Adding coffee to a stout or porter

Im working on a recipe to add some high quality espresso to a stout or a porter but was curious what would be the best way to get the best flavor:

1. Freshly brewed shots of espresso from the machine at my work(We sell high quality coffee beverages)

2. cold brew the coffee and add to secondary

3. add whole beans to secondary and rack on top of them?


Can anyone with experience give me a hand?

Thanks
Warren

#2 is my preferred technique.

Any reason not to add ground coffee to the boil?

I don't drink coffee myself, but I think you're not supposed to boil grounds. Boiling them for beer can't be any better.

There is a good article on brewing with coffee in the March/April issue of Zymergy.

I e-mailed back and forth with Rich from Kona brewery about their Pipeline Porter. It's somewhere in this thread.

Here is a nice read. I'm thinking about adding 2oz ground beans to the end of the boil, and 2oz ground beans to secondary.

http://***********/stories/recipes/article/indices/38-ingredients/318-brewing-with-coffee

Anyone else just add them to the Mash? (probably just at Mash out) Seems like the perfect temperature for brewing coffee. I've got a stout that is carbing up right now while I wait for my freezer controller so I'm not sure how it turned out yet.

I hear that adding them during the initial boil makes the beer overly bitter and acidic. But I haven't tried it so who knows. I'm brewing my first coffee porter batch now and plan on cold steeping course ground coffee in a sanitized french press for 24 hours. Then using it as the liquid for my priming sugar before bottling. Any thoughts?

If not I'll let you know how it goes...

ShanellandMorgan said:

I hear that adding them during the initial boil makes the beer overly bitter and acidic. But I haven't tried it so who knows. I'm brewing my first coffee porter batch now and plan on cold steeping course ground coffee in a sanitized french press for 24 hours. Then using it as the liquid for my priming sugar before bottling. Any thoughts?

If not I'll let you know how it goes...

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Hey I know its been a while but how did your method turn out?? I'm about to rack my porter and it seems a little weak in the java department.

Thanks!

HopsNScotch said:

Hey I know its been a while but how did your method turn out?? I'm about to rack my porter and it seems a little weak in the java department.

Thanks!

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Add some pure coffee extract...


Cheers!

I read a lot of information about this method and it seemed to be the standard. We used good coffee, but I found the batch to taste a little bit like crappy, 3-day old cold coffee. Was not a huge fan.

Recently did an espresso stout, since I'd really like to perfect some sort of method to adding a coffee flavor, and used Three Olives Triple Shot Espresso flavored vodka. It was perfect! You get the flavor and smokiness of the coffee without the acid or bitterness that comes with the beans. It also adds a bit of sweetness. AND you don't have to worry about sanitizing a french press or coffee maker. I measured it out by just pouring a bit into a pint of standard oatmeal stout (which is the kind I brewed) and tweaking it by taste from there. I didn't want an overly coffee flavor, just a hint, and ended up using just a half an ounce per pint, then multiplied that to see how much I would add to 5 gallons of my home brew.

Turned out great! Got a ton of compliments.

Why not use hot wort in a french press to brew the coffee? Four minutes in the press and you have coffee. That would eliminate boiling the grounds and sanitizing the press all in one step. I'm planning on trying it this way for my next brew.

My normal coffee procedure is:

1. Add coarse ground coffee to press
2. Add water from hot pot (just off the boil)
3. Put one minute on the timer
4. Stir
5. Put three minutes on the timer
6. Press and enjoy

Boiling the grounds or leaving the brewed coffee on the grounds for an extended period of time tends to cause over extraction and bitterness.

Also, roasting your own makes the best coffee. If you can't roast your own find a roaster that puts roast dates on the bag to ensure that you have fresh coffee.

Thanks day trippr, that sounds like a pretty easy method to get started with. I'll experiment with the ten million other methods on later batches. Thanks for the replies fellas.

Cheers!

I made a Founders Breakfast Stout clone with my home-roasted Sumatran beans. I roasted 4oz of them to just under 2nd crack, let them de-gas for a day or so, give it a coarse grind then add to the secondary for I think a couple of weeks. Turned out great...was a big hit at our Homebrew Fest last weekend. The coffee aroma is still very prominent and this is an 8.6% beer that I bottled last December. I'll miss it when it's gone! Come to think of it, I better start gearing up for another batch!

HopsNScotch said:

Thanks day trippr, that sounds like a pretty easy method to get started with. I'll experiment with the ten million other methods on later batches. Thanks for the replies fellas.

Cheers!

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Fwiw, that was a suggestion for a specific issue - where it's a bit late to do much else if the desired coffee intensity just ain't there. I'm not advocating using extract over other means that are best done earlier in the process...

