Adding coffee to stout

Im brewing an extract stout and the instructions say to add 1 1/2 cups espresso coffee to the priming solution before bottling. I would like to keg this batch and force carbonate but not sure what to do with the coffee. Would it still be added at the time of racking to the keg or does the natural carbing change the flavor of the coffee somehow?

yes add it to the keg. The priming solution is just sugar that the remaining yeasties will eat to give off the CO2 in the bottle, carbonating the beer. U can keep the sugar out and just put the coffee in the keg as ur racking it because ur adding ur own CO2. A lot of people do this to their cider that that keg. Adding different flavorings and such.

The instructions say that just so the coffee will be as fresh as possible when you add it. Some people notice that the coffee flavor drops over time, so the idea behind adding it at bottling is to put the coffee in as late as possible to get as much coffee flavor as you can. Adding it when you rack to the keg should be fine.

Thanks for the quick replies! How do I make sure the coffee is sanitizedl? I saw that a cold brew in a french press is preffered. Do you boil it after to get rid of any bad stuff?

I dunno about actual brewed coffee, my experience deals with soaking the coffee beans in vodka for a few days, throwing it in the freezer, skimming off the lipid/fat deposit at the top and pitching the remaining liquid.

I just use boiled water and after its cooled I add 4oz by weight to 16oz of water and put it in the fridge for 48hrs then added at bottling.

So you guys are cold steeping the beans or the grinds? And you are not brewing the coffee? I have a similar kit that says to brew the coffee in the coffee maker. Is infection going to be a possibility? What is best way to get max coffee flavor?

Sorry I hijacked your thread :/

What I do is grind the beans on the coarsest setting that my grinder can do. Then I cold steep the coarse ground beans in cold water in my french press for a couple days (after spraying the french press with star-san). Some commercial breweries (and homebrewers) just put coarsely ground beans into the secondary then rack on top of them for a few days instead, but I personally like the cold steep method since then the french press gets rid of all the grinds for me (and you don't have to mess with a secondary).

Infection is a slight possibility, but I don't see it being too much of an issue. If you want to be extra careful you could soak the beans in vodka prior to the cold steep, but I've never heard of someone getting an infection in their beer from coffee beans.

So brewing the coffee in the coffee maker is not recommended? I feel like this would impart the most flavor...

I just threw .8 oz of coarsely ground beans into a mesh hop bag and added to the last day of primary prior to racking (24 hrs). I got the coffee flavor, but it was not overly intense.

I used espresso right out of our machine at home. A friend of mine went to Starbucks and ordered enough shots to fill a cup. I did put mine in the fridge to cool down a bit first. Now that I think about it I should've used the hot coffee to liquify the priming sugar. Maybe I'll do that next time.

I added 1/2 lb coffee flavor grain to a AG porter recipe I made for my wife, we call it Lu Lu's coffee, she wanted a coffee flavor beer, it came out espresso flavored beer, it was freakin great, much better than when I tried adding cold brewed coffee to a stout of mine.

Just something to maybe try on one of your brews, and a much easy'r way to get that coffee flavor.

Lu Lu's Coffee is now a house beer and in the rotation. we might have to change the name to
Lu Lu's Espresso, would be more fitting.

Cheers

I love coffee stouts/porters/ice cream/mints/anything. I generally cold steep my coffee, I do a fine espresso grind for maximum extraction and I usually use rather a lot of coffee since I love the flavor, then I filter the hell out of it, and add it to the keg.

One other thing that I often do is take a few oz's and add coarsely cracked beans (less ground than I use for the french press) to my mash, I think it adds something, but if nothing else it makes the mash smell even better than usual.

I have a stout kit on the way from Northern Brewer and plan on turning into a "breakfast" stout with a coffee and cocao nibs addition. For the nibs, I'm going to soak in vodka or scotch overnight and add to the secondary.

Not sure how to add the coffee either. The easiest thing to do to me is throw the coarse ground coffee in a mesh bag and put it the secondary for the last day before bottling. But I may steep with spring water in a tupperware in the fridge overnight.

From what I've read from other posts is hot brewed coffee can give more of a bitter taste to your brew as opposed to a cold brewing...

If I was to cold brew the coffee, how many cups of grinds should i use to how many cups of water?

Cold brewed coffee is the way to go. If you don't have a french press, just coarsely grind the beans and put them is a large mason jar of water overnight in your fridge. Pour that into your keg.

WileECoyote said:

I added 1/2 lb coffee flavor grain to a AG porter recipe I made for my wife, we call it Lu Lu's coffee, she wanted a coffee flavor beer, it came out espresso flavored beer, it was freakin great, much better than when I tried adding cold brewed coffee to a stout of mine.

Just something to maybe try on one of your brews, and a much easy'r way to get that coffee flavor.

Lu Lu's Coffee is now a house beer and in the rotation. we might have to change the name to
Lu Lu's Espresso, would be more fitting.

Cheers

Click to expand...

hate hijacking a thread but any chance we can get Lu Lu's Coffee recipe?

LoneTreeFarms said:

hate hijacking a thread but any chance we can get Lu Lu's Coffee recipe?

Click to expand...

Most porter recipe's (your favorite one) should work, just add 1/2 lb coffee malt in the grain bill, In my recipe the beer was espresso flavored but the hop flavor/finish wasn't what I would have hoped for, so I have just changed the hops in the recipe and a batch is aging in the keg now.

I really don't feel comfortable giving out a recipe that isn't perfected yet, its going to be a great beer with some minor tweaks and is in our rotation, tweaking each batch, I would just hate to have someone brew my recipe and come back and say, man that recipe sucks, especially knowing its not quite right yet.

Cheers