First attempt at a Coffee Stout

Hey all, I've had this in the back of my mind for a while and am finally going to give it a try. I've seen some varying opinions over how get a good coffee flavor in the beer, so if anyone has some tips/criticisms about my plans or my recipe in general, I'd appreciate the feedback.

6.6 lbs Northwest Light LME
1.0 lbs Muntons Plain Light DME
.5 lbs crystal malt
.5 lbs black patent malt
.5 lbs unmalted roasted barley

2.0 oz Fuggles (60 min.)
.6 oz Fuggles (30 min.)
1.0 oz East Kent Goldings (5 min.)

4.0 oz Espresso Roast, steeped during last 10 minutes of boil

White Labs Irish Ale Yeast

Thanks again for perusing my recipe.

Don't boil coffee...ever. It will extract flavors from the beans that you don't really want whether you're brewing beer or straight coffee. If you want to steep beans give them a coarse crush and add them to the secondary (as dryhopping). A method I have used and recommend is to actually add brewed coffee or espresso to the bottling bucket to taste. Make sure the coffee tastes good and you would drink it alone before adding it, because it's not going to magically improve in the beer.

I think it's better to use this thread than start a new one:

If one is interested in adding coffee to a brew, when is the best time? I see BvBG adds it at bottling time. Would secondary work as well? Will the heat of the coffee kill the yeast that are in suspension, thus making it harder to carbonate? I understand not all of them would die, but adding extremely hot liquid to your beer seems like a bad idea. Letting it cool first, on the other hand, seems like it would add the risk of infection. How much is the right amount?

ayrton said:

If one is interested in adding coffee to a brew, when is the best time? I see BvBG adds it at bottling time. Would secondary work as well?

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As noted above, DO NOT boil the coffee... I'd actually recommend going the complete opposite direction and cold brew the coffee. That's what I did for my Mocha Stout (see link in my signature for the recipe if interested) and it makes the coffee flavor extremely smooth, rather than capturing any bitterness that heat creates.

I added 28 oz. to my 5 gal batch in secondary and it turned out great.

I brewed 20 oz. of coffee and let it sit in the 'fridge overnight before bottling. The recipe called for cold brewing, but I had no idea on how to do that. So far my stout has turned out pretty good so I'm happy.

It's just easier to add at bottling, IMHO.

Cold brewing coffee (and I didn't know this either, but my wife did) is so simple... it consists of putting coarsely ground coffee (0.5-1 lb) into a pitcher with water and we just left it over night. It's just like brewing a pot of coffee, only it takes longer without the heat (and pressure if you were to use espresso).

Since it makes the coffee so smooth and is easy to do, I can't see making another batch of my mocha stout without cold brewing the coffee.

Austin

I used a stovetop espresso press to make 4 shots of espresso (~8oz), which I then cooled and added to primary at pitching time. It's nearly ready to be bottled and tastes delicious!

Wow, so brewing some coffee cold and letting it sit overnight doesn't make you worry about infection? Is coffee naturally infection-resistant?

Thanks for all the responses, by the way.

ayrton said:

Wow, so brewing some coffee cold and letting it sit overnight doesn't make you worry about infection? Is coffee naturally infection-resistant?

Thanks for all the responses, by the way.

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I don't know the answer about coffee, but by the time your beer gets to the bottling bucket or even the secondary, it's got a fairly high alcohol content and is therefore pretty resistant to nasties. It's much, much more vulnerable in the period between cooling below about 140 and when fermentation really takes off.

So I'd think adding cold-brewed coffee would be fine, as long as you're careful about cleanliness and sanitation when you prepare the coffee.

Well, what I did was to sanitize the pitcher that it was cold-brewed in, then it was covered with saran wrap immediately after putting the water/coffee together and put in the fridge. I then sanitized a 1qt mason jar (and lid) to strain the coffee into and then shut it and stuck it back in the fridge until I racked my beer to secondary (at which point I added the coffee).

My thought is that I minimized the exposure to open air and everything that touched the coffee was sanitized. This doesn't mean that I didn't have a bit of a paranoid feeling about it getting infected, but it turned out fine.

Austin

Great, thanks guys!

I just bottled the other day and the beer had a great aroma. I let a 1/4 pound of espresso roast(whole bean) soak in the secondary in a muslin bag for three weeks-essentially, I cold brewed the coffee in the beer. It may have been too much time, but I'll let everyone know in two weeks when I do my first taste test.

Paperface said:

I used a stovetop espresso press to make 4 shots of espresso (~8oz), which I then cooled and added to primary at pitching time. It's nearly ready to be bottled and tastes delicious!

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I did the same w/ James Spencer's Espresso Porter receipe. Worked like a charm. Added a nice hint of coffee without totally overwhelming the beer.

For anyone who might still be following this...
Letting the coffee soak in the secondary for three weeks worked out pretty well. I wasn't so sure, based on the aroma when I bottled it, but I'm really pleased with the outcome. I can't quite place the aroma, but it's fairly strong. There's a bit of malty sweetness on the front of the tongue, but that's balanced by the coffee dryness/acidity on the back of the tongue. Overall, I think a nice combo that will get better as it ages a little more. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

hoffmeister said:

For anyone who might still be following this...
Letting the coffee soak in the secondary for three weeks worked out pretty well. I wasn't so sure, based on the aroma when I bottled it, but I'm really pleased with the outcome. I can't quite place the aroma, but it's fairly strong. There's a bit of malty sweetness on the front of the tongue, but that's balanced by the coffee dryness/acidity on the back of the tongue. Overall, I think a nice combo that will get better as it ages a little more. Thanks for the feedback everyone.

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rock on! I am in the process of formulating a coffee stout recipe...the only thing I have to decide on is what balance of sweet/bitter I want. Can you compare your recipe to any commercial examples? I am thinking that I want to shoot for a subtle balance of sweet/chocolate/coffee flavors.

I wish I could, but to be honest, I haven't tried any commercial coffee stouts before, so I was shooting in the dark, you might say. I had heard of it being done, and I love beer and coffee, so I thought I'd try to make it a reality.

That being said, I think what I did yielded a fairly good balance of malty sweetness and coffee flavor-not too chocolaty though. I know there are some threads around this site that discuss adding a chocolate/cocoa to beer, but everyone seems to have a different opinion on what to do.

If you do give it a shot, good luck with everything, let me know how it turned out!

hoffmeister said:

If you do give it a shot, good luck with everything, let me know how it turned out!

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Grain is on the way...I just have to determine the amount of coffee to add and I am set. I am planning on going with the cold brewed -> secondary route.