coffee anyone?

I have a milk stout recipe that has become a house favorite. I want to add some coffee to my next one. I'm lucky enough to have a roast master in the town I work in, so I can get high quality, super fresh coffee any time. I'm going to use a peruvian blend. It's a dark roast, that's very smooth, with some chocolate overtones. It's become my favorite coffee.
Favorite coffee + favorite beer = .

I have seen many ways of adding coffee to beer. Brewing it and adding at the end of the boil, or in the fermenter, or at kegging time, I've also seen just using the cracked beans. I'm leaning towards brewing and adding to the fermenter. Can you tell me from your experiences how you did it, and what were the results. Thanks

Guess I'll kick this one off -- I have made one coffee stout; as I recall we added it to the wort during the boil. That was back in the beginning, so everything was good if you know what I mean. We were drinking and brewing, so the recipe was never finalized! The final product was great.

Below is a recipe I found on the web a few years ago, which I was hoping to try. Might be enough to get some commentary going. They add the coffee to the wort. I would question the "... until coffee grounds have been dissolved..." part. I thinking that will not happen! Also, maybe just put the grounds in the grain bag during the steep?
-batch

Crinkle said:

I have a milk stout recipe that has become a house favorite. I want to add some coffee to my next one. I'm lucky enough to have a roast master in the town I work in, so I can get high quality, super fresh coffee any time. I'm going to use a peruvian blend. It's a dark roast, that's very smooth, with some chocolate overtones. It's become my favorite coffee.
Favorite coffee + favorite beer = .

I have seen many ways of adding coffee to beer. Brewing it and adding at the end of the boil, or in the fermenter, or at kegging time, I've also seen just using the cracked beans. I'm leaning towards brewing and adding to the fermenter. Can you tell me from your experiences how you did it, and what were the results. Thanks

Click to expand...

From everything I've ever read, or been told, about brewing coffee... Boiling the coffee, or using boiling water is uber-bad...

I'm formulating a breakfast stout where I'm thinking of using a nylon mesh bag to hold the coffee grounds and steep them (for 5-8 minutes) after the boil, while the wort is still in the 195-200F range, then chill with my IC... After fermentation is complete, I'll sample and see if it needs more coffee flavor or not... Also planning on adding chocolate elements...

Of course, I'm using some roasted barley, crystal malt and flaked barley in addition to the base malt (I brew all grain).. Shaping up to be a solid breakfast stout...

Have a hearty breakfast, maybe with your OJ, and a pint of the breakfast stout... :rockin:

I am no expert on coffee stouts specifically, but for flavor addition you would typically want to consider a cold extraction. Takes a couple of days, but it keeps more of the aromatics that boil off nearly instantly at boiling temperatures. There's a low tech description here: http://www.ineedcoffee.com/06/cold-brewed/

As for quantity, the best advice I've gotten on this is to buy a similar non-coffee stout and dose it with the strong coffee extract until you find a level you like. A "good" level varies considerably from person to person.

As for beans, I'd probably consider something lower acid...perhaps indonesian. if you like dark roast that might complement the roasted barley, but you may as well buy the cheap stuff then. Otherwise, a Vienna roast level or even Full City will get you the most complex coffee character.

I'm still not 100% of when I'll add the actual coffee to my brew. With the amount of roasted barley I'll be adding, it could have a decent coffee flavor to it already. Hitting about 6.5% roasted barley for the grain bill. So, I could just wait until it's done fermenting, and has rested for a while, before adding more coffee flavor to it... I'd be more inclined to add the coffee either directly into the primary, then racking off after a few days, or maybe short the batch volume a bit, so that adding a couple of quarts of cold pressed coffee won't be too much for the vessel.

Need more reference recipes to see how others do it...