Can I...

I have the sweet stout kit on order from morebeer.com

http://morebeer.com/view_product/9823/103560/Sweet_Stout_-_Extract

If I wanted to try to make a coffee stout, is there anyway just to add a ingredient or 2 to this kit? If so, where should I start?

I don't know how well that would come off in a milk stout. You will be using lactose which will make it as the style suggests sweet! Will coffee work in that, I honestly don't know because I've never made a milk stout before, also the link to the kit doesn't specify what grains are being used so it's hard to guage where to go with it if you were to make changes, but generally a little black patent and coffee itself would be what you would be looking to add to give it the desired flavour

Thanks! I was thinking the sweet stout because I read somewhere that you would want to use a lactose based beer for a coffee brew to avoid bitterness. I also have a generic porter kit on order as well, maybe it would be more suited... or better yet I could just find a recipe and follow it I think it's the noob in me that likes "kit" ideas.

Yeah that would make sense to me, it could definitely take the harshness or bitterness from the coffee and give it a nice balance. Nothing wrong with using the kit ideas, they are a good starting point to creating your own recipes which I'm sure you will be in no time.

You can add coffee to the steeping grains. But I find the roasted barley in stouts to give a coffee-like flavor, maybe roastiness is a good descriptor. If you add coffee to your kit, you might end up with an unbalanced stout.

I'd be inclined to agree with you Pappers, the first stout I ever did had some roasted barley and black patent and everyone who tasted it thought it had huge coffee characteristics. I suppose it really boils down to how much you like coffee! I don't drink it myself, but love those characteristics...I've tasted coffee stouts before that were seriously excessive

Consider holding back the lactose until bottling. You can experiment with brewed coffee and lactose combinations before bottling.

supposedly cold steeping the coffee will greatly reduce bitterness. I find espresso to be less bitter because the water has less actual contact with the beans.