Cold-Brewed Coffee - A Reduction?

Hello all!

I currently have a breakfast stout in a primary fermenter and, after 1 week of fermentation, plan to add 4oz of cocoa nibs and, toward the end of fermentation, ~4oz coffee cold-brewed in 20oz of water. My question is: why don't we see more of a concentrate being made with cold-brewed coffee? Say, 4oz of coffee brewed for 2 days in 24 oz of water, after straining, being reduced to a 1/2 cup or so? This would prevent excess liquid being added to the brew and could allow for more precise coffee flavor additions. Would this be a foolish/pointless method that really is no better than adding 24oz of cold-brewed coffee? Does the full amount of coffee lead to a smoother flavor? I'm interested to hear your experiences with the cold-brew method.

Cheers!

You mean reduce it by boiling for an extended period? Have you tasted boiled coffee?

ong said:

You mean reduce it by boiling for an extended period? Have you tasted boiled coffee?

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Yes to reducing via boiling, but after the grounds have been strained out. I wouldn't be boiling coffee grounds/beans, but the cold-brewed extraction.

It doesn't taste good. Don't do it.

pricelessbrewing said:

It doesn't taste good. Don't do it.

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Do we know why? I would never boil the actual coffee bean itself - this much I know and am clear on. However, in sort of a seemingly common-sense manner, it occurred to me: why not make a concentrate while avoiding the harshness/tannin-extraction of hot-brewed coffee? The boiling of the coffee extraction, itself, causes the coffee to become bitter/acrid? Not the boiling of the bean, per se?

Try it! What've you got to lose?

Although, if I were doing it, I'd just cold brew a higher concentration. For standard cold-brew I use 100g of beans in 64oz of water, so I'd try the same 100g in 32oz (or less) of water for a concentrate. But yeah, boiling coffee in any state is asking for terrible astringency.

There's a video on jamie oliver's foodtube doing a concentrated coffee. They claim it tastes good. I'll see if i can find the link.

I would not boil it, even without grounds. I would simply buy a concentrate tbh.

Boiling it is just cooking it, to me it tastes burnt. I tried it. You could simmer it and reduce it down over a long period of time. That may work differently than a rapid boil.

Here's the link to cold-brewed coffee concentrate:
Watch "How to make Cold Brew Coffee | Mike Cooper" on YouTube
https://youtu.be/7WgFkgaoYZM

I usually just add coarse ground coffee beans to the beer, in a hop bag, as I cold crash it for a few days. Basically "dry-hopping" with coffee. That way you don't have to worry about any extra liquid.

Thank you all for your insight! I'm going to experiment and do a few attempts at a concentrate prior to flavoring the brew - I'll report back any interesting findings.

sj3324 said:

I usually just add coarse ground coffee beans to the beer, in a hop bag, as I cold crash it for a few days. Basically "dry-hopping" with coffee. That way you don't have to worry about any extra liquid.

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I'm a noob, so this very well may be a dumb question, but wouldn't this risk introducing oils from the bean which would impact the head of the beer?

I'm following all these coffee threads closely as I'd like to brew a black coffee IPA or a coffee stout in the near future, once I get my process down better anyway

-- Nathan

That's actually a very good point. I've never put coffee in beer, but knowing a little about cold-brewing, you definitely want to filter (paper, preferably) before drinking to remove those oils. I could only assume that those oils would affect head retention.

N4teTheGreat said:

I'm a noob, so this very well may be a dumb question, but wouldn't this risk introducing oils from the bean which would impact the head of the beer?

I'm following all these coffee threads closely as I'd like to brew a black coffee IPA or a coffee stout in the near future, once I get my process down better anyway

-- Nathan

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One of my favorite coffee stouts uses the same method that I do (that is where I got the idea.) I haven't had any issues with head in the beers I have done.

Honestly I never really thought about it much, though. I guess I always did it thinking it was the same process as cold brewing coffee, only doing it in beer instead of water.

Ah, good point I suppose it would be. Thanks!

