Clone Beer Founder's Breakfast Stout Clone

TrickyDick said:

But don't (re)roast the coffee beans like the nibs.

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Correct. Sorry for that omission.

cantrell00 said:

I wouldn't soak them in vodka. I would roast them @ 350 for 12 minutes & add to secondary in a muslin bag.. 2-3 days to taste. 4 oz

I would add the coffee the same way. 2-3 oz of whole sumatran coffee lightly cracked in a muslin bag, 1-2 days in secondary.

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I have to ask, why would you reroast the coco beans? They are already roasted. Have you had any bad experiences with soaking them in vodka?

paguy said:

I have to ask, why would you reroast the coco beans? They are already roasted. Have you had any bad experiences with soaking them in vodka?

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No I haven't.

I've had really good results with roasting them though.

Not all nibs are roasted by the way.

I kegged my most recent batch today. I used moop's whole bean coffee approach and it tastes great right now. Anyone ever put this on nitro? I have the parts to do it but haven't assembled my nitro tap yet.

This was my first nitro beer via beer gas/stout tap. Loved it. I would do it again in a heart beat.

need to try this one

pwortiz said:

This was my first nitro beer via beer gas/stout tap. Loved it. I would do it again in a heart beat.

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Cool, thanks. I will have to try it.

Brewed this today. Almost out of my 1st batch. Great recipe!

I read the first 3 pages, then skipped to the end - have their been any note-worthy additions and/or changes to the recipe I should be aware of?

Thanks

1st page all the way. Some have tried different coffee additions. Everyone who tried mine either said it is the best beer I ever brewed or said: "I don't like Stouts, but this is amazing!". ...That good!

Thanks. I'll stick with the original recipe and start gathering my ingredients.

So I've tapped my keg and the recent batch tastes terrible all of a sudden. Tastes bitter and a little sour, maybe a little metallic. I was hoping it would fade once it's carbed but it's not, at least not yet. Never had a batch go from good to bad so quickly. I'm wondering if it's infected? I used the whole bean "dry bean" approach, I suppose it's possible that it got infected from that?

Helly said:

So I've tapped my keg and the recent batch tastes terrible all of a sudden. Tastes bitter and a little sour, maybe a little metallic. I was hoping it would fade once it's carbed but it's not, at least not yet. Never had a batch go from good to bad so quickly. I'm wondering if it's infected? I used the whole bean "dry bean" approach, I suppose it's possible that it got infected from that?

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How long did you hold it in primary and or secondary? How "clean" we're the adjunct additions? I bathe everything with CO2 post-primary just to be safe. Sorry for your effort wasted. Unsure it will come back, based on your diagnosis.

7 weeks in primary fermenter including the "dry bean" addition. Not sure how long those were in there. The only other thing that got added was priming sugar to the keg, and that was boiled prior to addition. It tasted great when I put it in the keg. So I'm thinking it's likely infection from the coffee, priming sugar, or dirty equipment. So strange. I'll let it sit a bit and see if it improves. Either way looks like I'll be doing some serious cleaning and tearing that keg apart to make sure there's nothing Hiding in there.

I would think that before you add the dry beans, you would sanitize them first, right? Can you use StarSan to sanitize them beforehand?

CraigKing said:

I would think that before you add the dry beans, you would sanitize them first, right? Can you use StarSan to sanitize them beforehand?

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I didn't, and that's the biggest gap I can find in the process. Total mistake I admit. There's also a slight chance that I'm getting off flavors from the keg line but I can't imagine it would be to this extent. I'm gonna get the super duper keg line cleaner and try that first before I would dump it.

Gathered all of my ingredients and bought 7gals of reverse osmosis drinking water. I am going to use Folger's 100% Colombian ground coffee.

I have also prepped my camping cooler to use it as a swamp cooler to maintain the cooler fermentation temps.

CraigKing said:

Gathered all of my ingredients and bought 7gals of reverse osmosis drinking water. I am going to use Folger's 100% Colombian ground coffee.

