Best method to add Coffee to a stout?

Good Evening,
I make all kinds of beers from ales to stouts all the time and have decided to go with a coffee stout this weekend. I was just wondering the standard or best way to add the coffee.

I've heard that it should be brewed seperately and then added to the boil. Is this correct? or should it be steeped in the boil?

Lastly, anyone have any idea how much coffee to use for a 5 gallon batch?

I will be using a robust bean known as Velvet Hammer to produce my Velvet Hammer coffee stout.

Please let me know if anyone has any experience in coffee stouts.

Thanks,
D

I've always added coffee at bottling so that I can add slowly and taste so that I can get the coffee flavor right where I want it.

Here's a thread that may help: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/how-add-coffee-stout-93995/

ok, Sounds good. One question. You never have to worry about infection? I know hops have oils that inhibit bacterial growth but I've never heard the same for coffee.??

Good timing, I brewed my first Coffee Stout a month or so ago and have been drinking it away. I followed a friend's procedure and it turned out great:

6oz coffee beans
- Rough crush them with rolling pin/mallet whatever you have
Sanitize rubbermaid food container that will be able to hold the beans plus 48oz of sterilized water (just boiled it and then cooled it down)
Take the crush beans and put them into the container, pour the 48oz of water ontop of them and put the container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
After 3 days, using a strainer and coffee filter I drained this mixture into a bottling bucket then dumped in my priming sugar solution.
Rack beer ontop of all which will mix everything nicely. I will say this does have extreme coffee flavor which I love, if you want it less cut the coffee addition in half.

thanks deezy. So no sterilizing of the beans in any way then.?

I usually add a full pot of brewed coffee w/ chickory per 5 gals to the last 5 mins of the boil, then ferment as normal. I lose some coffee flavor but my Oatmeal Coffee Stout comes out the way I like it.

I find that adding the coffee to the beer post fermentation adds a green coffee flavor. Last batch I put half pound at the end of boil and the other before kegging and liked the flavor more so then the other method.
Don’t worry too much about infection because the alcohol in the beer will help preserve it.

DustinHickey said:

thanks deezy. So no sterilizing of the beans in any way then.?

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Nope I didn't bother and it turned out great. Good luck with either way you do it!

Since boiling coffee is such taboo when making coffee I just assumed it would be bad in beer. I recently made a Breakfast Stout (not done) which was my first batch with coffee and in my research it seemed the best (i.e. most endorsed) methods were:
Adding coarse ground coffee just after flameout.
Adding brewed coffee post-fermentation (cold-brewed if possible).
Adding whole coffee beans to secondary.

I plan to add whole beans to the secondary of my Breakfast Stout (already added 2 oz. coarse ground after flameout). Was going to try putting them in a ~250* F oven for a bit just to make sure they are sanitized, might put them on a paper towel as well to perhaps soak up some oils. But this beer will have no head anyway from the chocolate/coffee already in it (I could tell as it went into the carboy).

I had very good success putting brewed coffee in the secondary before moving the primary.

I "fixed" a batch of beer with a pot of coffee. I used 8 tablespoons of french roast. I steeped the coffee in a 32oz french press sitting in a large pot of boiling water. I measured 200*F in the french press durring this process. I wanted it has hot as possible to extract all the flavor I could. Without any worries, I poured this directly into the keg that had already been chilled and carbonated. The aroma is amazing! It smells like I just walked into a coffee shop. The coffee is very strong in aroma and not so much on flavor. But the beer I fixed had some ill yeast issues during ferm so its hard to say how it would do in a stout. I just wanted to tell the OP how i handled the coffee addition.

Summary:
Make strong coffee.
Pour hot coffee directly into chilled keg.
Enjoy!

I make a Coffee Porter and I put in a 1/4lb of whole beans into the Secondary for one week. The Coffee flavor is fairly strong but I really liked it. I haven't done it any other way so I don't have anything to compare it to, But I liked the results. This particular beer became really great at about 5 weeks in the bottle. The only issue was there was absolutely no head retention from the oils in the Coffee, but that's not a big deal to me.

There are tons of ways, all the above suggestions are great.