Also fwiw, if you ever do a chocolate stout and it just doesn't have enough cocoa kick, the same company makes a pure cocoa extract that is just as handy...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

Fwiw, that was a suggestion for a specific issue - where it's a bit late to do much else if the desired coffee intensity just ain't there. I'm not advocating using extract over other means that are best done earlier in the process...

Also fwiw, if you ever do a chocolate stout and it just doesn't have enough cocoa kick, the same company makes a pure cocoa extract that is just as handy...

Cheers!

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Right. That't exactly where I'm at. First time with this recipe and its a little too late to do much else. Now I know for next time though.

I'd not go with any of the options!

I'd preferably brew a shot of espresso, mix it 1 to 2 with water and use that solution to make your priming solution.
Coffee gains acidity and bitterness when boiled, which the priming sugar counters somewhat, plus I have no idea how the coffee reacts to fermentation, so using it for priming exposes it to very little fermentation.

NEVER should you boil coffee too hard or for extended periods of time. The coffee-primer was a trick I learned while making coffee-flavoured meringues.

What I do is take 3 Starbucks VIA packs add to my boiling priming sugar and water mixture. I let it boil for 2 -3 min then add to the bottling bucket. I then add the fermented porter and very gently stir. Adds just the right amount of coffee character to my porter. Many ppl have commented to me how good it is. I let my coffee porter condition at least 4 weeks before first taste.

I like cold brewing the coffee 2 days in advance, adding it during bottling. I do not like the astringent flavor brewed coffee gives to beer. I prefer to get that from some black patent during the mash.

IF you're going to add coffee to pre-fermentation, after flame out is probably best. The optimum temperature for brewing coffee is 204F.

I prefer to make a coffee infused bourbon or vodka solution. Use great coffee/espresso and quality hard alcohol. Seal in mason jar for a few weeks, and you have a very tasty coffe extract. This will give you a very clean coffee flavor with the benefit of adding to taste. I prefer the bourbon-coffee.

Where it's possible, I prefer to create infusions for most flavor additions. It works well. It's sanitary, predictable, and easy. I do the same for oaking.

I've done the cold-brewed method for a porter with decent results. I used 4oz of coarse ground beans in a 1-L mason jar. Next time I'll use more coffee for a more pronounced presence in the beer. At bottling I just added to the bottling bucket with the priming solution all at once.

As with so many things on this forum I think it just comes down to preference. Turns out there really are a bunch of ways to skin a cat! (Please don't come after me PETA or cat lovers...)

I was in search of the best methods for this. I used to prepare it in the routine manner by the porter, the taste is somewhat different and not in actual taste that I like most. I would like to know about the tips and other methods for preparing the coffee more tasty. Please produce some attachment links about the new methods in these. Thanks in advance.

i just brewed a coffee porter and the recipe called for 5 oz. of ground coffee to be used in the mash tun. when collecting the wort it gave off a very distinct coffee aroma. then even after the boil it still had a great sense of coffee. wont be able to tell how it tastes until fermentation is over but so far im pleased

2 questions I haven't seen answered yet in all the coffee threads.

How does coffee added to the Boil affect fermentation ?

How does adding beans to the secondary affect carbonation ?

How does adding coffee when you rack it affect carbonation ?

CDGoin said:

2 questions I haven't seen answered yet in all the coffee threads.

How does coffee added to the Boil affect fermentation ?

How does adding beans to the secondary affect carbonation ?

How does adding coffee when you rack it affect carbonation ?

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I had been searching on here for these exact questions and answers to them about a month ago when I was making a Coffee Porter. I couldn't find definitive answers, so instead I tried the different methods myself. I made a 5-gallon batch and split it into five 1-gallon batches so I could see exactly how the method of adding coffee affected the beer (as all other things stayed exactly the same). The five mini batches: 1) add coffee during last minute of boil, 2) add coffee to secondary, 3) add coffee beans to secondary, 4) add coffee when racking, 5) no coffee used. To answer your questions:

1) Adding coffee to the boil didn't seem to affect fermentation too much. The three samples were basically the same as far as primary went. However, it did affect the taste and killed head retention. I wouldn't say the taste was "bad" or too bitter like others have said elsewhere. It tasted, at the worst, like coffee that had been slightly burnt.

2) Adding beans to the secondary did not affect carbonation at all for me. In fact, this was my favorite of the five.

3) Adding coffee when racking did not affect carbonation at all for me. However, this was the beer that had the least present coffee taste, at least in my 5 mini batches.

**Note: all coffee was cold-brewed as per suggestions on HBT and elsewhere

levtbeas said:

2) Adding beans to the secondary did not affect carbonation at all for me. In fact, this was my favorite of the five.

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Did you add whole beans to the fermenter or coursely ground coffee?

Maybe even just cracking them with a flat blade so they're still in big chunks but opened up for more flavor?