Advice for Coffee Stout coffee addition

So I have a milk stout that's been fermenting away in the primary for the last week. My plan is to turn it into a Coffee Stout, and I was wondering if anyone could offer advice on how much/when to add. I am new to homebrew and still getting a feel for the effect of various additions. I have read about different ways to add coffee to a stout and the most appealing to me seemed to be adding cold steeped coffee "extract" to the bottling bucket just before bottling. I want it to have a smooth coffee flavor that's not overpowering but still very much there. Any advice on how much to add and has anyone else had luck doing something similar? Thanks in advance!

I've made the same beer! It is a favorite among my friends, I brew a milk stout as you mentioned, cold steep coffee in a French press for about 12-24 hours, then add to secondary/keg/bottling bucket with great results. It is super smooth and creamy with a very present coffee flavor. My friend roasts the coffee so I'm not sure how to describe it other than a medium roast I guess. I think I add 7 tbsp beans and grind them then add to french press and add water, easy

Sounds like exactly what I'm going for. Great to hear it turned out well. Do you happen to remember how much water you used for 7tsp of beans? I'm guessing the amount of water you use would dictate the capacity for extracting flavor from the beans but maybe it's not important.

Good question. It's a pretty typical sized French press (this one: http://www.target.com/p/Bodum-Brazil-8-45-Cup-Coffee-Press-45-Black/-/A-10452425) and I just fill it up to the point where the press sits just above the water when fully raised up. Hope that makes sense haha i just fill it like I would for regular coffee but using cold water instead basically.

sounds good to me! haha thanks for the help. can't wait to try this out.

I'm sure it'll be great, it's become one of my favorite stouts (and I'm not even much of a stout fan typically!)

worstbrewing said:

I just fill it like I would for regular coffee but using cold water instead basically.

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Why cold water? I would have thought hot water would have extracted more flavor. You could start with hot water and then allow it to cool/sit fo 24 hours.

Calder said:

Why cold water? I would have thought hot water would have extracted more flavor. You could start with hot water and then allow it to cool/sit fo 24 hours.

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Hot water will extract the more bitter/harsh flavors from the coffee and typically don't end up too pleasant in beer but obviously tastes may vary. Cold all the way through just extracts smooth coffee flavor without much harshness, for a coffee milk stout that's what I prefer. I've done both ways and find cold steeping more preferable

anyone have any thoughts on sanitation? do you use tap or filtered or bottled water? starsan the coffee press? or, is contamination really not any kind of issue?

I've got 10 gallons of a milk stout in secondary that I am considering trying this for.

Thanks,
jjwp

i was worried about sanitation too. what i ended up doing was boiling some cold-brewed coffee to see how it changed the flavor. i liked the outcome -- a little more roasty than before boiling, but not a huge difference, so i ended up dissolving my priming sugar in about 8 cups of coffee on bottling day and boiled it. the beer came out great. let us know what you end up doing and how it turns out...i'd like to try some other methods too.

That is exactly what I did. Cold-steeped the coffee, strained it off the beans, and then boiled the coffee and used that with my sugar to make my priming solution. I disolved a little cocoa powder in too.

Hey not sure if you're still around but one question I had as I'm gonna give this a go soon!

Did you steep the coffee grounds and then press it and THEN let it sit for 12-24 hours or did you just let it steep in the grounds for 12-24 hours before pressing the grounds down? Also did you JUST add the coffee to secondary or did you add the grounds?

andrewhicks237 said:

Hey not sure if you're still around but one question I had as I'm gonna give this a go soon!

Did you steep the coffee grounds and then press it and THEN let it sit for 12-24 hours or did you just let it steep in the grounds for 12-24 hours before pressing the grounds down? Also did you JUST add the coffee to secondary or did you add the grounds?

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what i ended up doing for mine was: steeped the coffee cold in the french press for 24 hours in the fridge before pressing it. then i poured the resulting brew directly into serving keg.

instead of water for the steeping i used a bottle of Irish Whiskey (this alleviated my sanitation fears. you could use vodka i suppose, or even preboiled and cooled water if everything is sanitary)

the whiskey flavor didnt really come through, except as maybe a little whiff on the nose. the coffee was rockin though. this beer (base beer was a milk stout) advanced to 2nd round NHC this year labeled as a coffee beer in the specialty category so I was pretty happy with the method

andrewhicks237 said:

Hey not sure if you're still around but one question I had as I'm gonna give this a go soon!

Did you steep the coffee grounds and then press it and THEN let it sit for 12-24 hours or did you just let it steep in the grounds for 12-24 hours before pressing the grounds down? Also did you JUST add the coffee to secondary or did you add the grounds?

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For mine, I just let the coffee steep overnight in the fridge, then pressed it into a pot. I then added the priming sugar directly to the coffee and boiled for ~5 minutes to sanitize (just used the coffee instead of water here). This does change the flavor of the coffee a bit, so you might want to boil some cold-pressed coffee to test and make sure you like it. I found it just made it a little more roasty in flavor. The "coffee and cream" stout came out fantastic...no competitions, but I got many positive reviews from friends and family.

Good luck!

JJWP said:

what i ended up doing for mine was: steeped the coffee cold in the french press for 24 hours in the fridge before pressing it. then i poured the resulting brew directly into serving keg.

instead of water for the steeping i used a bottle of Irish Whiskey (this alleviated my sanitation fears. you could use vodka i suppose, or even preboiled and cooled water if everything is sanitary)

the whiskey flavor didnt really come through, except as maybe a little whiff on the nose. the coffee was rockin though. this beer (base beer was a milk stout) advanced to 2nd round NHC this year labeled as a coffee beer in the specialty category so I was pretty happy with the method

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Killer! So the whiskey flavor didn't come through at all and you used, I assume, like 6-8 cups of it?! My base will be a milk stout as well. I'm gonna add the coffee to secondary for like 2-3 days at the end before bottling. "dry-coffee" if you will... Do you still have the recipe you used? I think I have a pretty solid one. 60 min boil...

6.5 Pounds of Otter
.75 pounds of Chocolate malt
1 pound of Caramel 80
1 pound of roasted barley
1 pound of Lactose
1 oz of cluster
.5 oz of williamete
Yeast is Wyeast Irish Ale 1084

Close to what you did?