Some opinions on my recipe for a coffee stout

So I'm going to be brewing this on Saturday (this is my second batch) and I wanted some of your opinions/suggestions/comments on what you think or what could be improved. I took a few coffee stout recipes (including the directions) and picked what I liked about them:

Donut Shop Coffee Stout

Malt Extract:
2 Cans of Cooper’s Dark Malt Extract

Grains:
3/4 Roasted Barley (12 ounces)
3/4 Chocolate Malt (12 ounces)
1/2 Crystal Malt (8 ounces)
1/2 Flaked Oats (8 ounces)
1/2 Flaked Barley (8 ounces)

Hops:
1 oz. Fuggles (60 minutes)
1 oz. Fuggles (15 minutes)

Yeast:
1 vial White Labs WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast

Other Stuff:
2 cups of Donut Shop Coffee from K-Cups
4 oz. Ghiradelli unsweetened chocolate

Pour 2 1/2 gallons of cold water into your brew kettle and bring the water up to 150 degrees.

Place the roasted barely, flaked oats and flaked barley into 3 muslin bags and add to the kettle to steep for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes remove the grains and rinse them over the kettle with 1/2 gallon of 170 degree water. Discard grains.

Next, bring to a boil. When liquid begins to boil remove the kettle from the heat and add dark malt extracts to your kettle. Make sure you stir in so the malt completely dissolves.

Place the kettle back on the heat and bring to a boil

Once the brew begins to boil add hops and continue boiling for 45 minutes.

After your brew has boiled for 45 minutes turn off the heat and add the chocolate. Stir in until its completely dissolved.

Add 2 cups of Donut Shop coffee from K Cups during the last 10 minutes

Cool the wort quickly.

Add 1 gallon of cold water into your brew bucket.

Add the cooled wort to your brew bucket and top off the wort with water to the 5 gallon mark.

When the temperature of the wort reaches 70-75 degrees aerate the wort well by aggressively stirring.

Add yeast (from starter)


Sound good?

2 things:

coffee - don't boil it. I can see some nasty flavors being extracted this way. A lot of brewers add strong coffee at bottling. On my coffee RIS, I'm cold steeping coffee in a large tea ball directly in the keg. So far, the coffee flavor is amazing.

chocolate - I'd be careful adding straight chocolate. Too much oils will kill your head retention. Cocoa powder can be a little bitter, but can give you chocolate flavor if you have some sweetness to back it up. A lot of people have had good results with racking the beer onto cocoa nibs in a secondary.

Edcculus said:

2 things:

coffee - don't boil it. I can see some nasty flavors being extracted this way. A lot of brewers add strong coffee at bottling. On my coffee RIS, I'm cold steeping coffee in a large tea ball directly in the keg. So far, the coffee flavor is amazing.

chocolate - I'd be careful adding straight chocolate. Too much oils will kill your head retention. Cocoa powder can be a little bitter, but can give you chocolate flavor if you have some sweetness to back it up. A lot of people have had good results with racking the beer onto cocoa nibs in a secondary.

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Do you think I should add the 2 cups when I bottle? Since my favorite coffee is in a K Cup (it's pre-ground inside the cup itself and then vacuum packed) I can't really steep it.

Also on the chocolate, do you think adding unsweetened chocolate powder would make a difference?

I just got done with a Java Stout as well. Overall it turned out really well but there are a few corrections I would make if I did it all over again so I'll share my $0.02.

Be careful with how you prepare or add the coffee.

My directions said to brew a strong 8 cup pot of coffee, let it cool, and dump it in when I racked to secondary.

I would not use this method again because I can taste some bitter flavors from the hot temperatures of the coffee going through the Mr. Coffee machine. In the future, I would definitely just steep the grounds for a while, strain them, and add the coffee to the beer to avoid any slight off flavor from brewing the coffee at a high temperature.

Is there another type of coffee you enjoy that isn't vacuum packed so that you can steep it? I really think steeping it would make a pleasant difference.

I would recommend adding the coffee in a secondary as opposed to bottling time. This will give the beer and coffee some solidified and valuable time to blend together.

To be honest, 350g/12oz of black malt sitting in a beer with a touch of residual sweetness don't half do the coffee taste without mucking about with actual coffee...

PatMac said:

I would recommend adding the coffee in a secondary as opposed to bottling time. This will give the beer and coffee some solidified and valuable time to blend together.

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Good call on adding the coffee to the secondary.

I was throwing around the idea of letting the coffee cool down a bit and throwing it in when I'm cooling the wort too.