Help Me Make A Coffee Cream Stout

Hello All!

Long time reader, first time poster!

Anyways. My friend roasted a batch of coffee beans and it tastes awesome. So, I wanted to do something cool with them and got the idea of making a Coffee Cream Stout.
1 problem, the only stout I ever brewed was a Brewers Best Irish Stout which was OK. So, I have little desire to modify that recipe. Does anyone have a recipe for a cream stout that requires coffee beans? I'm looking for a mellow coffee, chocolate, rich creamy flavored stout. If not, I'm open to designing one with you guys!

I think for sure these ingredients:
Coffee beans
Chocolate Malt
Carmael 60

White Labs yeast: I've been checking out the yeast strains for stouts but will be able to better filter once we develop the recipe.

Hops: I was thinking traditional - Kent Goldings for bittering and Fuggles for aroma.

One last thing... I was thinking high gravity. ~1.09 range.

Subd... This looks interesting. Not too much chocolate or it will be a mocha stout. im hoping I can guinea pig a trial run idea with you. Maybe run some 1 gallon test batch.

This sounds like an awesome recipe. Will u all grain this? And yeast I think is most important. A strain that can take that gravity and a starter is an absolute must! Def try a 1-2 gallon batch to fine tune it. Do you have the software to design the recipe? Like said above careful with the chocolate and coffee beans can be VERY strong. A handful makes a strong pot of coffee. So if it's to be sweet... Pay attention to that.

Hi Brewfunky, moved this to the extract section as you requested.

I've brewed a cream stout each of the last three winters and we've just begun drinking this year's version. The BJCP guidelines refer to this style as a sweet stout, so you can search on that, too.

Cream stouts are generally not big beers, often less than 5% abv. Its relatively easy to drink with a nice balance between roasty and sweet, bitter and malt. I find the roasted barley imparts quite a bit of coffee -like roastiness. I liken the aroma and flavor to a sweetened espresso.

A stout of any sort almost always has both roasted barley and chocolate malt. You could try snubbing out some of those for some cold pressed coffee.

The recipe I use only has a 60 minute hop and it really doesn't matter what it is because its only there for bittering balance, not aroma or flavor. I use Danstar Windsor yeast, because it works fast and has a lowish attenuation rate, which is what you want in this style. For a 5 gallon batch, I add 1lb of lactose, or a 1/2 lb each of lactose and maltodextrin.

Here's my recipe http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/sweet-stout.html fwiw

Good luck!

Hey guys. Thanks for the wonderful support!

OK. So here is my starting point

Fermentables
Briess LME - Trad. Dark: 3.3lb
Briess DME - Trdd. Dark: 3lb
Milk Sugar: 1lb
Caramel/Crystal Malt 60L: 12 oz
Chocolate Malt (UK): 8 oz
Pale Malt (2 row) Belgium: 8 oz

Steeping time: 45 minutes

Hops
Kent Goldings: 1.5 oz for 60 minute boil
Fuggles: 1.5 oz for last 5 minute of boil

Misc:
4 oz coffee beans in secondary (do i have to french press or can I add the beans somehow directly to the secondary without risk of infection?)

Yeast:
still reviewing White Labs

OG: ~1.062
FG: ~1.014
ABV: ~6.2
Bitterness (IBU): 30


What ingredients make it a creamer beer? Also, what do you guys think of the recipe so far? I know its a starting point, but am very open to major tweaks.

I made a coffee and cream stout last year that I liked a lot and everyone who drank it loved it. Very easy. I bought the Brewers Best Milk Stout kit. Brewed as kit directs except added an extra 1lbs. of light DME. When bottling I added about 12oz of cold brewed coffee (I also had some special coffee I wanted to use). Only issue was after about 5 months the bottles gushed and some blew up because the coffee wasn't sanitized and the bacteria ate up the lactose in the beer.

I wonder why "hot" coffee is not used in brewing. Must be a flavor change?