I for one rough "break" them with a ziplock and mallet, and add to the mash. I find a more intense flavor without using many beans. I made an oatmeal stout with 1oz of espresso beans in the mash and it was amazing.

Try several ways and see what you like.

One way my friends and started adding coffee to our beers was to do it in a keg. We would put our desired amount of coarsely ground coffee into a sanitized small nylon straining bag and tie it shut. Taking the excess string (or attaching string to it) we would tie a know around the base of the pressure relief valve underneath the keg lid then slide a disconnect post o-ring over the base of the prv to hold the string on.

We would then sample every day to monitor the coffee flavor and usually after three days it was right were we wanted it to be, so we would just pull the coffee out of keg, resanitize the lid after handling it, then put it back on a purge the air out with CO2 and start carbing it. This method has produced great coffee flavors in our beers that we came up with after dealing with the mess of trying to fish straining bags of the carboy (straining bags never made it out in one piece).

I've made a coffee stout by dry-hopping with my father's coarsely crushed home roasted coffee beans...it's essentially like doing a cold-steeping just with beer instead of water...worked well for me.

dedhedjed said:

I've made a coffee stout by dry-hopping with my father's coarsely crushed home roasted coffee beans...it's essentially like doing a cold-steeping just with beer instead of water...worked well for me.

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How much and for how long?I`m getting ready to do a coffee stout and I`m planning on using this method.All I want is a hint of coffee in mine....was thinking about using 3 oz of rough crushed beans in the secondary for a week.

Yankeehillbrewer said:

I make a Coffee Porter and I put in a 1/4lb of whole beans into the Secondary for one week. The Coffee flavor is fairly strong but I really liked it. I haven't done it any other way so I don't have anything to compare it to, But I liked the results. This particular beer became really great at about 5 weeks in the bottle. The only issue was there was absolutely no head retention from the oils in the Coffee, but that's not a big deal to me.

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I add 4oz course cracked beans to secondary like this, then I add some cold pressed coffee if I need to adjust at bottling. You will need to up the priming sugar or it will be under carbed. Couldn't agree more. I've tried every way possible to add it and this is the best way I've found. Never have had any type of infection. I do boil my water for the cold pressing. My French press was a good investment for adding my adjustment.

bctdi said:

How much and for how long?I`m getting ready to do a coffee stout and I`m planning on using this method.All I want is a hint of coffee in mine....was thinking about using 3 oz of rough crushed beans in the secondary for a week.

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The 4 oz I use is not an over powering amount. I think amount used is also in relation to the type of malt you use. My Imperial Coffee Stout doesn't used a lot of "black" malt, so the coffee really comes through.

4oz sounds about right. I don't have my notes in front of me, but it was probably around 4oz and I left them in the secondary for a week. enjoy the coffee stout...

I think a cold steep for a day or so and then pour the result into the kettle right after you take it off the heat would give you a lot of flavor without "burning" the coffee. Although all the other suggestions sound like they'd taste excellent...especially the "dry coffee-ing" suggestion, very interesting.

From the For What Its Worth file:

I received an Honorable Mention at the Michigan Beer Cup for a Breakfast Stout after originally reading this thread and deciding that "Adding coarse ground coffee just after flameout" was the best alternative. That and I "dry hopped" another type of ground coffee during the secondary to achieve my results.
38 and 41.5 at two separate contests aint nothing to sneeze at at a BJCP competition.

I plan on tweaking my recipe and my Batch Sparge technique for future competitions. (this was my second AG)

Banjoman76 said:

From the For What Its Worth file:

I received an Honorable Mention at the Michigan Beer Cup for a Breakfast Stout after originally reading this thread and deciding that "Adding coarse ground coffee just after flameout" was the best alternative. That and I "dry hopped" another type of ground coffee during the secondary to achieve my results.
38 and 41.5 at two separate contests aint nothing to sneeze at at a BJCP competition.

I plan on tweaking my recipe and my Batch Sparge technique for future competitions. (this was my second AG)

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Nicely Done

My homebrew store has a coffee malt on hand - any idea what a decent amount would be to add to a stout? I have an oatmeal stout recipe that calls for 1/2# chocolate malt, I was thinking of either subbing all that for the coffee, or doing a combination. Any thoughts?