making beer with coffee

I made a batch of beer using coffee. I mixed it in with the grains . Could i put the coffee in while the wort is boiling, just strain it out after the boil. Also should i use coffee beans or already ground coffee

a couple things to concern yourself with.. I don't think boiling coffee is the best way to bring coffee flavor to your beer. I think there are oils in the beans which may kill your head on your beer and I think it may create some off flavors. I think most people use coffee "after" fermentation is done. I've done drip with good results, I've done cold press expresso with good results.

I have used fresh ground coffee beans as a dry hop and it turned out wonderfully. I did it at serving temperature, for reference, look up cold brewed coffee. This is also how terrapin does it for for their wake-n-bake imperial stout. 4 ounces of beans lasted for up to 6 months using this method.

Cold seep the grounds and add after you pull it off the flame for a good flavor, add at bottling or kegging for a stonger flavor. From what I've read adding it during the boil is NOT a good idea. I did the cold seep method with a porter after I pulled it off the flame and it turned out awesome.

Also how long in the keg before you start noticing the coffe flavor? 4oz to a 5gal?

I like the idea of adding to the keg as that is how i dry hop my beer. i usually leave the hops in there while serving. tied off to the dip tube at the bottom.

I experimented with a coffee stout using half a lb of whole beans like steeping grains in the boil, and adding a 2 quarts (mad with half a lb of grounds) of cool brewed coffee to the fermenter with the wort on brew day and I got a profound coffee flavor. That was for a 10 gallon extract batch though (used true brew oaked imperial stout as the base).

I've done about 4 of these and each time I added cold brewed/steeped coffee to the bottling bucket. This way you know what the taste will be like. You just add and mix gently and taste and make adjustments until you have the flavor you want. Adding to the boil is just a guess as to what will come out of the bottle.

I poured my first glass today and it has great head and tastes good. I used 2oz of coffee when mashed the grains. I think im going to use more coffee next time

I place corse ground beans in a muslin bag and steep at flame out.
Never tried cold steeping in the secondary, but sounds like a good idea.
I've also had a coffee grain plug my plate chiller.....Never again.

Dolomieu said:

Also how long in the keg before you start noticing the coffe flavor? 4oz to a 5gal?

I like the idea of adding to the keg as that is how i dry hop my beer. i usually leave the hops in there while serving. tied off to the dip tube at the bottom.

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I did it for 24 hours, since it was in my keg, i just kept tasting till i liked it, and then removed the beans. I cracked, but did not ground the beans. Again, this is very similar to what the folks at Terrapin described on the Can you brew it show. There is a lot of good info on that podcast.

I do a coffee, cream(Lactose) and cinnamon stout as my holiday Beer for gifts. I add 1/2 lb of fresh ground coffee beans to the kettle in the last 5 minutes of boil. The coffee flavors are very stable, and mellow. With NO head retention issues. I had one 4 pack left from 2011 which I drank in august this year, with no appreciable change in taste other than a general improving and the blending of the flavors.

The other way I might try is mashing with it, but I'd be curious what it does to the PH.

mortus0868 said:

I poured my first glass today and it has great head and tastes good. I used 2oz of coffee when mashed the grains. I think im going to use more coffee next time

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That's why I say add at bottling time. You will KNOW what each bottle will taste like. No need to wait for next time unless you add to much. Just keep records of what/how much you add.

Grannyknot said:

I place corse ground beans in a muslin bag and steep at flame out.
Never tried cold steeping in the secondary, but sounds like a good idea.
I've also had a coffee grain plug my plate chiller.....Never again.

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I cold steep into the bottling bucket. No need for secondary.

A bit of advice that came to me from Jeff Bagby (through another brewer at Societe Brewing in San Diego) is that you will get the best coffee flavor by putting the coffee directly into the cold beer, i.e. "dry hopping" with it as the guy above said. Alcohol will extract a lot of flavor that even cold water itself will not.

Not sure how they avoid infection with that though.

Anyone heard of adding ground coffee to the mash? I know there was an interview on the BN wherein the pro brewer did this and got great coffee flavor with no bitterness. I think he likened it to mash hopping or FWH-ing. Any experience with this?

mooshimanx said:

A bit of advice that came to me from Jeff Bagby (through another brewer at Societe Brewing in San Diego) is that you will get the best coffee flavor by putting the coffee directly into the cold beer, i.e. "dry hopping" with it as the guy above said. Alcohol will extract a lot of flavor that even cold water itself will not.

Not sure how they avoid infection with that though.

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As I said above, I've done 4 of these batches over the past year and a half and have never had an infection by adding the cold coffee to the bottling bucket. Perhaps the cold steeped coffee is so "strong" it kills any bad stuff.

KCBrew said:

I did it for 24 hours, since it was in my keg, i just kept tasting till i liked it, and then removed the beans. I cracked, but did not ground the beans. Again, this is very similar to what the folks at Terrapin described on the Can you brew it show. There is a lot of good info on that podcast.

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Thanks! I will look that podcast up and listen to it.

Yeah, i think the dry hop method avoids infection because the alcohol will inhibit bacterial growth, and the roasting process for the beans probably serves well as a sanitization step on its own. Remember, in order to roast coffee beans, they are brought to pretty high temperatures, and if the quality of the beans is where it should be, they are then quickly packaged in a low oxygen, airtight container.

Quality in quality out.

I make a nice vanilla coffee imperial stout.

I add cold brewed coffee (6 oz in a one 1 litre french press worth) brewed at room temperature for 24 hours. I add it to the secondary and let it sit with the vanilla beans for 14 days in the secondary.
At 8.5 - 9% alcohol there's not much chance of infection from cold brewed coffee, but I do use water that has been boiled 15 minutes and left to cool to room temp and I sanitize the french press.

It won silver in the last competition I entered it in.

Im on my second coffee stout, and I have done both of mine in the secondary, the first with good results. I too, have heard about getting off flavors or an astringcy-taste when the coffee beans are heated (ie mash or boil). I put the beans in a bag and break them into course pieces and put them into a sanitized nylon bag to soak for a few days. Aroma is mouthwatering. Threw some lactose in this last batch so Im chomping at the bit to keg it.