I have also prepped my camping cooler to use it as a swamp cooler to maintain the cooler fermentation temps.

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You put some money into that water. I sincerely hope I don't come off as a "coffee snob" but PLEASE don't use Folgers in this beer. If it's 100% arabica, it's less of a risk, but if you use the robusta that commonly makes up Folgers, I fear your savings in this case will end up creating a beer you may not end up truly enjoying.

That said, I wish you the best 'o luck!

^-- I'm not sure I follow.

My water... I bought 7gals of RO water from Walmart at $.86/gal. That didn't seem like much money.

As for the coffee, I didn't buy the Folgers based on $$ savings, I bought it on practicality. This recipe does not call for much coffee. And the specific types of coffee that the recipe suggests, were not available at my store. Not to mention, there were "fancy" coffee brands, but a lot of them were 1lb containers that would end up going to waste because I only needed a few ounces for the brew.



I don't drink coffee, so the terms "robusta" and "arabica" don't mean much to me. Care to elaborate? I haven't brewed this yet, but plan to do it very soon. Is there a coffee substitution you suggest that a non-coffee drinker like myself could easily obtain?

Thanks

The quick and dirty answer is that the robusta beans are less desirable and arabica would be considered to be the "superior" or premium option. Starbucks used 100% arabica, fwiw.

I just did this brew and I used Cuban coffee, if that is available in your area, specifically the premium Bustelo brand. While that was around $5, the basic version or Pilon brand will run you about $2.50 for a 10 oz pack. I think it came out great.

Use low acidity.

As recommended earlier in the thread by someone else, Sumatran works really well.

Thanks, YeastMode! Summed up my reasoning spot on.

I was able to use the Sumatra but not Kona.

CraigKing, if you look up the profiles of the two coffees the original recipe calls for, I think you ought to find appropriate subs in your area.

CraigKing said:

Gathered all of my ingredients and bought 7gals of reverse osmosis drinking water.

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apologies if i'm asking the obvious, but will you be adding salts to the RO water?

sweetcell said:

apologies if i'm asking the obvious, but will you be adding salts to the RO water?

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No. I'm dumping the water straight in. Should I be adding salt? I thought RO water was ready to go, straight out of the container.

CraigKing said:

No. I'm dumping the water straight in. Should I be adding salt? I thought RO water was ready to go, straight out of the container.

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RO is devoid of minerals, which the yeast needs, so RO is not ready to go. the main mineral you want is calcium, so some calcium chloride and/or calcium sulfate (gypsum) would be beneficial (mostly the CaCl). table salt (NaCl) won't be of any help.

spring water has minerals in it, so while the makeup is unknown it's going to be better than RO/distilled water. if you're not going to mess with water chemistry, it is better to use spring instead of RO.

I have gypsum. Is there a general amount I can add?

i've never worked with RO so i'm not sure what the right quantities are (i use my tap water, filtered, for which I know its mineral content and thus what needs to be added). i can run it through my water spreadsheet tonight, but maybe someone can provide some guidance before then.

gypsum tends to accentuate hops, which isn't really the point of this beer, so ideally you'll want to use enough to get you to 50 ppm but not much higher. not that going higher is going to ruin the beer, this is an american imp stout after all :cheers:

After reading about RO water, distilled water, spring water, etc from various threads for the last hour, I've come to the consensus that there is no clear consensus on water.


I'll stick with my 7gals of RO water for this brew.

Here's a very simple "primer" on how to treat soft / RO water: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=198460

Basically it says to add 1 teaspoon of CaCl to each 5 gallons of water treated.

Here's a very simple "primer" on how to treat soft / RO water: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=198460

Basically it says to add 1 teaspoon of CaCl to each 5 gallons of water treated.

CraigKing said:

After reading about RO water, distilled water, spring water, etc from various threads for the last hour, I've come to the consensus that there is no clear consensus on water.


I'll stick with my 7gals of RO water for this brew.

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Definitely recommend checking out a water calculator.. Getting your salts at least in the ballpark will make a big difference in your beers.

