some at secondary and more at bottling to give excellent coffee flavor that isn't overpowering in the first 6 months.
 
Boy said:
I add it at bottling. I use a ratio of 1oz coffee to 4oz water. Best trick I found is to make it in a growler. Then you just flip the growler upside down and 95% of the grounds stay in the growler. I'll actually flip it into a french press so I can get all of the grounds out. Or you could add some at secondary and more at bottling to give excellent coffee flavor that isn't overpowering in the first 6 months.
Click to expand...

bottling bucket is the best IMO
 
Coffee contains pseudo-tannins. They taste like tannin, but you can't actually tan leather with them. They represent about the last 20% of the solids that can be extracted when brewing a normal cup of coffee. You are usually trying to exclude these from the extraction when you make coffee. Lots of people drink bad tasting coffee because they don't have enough coffee in the machine and end up over-extracting.

If you included ground coffee or coffee beans in the primary, I would expect that you would have an over-extraction problem. Hence a "nasty" or bitter flavor. A couple of things come to mind to help with this. The first is to brew the coffee so it tastes good in the first place, therefore excluding the pseudo-tannins entirely. Alternately, decrease your other bittering ingredients drastically. IE: use little to no bittering hops.

This is just what occured to me from a logic standpoint. It would be interesting to know what using coffee in brewing has done in the real world.
 
Leadgolem said:
If you included ground coffee or coffee beans in the primary, I would expect that you would have an over-extraction problem. Hence a "nasty" or bitter flavor. .
Click to expand...

I did not experience this at all. Beer was great!
 
I've worked in coffee for few years and honestly one of my favorites is World Market's Italian roast. I have also run this through espresso bars and it still comes out great. For less than 10$ for 22oz it's a great deal. The little flavors I get from this blend are deep dark chocolate and a light mint flavor. This has been my go to for Coffee Porters and stouts. I would also recommend Sumatra Mendeling, Ethiopian Yirgoacheffe, and various Guatemalan blends for their earthiness.
 
AdamWiz,
Thank you for finding and sharing... I'm itching to brew a Coffee Bender clone, and I think this off the shelf cold brewed coffee would be a very feasible option. Please let us know if you try this...
 
Leadgolem said:
Coffee contains pseudo-tannins. They taste like tannin, but you can't actually tan leather with them. They represent about the last 20% of the solids that can be extracted when brewing a normal cup of coffee. You are usually trying to exclude these from the extraction when you make coffee. Lots of people drink bad tasting coffee because they don't have enough coffee in the machine and end up over-extracting.

If you included ground coffee or coffee beans in the primary, I would expect that you would have an over-extraction problem. Hence a "nasty" or bitter flavor. A couple of things come to mind to help with this. The first is to brew the coffee so it tastes good in the first place, therefore excluding the pseudo-tannins entirely. Alternately, decrease your other bittering ingredients drastically. IE: use little to no bittering hops.

This is just what occured to me from a logic standpoint. It would be interesting to know what using coffee in brewing has done in the real world.
Click to expand...

I would think the low pH of your beer & low temperature (in relation to coffee brewing temperature) would help you avoid this, when adding directly to your fermenter.
 
I've used this with great result:
nescafe_products009-600x288.jpg

I used three tubes in a 8L damejeanne secondary. Poured the coffee powder in first, then the beer on top. Excellent coffee aroma! Simple, hygienic and consistent dosage.
 
What I do sometimes when I cold brew my coffee is put some metabisulfate into it (the wine makers use that a lot when racking to cut down on oxydation problems, and it generally disipates after 24 hours). Anyhow, if I counter top brew - instead of fridge - I'll put in some meta-bi and then I don't worry about funky taste at teh end of the week (I cold brew a batch for the whole week). I'd think something similar could be done for adding to a beer.
 
KitB said:
I would think the low pH of your beer & low temperature (in relation to coffee brewing temperature) would help you avoid this, when adding directly to your fermenter.
Click to expand...
True, but coffee grounds don't spend weeks in the coffee pot brewing at the higher temperature. You also don't have alcohol present when you are hot brewing coffee.

The bittering you could get from that extraction isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's just something you would want to take into account when adding coffee to your brew.
 
I cold steeped some hazelnut flavored coffee in a press and added it to a brown ale during bottling earlier this year. I really did not care for the flavor it imparted in the beer. Which is to say, everyone thought the beer that had no flavoring tasted better than the beer with the coffee. Will I make a beer with coffee again? Perhaps, but make sure you use some great coffee. I would go with something that is full bodied, mega smooth, and very aromatic (i.e., Ethiopian Yergecheffe) if I did it again.
 
I have some coffee cold brewing in the fridge and I sanitized the container but I am worried about the grounds. If I briefly boiled the cold-extracted coffee for peace of mind do you think I would lose much of the flavor? My thinking is that the tannins and acids have already been reduced so the flavor profile wouldn't change too much, it would just be boiled.
 
MoxieStarfire said:
I have some coffee cold brewing in the fridge and I sanitized the container but I am worried about the grounds. If I briefly boiled the cold-extracted coffee for peace of mind do you think I would lose much of the flavor? My thinking is that the tannins and acids have already been reduced so the flavor profile wouldn't change too much, it would just be boiled.
Click to expand...
If you have already removed the grounds I don't see why boiling would cause you a problem. The point of cold brewing is usually to avoid pseudo-tannin extraction.
 

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