adding coffee

Going to be brewing an oatmeal breakfast stout with coffee...is cold pressed coffee in a French press the best way to impart coffee in the beer. Figure adding it to the secondary.

That is what I have had the best luck with.

Yep yep...Sounds excellent.

what's cold pressed coffee? Is that brewing coffee the normal way then pressing it, then letting it cool? I have to add coffee in about a week - didn't know there was a 'best' way

I put coffee grounds in a press with cold water and place in the fridge over night. When its time to use I press down the grounds and pour the coffee into the beer.

is there a particular reason for doing it that way?

I use a french press daily to prepare coffee to drink. Not sure what the advantages are of pressing it cold VS hot. Seems counterintuitive. Has anyone done it both ways ?

I've tried it both ways and have also just tossed beans into the boil kettle. Doing it cold makes the coffee less acidic and in my opinion smoother tasting in the beer. I seem to recall an article in zymurgy a while back about the different techniques if you can dig it up.

November said:

I've tried it both ways and have also just tossed beans into the boil kettle. Doing it cold makes the coffee less acidic and in my opinion smoother tasting in the beer. I seem to recall an article in zymurgy a while back about the different techniques if you can dig it up.

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ok. To the OP; how much coffee does your recipie call for in a 5 gallon batch?

what is the difference between secondary and at bottling? I would think they would be about the same.

When I looked up coffee additions, it said that cold-pressing coffee doesn't release certain chemicals that normal brewing does. I cold-pressed mine...added 16g of fresh ground espresso beans to 1L of water, let it sit for 24 hours, Press it, then add the liquid straight to the secondary. It worked beautifully.

Does pressing at room temp for 24 hours do about the same as cold pressing? If not, what's the difference?

Well you only "press" once. After you let it cold-brew for 24 hours. (I let the ground bean/water mixture sit at room temp. for about 12 hours then stuck it in the fridge for 10hrs.) Take it out, press it using the french press then add it to the secondary. I really only pressed it to remove the beans from the mixture but honestly you can add the beans too depending on the amount of coffee flavor you're looking for.

How do you sterilize the cold pressed coffee? Or is it too acidic to harbor harmful bacteria.

jfrank85 said:

How do you sterilize the cold pressed coffee? Or is it too acidic to harbor harmful bacteria.

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You know...Probably something I should have thought about. I never worried about it. I had no infection issues though, so all's well that ends well lol

I can only assume your water and container were pretty clean.

November said:

I put coffee grounds in a press with cold water and place in the fridge over night. When its time to use I press down the grounds and pour the coffee into the beer.

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That's what I did this past weekend. It's a Stout, using Liquid Amber Extract, and I put a couple scoops of ground coffee (about what I'd use to make a pot of coffee) into a plastic container (like a plastic butter tub, sorta), added cold water, and let sit for ~ 36 hours. Once I brewed and chilled the wort, I filtered the coffee extract and added to the fermenting bottle.

Will let you know how it turns out.

for mine, I cold brewed the coffee, then used the cold brewed coffee as my solution that I added sugar to and boiled for bottling. I figured boiling the coffee sans beans wouldn't impart any different flavor and would take care of sanitation...

Only in bottles for a few days so who knows how it will turn out? I tasted some at bottling, tasted good, just a tad sweet from the bottling sugar.

For what it's worth I have had good luck with extracting coffee in vodka. It brings out all the coffee flavors and aromas while leaving behind any unwanted bitterness. It also takes care of any sanitation issues. All I do is take some good quality coffee grounds and soak it in vodka for 24 hours, strain and use at bottling.

I love coffee and add 6 cups of espresso to 5 gallons and absolutely love the way it comes out.

reno316 said:

That's what I did this past weekend. It's a Stout, using Liquid Amber Extract, and I put a couple scoops of ground coffee (about what I'd use to make a pot of coffee) into a plastic container (like a plastic butter tub, sorta), added cold water, and let sit for ~ 36 hours. Once I brewed and chilled the wort, I filtered the coffee extract and added to the fermenting bottle.

Will let you know how it turns out.

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i like this idea of adding it to the fermenter. anybody else have experience doing it this way? i guess sanitation would be a little more important as compared to adding coffee to the secondary. how about re using the yeast? i'm always looking for ways to skip the secondary so this would be sweet if it works without any problems.

jfrank85 said:

How do you sterilize the cold pressed coffee? Or is it too acidic to harbor harmful bacteria.

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if you want to be extremely thorough, you could sanitize the french press with some star-san same as you would with any brewing equipment.

Not to sound pretentious (probably already too late haha), I'm a coffee professional. I can help impart some information that might be congruent with a higher quality in the end product here!

Alright, so! The cold press method is certainly one that is best for a smooth coffee. If you're looking for a more mild, less acidic coffee, consider cold pressing a Colombian coffee, or a Costa Rican coffee. If you want something a little more intense, think about an African bean, or perhaps an Indonesian bean. Though, the most important thing, is to buy quality coffee that's freshly roasted! If you use Colombian or Costa Rican beans that aren't roasted properly, they'll become bitter and terrible and you can throw the "smooth" and "mild" thing out..

The freshness/quality of grind is probably the second most important thing behind quality beans! If you have a grinder, buy your beans whole!

Also, consider looking into the Toddy Method for cold brewing. Think of it as Cold Press Level: Over 9,000.

A couple good roasters for quality beans are..

Intelligentsia
Counter Culture
Ritual Coffee
49th Parallel (Canada)
Verve

Hope this helps in some way.

I swear to God I'm not a hipster.

...damn hipsters.

I'm glad I found this. Ive been roasting my own coffee for a year now and am finally getting some good roasts. I brewed a Porter Monday and have decided on the cold press method into the keg. I was wondering how much coffee and how much water to use? I have a 32oz French press and to me it doesn't seem like it would be enough. Thoughts would be appreciated.

I've put mine into the fermented beer without issue.

Lunchtime said:

...damn hipsters.

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Amen - they're everywhere now. With their obsession for cigarettes and coffee, you might confuse them with the old goth kids of yonder year. Perhaps a study in evolution is in order? Or, is that outside the scope of HBT?

davepeds said:

Amen - they're everywhere now. With their obsession for cigarettes and coffee, you might confuse them with the old goth kids of yonder year. Perhaps a study in evolution is in order? Or, is that outside the scope of HBT?

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I'm looking for a good time what'd u say? Me you?

bcryan said:

i like this idea of adding it to the fermenter. anybody else have experience doing it this way? i guess sanitation would be a little more important as compared to adding coffee to the secondary. how about re using the yeast? i'm always looking for ways to skip the secondary so this would be sweet if it works without any problems.

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If it matters, I boiled the water and chilled in an ice bath before adding the coffee grounds. Hoping that sufficed for sanitation. I couldn't think of any way to sanitize the beans themselves, but would absolutely welcome any suggestions.