New to the Forum: Brewing with Coffee

Hello everyone!

I've read many different takes on brewing with coffee. I have a Jura capresso coffee and espresso machine and figured it would be great to use in a coffee stout I'm going to brew. My question is this: how long should the coffee be boiled? I figure the last couple minutes will do fine in destroying bacteria, but will it hamper the flavor of the coffee? Thanks for the help!

Well the one time I used coffee it was with regular drip brew and that went unboiled. Just used it as part of the top water in an extract batch. Using espresso I'd be even less concerned since it's already at a higher temp/pressure when it's made. I say make it and use it, no need to scorch it by boiling.

I've had great results with a coffee porter by just adding about 16 ounces of strong, fresh-brewed coffee (I did French press, but probably doesn't matter much) when racking to secondary. Nice, subtle coffee flavor that way- you know it's there, but it doesn't smack you upside the head.

That being said, there are plenty of different ways to add coffee to a brew, and people seem to have good results with all of them. Just experiment and see how it comes out... but be sure to let us know the results!

Thanks guys! Would the higher temp disrupt or kill the yeast when racking to the secondary fermentor? Or did you bring it down to temp and then do it? Thanks again!

The term "secondary fermenter" is somewhat of a misnomer. By the time you rack to secondary, fermentation should be basically done, so don't worry about shocking the yeast. Besides, it's not like you're going to be adding gallons of boiling hot coffee- even if you use fresh-brewed, still-hot coffee, you're using little enough that the temp will ameliorate as soon as you add it to the cool/room temp beer. The yeast you need to remain viable for bottle conditioning will be fine, so don't worry about it.