-- Nathan

As per the suggested video, I'm going to work with a 1:4 ratio for the concentrate. I currently have two glasses in the fridge - each with 1oz freshly-ground coffee and 4oz water. Tomorrow morning they will have steeped for 36 hours. I'll then sample them and run a test: briskly boil one sample and gently simmer the other. I'll let you know of the results!

ConorO said:

As per the suggested video, I'm going to work with a 1:4 ratio for the concentrate. I currently have two glasses in the fridge - each with 1oz freshly-ground coffee and 4oz water. Tomorrow morning they will have steeped for 36 hours. I'll then sample them and run a test: briskly boil one sample and gently simmer the other. I'll let you know of the results!

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Interested to know how it works out.

While on the topic of flavor additions - what has been your guys' best methods with cocoa? Last night I mixed up a concoction of 4oz nibs and just enough vodka to cover. I was planning on letting the mixture steep for a week and then letting the beer sit on the nibs/vodka for an additional week. Is this too much extraction? I certainly want to avoid an overly bitter chocolate flavor . . . Also, do you guys usually let them float or put them in a hop bag with a piece of string, etc.?

Today's conclusion: with such a high ratio of coffee to water, it seems as though little to no reduction of the coffee concentrate will be needed. Each test jar issued in, after draining through a sieve and coffee filter, ~1-2 oz of liquid. It seems to me that 4oz of ground coffee to 16oz of water at 36 hours steeping time would issue in a fairly potent concentrate. Additionally, both the gentle simmer and rough boil issued in a bitter extract. However, I cannot rule out that the bitterness resulted from the simple fact that so much coffee was reduced to, literally, a tablespoon's worth of concentrate. Thank you all for your feedback!

Good results!

Although, did you save a sample of the cold brew concentrate to test taste before you reduced it? I'd be willing to bet that your non-heated concentrate wasn't nearly as bitter.

I made a coffee brown ale a couple months ago. I cold steeped 12oz of coffee in 36 oz of water for 24 hours. I sparged the grains with about 16 oz of water and ran everything through some coffee filters.

I then put it in a pot .. got the coffee just up to boiling, turned off the stove, added 5oz of priming sugar and added it into the bottling bucket.

Came out tasting fantastic.

afro_lou said:

Good results!

Although, did you save a sample of the cold brew concentrate to test taste before you reduced it? I'd be willing to bet that your non-heated concentrate wasn't nearly as bitter.

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Of course - the pre-boil concentrate was certainly strong, but did not taste as acrid as the boiled concentrate.

ConorO said:

Of course - the pre-boil concentrate was certainly strong, but did not taste as acrid as the boiled concentrate.

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How about adding the cold concentrate post-primary without boiling? Risk of infection should be very low due to presence of alcohol.

rhys333 said:

How about adding the cold concentrate post-primary without boiling? Risk of infection should be very low due to presence of alcohol.

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This is the plan as of current. I'm planning on boiling the water that I'll use for steeping prior to brewing the coffee which may or may not have a negligible effect in terms of sanitation.

ConorO said:

Today's conclusion: with such a high ratio of coffee to water, it seems as though little to no reduction of the coffee concentrate will be needed. Each test jar issued in, after draining through a sieve and coffee filter, ~1-2 oz of liquid. It seems to me that 4oz of ground coffee to 16oz of water at 36 hours steeping time would issue in a fairly potent concentrate. Additionally, both the gentle simmer and rough boil issued in a bitter extract. However, I cannot rule out that the bitterness resulted from the simple fact that so much coffee was reduced to, literally, a tablespoon's worth of concentrate. Thank you all for your feedback!

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Yes, the fact it was so concentrated is probably why it tastes horrible. Imagine chewing on a hop pellet; no matter how fresh and delicious it would be as a dry hop addition, the concentrated ingredient would be awful.

I saw a similar test done on Mad Alchemist where he split a 32 oz batch of cold brew into two 16 oz samples. One was left as-is, and the other one was boiled down to a concentrate, re-added water to get it back to 16 oz, and chilled in a fridge. In side by side tasting with the non-boiled cold brew, he noticed no increased bitterness, but a more intense coffee flavour. I think I'll try this method, as I like that it can be sanitized and reduced before adding to the primary after fermentation has finished.