Adding coffee to the brew

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Trean72

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I had this really great chocolate raspberry stout in Maryland and they told me all they did was add a gourmet flavored coffee to the brew to give it that excellent flavor.
SO...I'm going to try it. My Christmas brew is fermenting now. It's an Imperial stout with 12.5lbs malt and 1lb brown sugar. I also added 1lb of oatmeal to the steeping bag to make the brew creamy.
I plan to add the coffee (Santa's White Christmas from Barnie's in New York) just before I keg it. I was just going to make a pot of coffee, keep it in a sterilized container, let it cool and pour it in the keg before adding my beer.
Thoughts? I was wondering if there was a better time to add the coffee.
Thanks guys.
 
At kegging is a great time.

I have recently had the new version of Speedway Stout by Alesmith here in San Diego and they use a cold press to make their coffee now (which is the only thing that changed from the previous versions, I believe) and the difference is noticeable. The coffee flavor is smooth and not intrusive at all, and I believe the beer just seems better balanced overall because the coffee isn't imparting any off flavors.

Just be careful with how much you add. Like anything, too much of a good thing can end up being bad.
 
That's the other thing I wanted to know. How much should I add? I only have a coffee maker. So I guess that's how I'll be making my coffee.

How much coffee to 5gal of beer?
 
no dont hot brew it. Using hot water is only needed to brew coffee quick. all you do is put a 1/4th pound coffee beans in a 1/2gallon of room temperature of water and let it sit in the fridge for approx 24 hours. you then add that cold brewed coffee to the secondary
 
If you have two kegs, you might want to consider doing it to only one with half the batch so in case you don't like the taste, you don't have to drink 5 gallons of it.
 
If there was more raspberry flavor then coffee I would be real careful how much you add. It will wash away the raspberry pretty easily.
 
I too thought coffee would taste good in a stout. My problem is now my stout has an overpowering taste of coffee. I used Italian Dark Roast for mine. I read somewhere to use a pound of coarse ground coffee and cold extrude it with 4 to 6 cups of water. Let me just say that it was way too MUCH. I can't tell you how much to use, but if I ever did it again, I would only use 4oz next time and even then, might not use all of it. Just a heads up, in this case I think too little is better than too much.
 
I too thought coffee would taste good in a stout. My problem is now my stout has an overpowering taste of coffee. I used Italian Dark Roast for mine. I read somewhere to use a pound of coarse ground coffee and cold extrude it with 4 to 6 cups of water. Let me just say that it was way too MUCH. I can't tell you how much to use, but if I ever did it again, I would only use 4oz next time and even then, might not use all of it. Just a heads up, in this case I think too little is better than too much.

Wow a full lb of the dark stuff I can only imagine. Did you keep the brew? If you did try one about a month apart from the other. You will usually notice the coffee weaken but with that much im not sure.

P.S. did it look like tar and make you think your heart was going to explode?
 
I'd go for a coffee with a light city to a city+ roast. An espresso roast seems like it would be too overpowering.
 
Wow a full lb of the dark stuff I can only imagine. Did you keep the brew? If you did try one about a month apart from the other. You will usually notice the coffee weaken but with that much im not sure.

P.S. did it look like tar and make you think your heart was going to explode?

Yeah, lol
I kept the brew, its only been in the bottles for 4 weeks now. Seriously though, I could drink that stuff in the morning and its better than my two cups of reg joe. I am hoping the taste will clam down, the coffee taste is smooth but way to overpowering. Live and learn I guess. +1 on the exploding heart, if I ever want to get house chores done, this stuff is better than red bull:rockin:
 
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