Actually FRESH brewed coffee added to the boil at 55 mins might be ok. If u research coffee, shortly after it is brewed it actually starts a sort of decay phase. And can grow nasties. That's why cold stale coffee sucks. Even if u reheat it. Maybe grind some and put it in a hop bag and put it in ur boil. Keep good notes as coffee might just induce gushers. Post the final recipe and I'll try it. And get back to you.

Just thinking that you can skip the 8oz of 2 row in your recipe, thats the base of your extract. Even if your partial mashing that small amount probably wont contribute much.


Look up the Deception Stout in the stout section of the recipe forum. Its many pages long and a solid chocolate milk stout, I have about a gallon left in my keg. I often bottle from the keg to take beers to friends in doing so I've experimented and converted this beer to a coffee stout by tossing 1 or 2 coffee beans in a bottle when filling them from the keg. 1 day = aroma, 3 days = coffee flavor. Id give it 4 days max with 2 beans in a bottle that would be on the stronger side of a coffee stout. The end result is a very tasty coffee stout its well matched for that stout vs a dry Irish stout.

As far as aging the beer dunno, it doesnt last me that long.

If you dont keg, brew that beer and toss the coffee beans in the secondary based on other coffee stout recipes dunno 4-5 days 1lb?

I went to stout-fest at Goose Island in Chicago this past year and talked to the guys from Wild Onion they had a really nice coffee stout and they just tossed the beans in the keg and served it as is and it was good.

I like the recipe brewfunk. I will scale this back to a 2 gallon batch as a trial. I am going to use fresh brewed coffee in the end of the boil. Brewing this and a 6g pale ale this weekend. I might just do a quicky BIAB 1 gallon in this coffee stout with grain. This sounds like a lot of fun. Beersmith has a cool "scale recipe" tool.

after reading numerous ways to add coffee...brewed coffee is not the way to go. Cold press/cold steep or french press is the way to go. When coffee is brewed, it's around 190-195 degrees.........maybe steeping it with your grains will be ok?

I did not get to brew the coffee stout this weekend as I hoped. This career crap is really getting in the way of brewing. Only got one day off this weekend. I did have time to at least brew the Falconers Flight hopped pale ale though. Shooting for this weekend if I can have 2 days off.

The trick with hot brewed coffee is to chill it as quickly as possible. The longer it stays hot the more quickly it will stale. If you want to add coffee during the brewing process, instead of adding it at the end of the boil, I would add it at the end of chilling. It shouldn't raise the temperature of the wort more than 5 degrees or so, but you'll want to account for that by chilling a little lower than you usually do.

That said, you really should be adding the coffee as close to bottling as possible. It doesn't like to age.

I am interested in how this turns out. Sounds like a awesome brew.

I ran the numbers without the Pale Malt and it really did not change anything. So, I think I will be leaving it out since the LME already has it.

OG: 1.061
FG: 1.014
ABV: 6.1
Bitterness (IBU): 30.6
Color: 33.1

Also, I just learned I'm a hobo in a bank when it comes to choosing yeast. I have no clue what I'm doing there. I spent a lot of time reviewing White Labs yeasts but still have no idea how to really choose one. Do I need to be concerned about the maltyness being gone if FG is at 1.000 and will taste flat no matter what yeast I get? If so, how do I make sure I don't get that low?

I'm still not sure on the coffee addition timeline. It seems that we are torn between steeping - to end of boil - to tossing it in before bottling. I think we all agree that coffee beans half-life is pretty quick. I think the other piece of it was boiling causing this occurrence to be much more rapid. Steeping the beans sounds like the best approach as it will blend much better with the stout throughout the process but has the potential downside of getting stale during the aging process. Maybe I'll just throw it in the muslin bag when steeping the grains.

Does anyone have any recommendations on additional grains?

BTW - This brew is on deck to be brewed in 2 weeks (Feb. 9th). Finishing up a Raspberry Cream Ale now... its in the tertiary and so far so good.

Friedclutch, what yeast were you thinking about using in your batch?

I am thinking white labs wlp001. BTW.. You will not reach 1.000 fg. Especially if using extract. I dont think its possible to ferment beer to 1.000. There will always be some sugar left. Even more so with stout.