CraigKing said:

After reading about RO water, distilled water, spring water, etc from various threads for the last hour, I've come to the consensus that there is no clear consensus on water.

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ha!

i would love to read opinions that state that RO water is acceptable. i have never heard of any brewery (or even homebrewers) that use RO without building it back up. yeast need minerals for everything from flocculation to general health.

hanuswalrus said:

Here's a very simple "primer" on how to treat soft / RO water: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=198460

Basically it says to add 1 teaspoon of CaCl to each 5 gallons of water treated.

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great, so sounds like CraigKing could put in 1.2-1.25 teaspoons of gypsum and be in the ballpark for CA, at least.

hanuswalrus said:

Basically it says to add 1 teaspoon of CaCl to each 5 gallons of water treated.

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sweetcell said:

great, so sounds like CraigKing could put in 1.2-1.25 teaspoons of gypsum and be in the ballpark for CA, at least.

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Thanks. Will do.

Ok, I was able to find StarBucks Sumatra ground coffee. It was the most expensive coffee on the shelf.

I've also been tracking temperature in my basement and it's hovering around 63-63 degrees, so I shouldn't have to worry about needing to use a swamp cooler. I'm gearing up to finally brew this beer.

I'm glad I went with the actual recommended coffee, but it comes in 12oz packages. I'll only use 4oz. What is the preferred method to store coffee after it's opened?

Similar to how you would store hops I believe. Except I don't think you want to store coffee in the freezer.. Vacuum sealed, in a cool, dry place is the best storage for coffee.

I think you made the right choice on going with the better coffee.. when it comes to beer, I'm always willing to spend a few extra dollars for better ingredients.. and 63 sounds like a good ferm temp to me. Sounds like your're gonna have some good beer in a couple months

Brew day today!

Things are going well so far. I just added the 60min addition of Nugget hops into the boil. My house a wonderful aroma of chocolate stout right now. I mashed with 6gals of water and added 1.25tsp of Gypsum. The only issue I've had so far is a possible stuck sparge. After the 6gal mash and sparging with an additional 1gal, it only yielded 5.5gals of wort. I'm not too worried though. My pre-boil OG is pretty close.

Either way, I'm sure this is going to be a great beer!

Brew day done! I collected 4.5gals of wort. It's sitting in my basement at 1.080OG and vented with a blow-off tube so I don't find any surprises tomorrow morning.

I finally kegged my Burning Man batch last night. I ended up using the base recipe with a little chocolate in the boil but no coffee and finished at 1.112, well above target. I let it sit for a month in primary where it stopped at 1.033, then racked it over onto 4 oz of nibs, 2 vanilla beans,and 1/2 oz of bourbon soaked oak chips where it sat for 3 months until yesterday. Then I dry hopped it with 2 oz of sumatra for 3 weeks and kegged it last night.

It seemed like you could get notes of all the flavors added and it is thick like motor oil and you can barely see thru it. The coffee flavor is pretty intense, but chocolate was highly prevalent also. I got a little over 4.5 gallons and I will probably save a bottle or 2 for the house, but the rest will be going to Burning Man.

Hopefully I can keep it cool out in the desert, I am planning on having a beer cart and may save this one for when the man burns.

Also, the partigyle I did for this was dry hopped with coffee and also was awesome for a basic coffee stout. That is what I will be drinking until then.

Helly said:

7 weeks in primary fermenter including the "dry bean" addition. Not sure how long those were in there. The only other thing that got added was priming sugar to the keg, and that was boiled prior to addition. It tasted great when I put it in the keg. So I'm thinking it's likely infection from the coffee, priming sugar, or dirty equipment. So strange. I'll let it sit a bit and see if it improves. Either way looks like I'll be doing some serious cleaning and tearing that keg apart to make sure there's nothing Hiding in there.

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Taste has neither improved nor declined. I'm gonna set it aside for a month or two and see, but it's probably destined to be dumped. I'll start a new batch first chance I get.

Stopped by a new homebrew shop the other day and got the ingredients, although I'm not quite sure I got the right amount of grain. Their scale setup was a little wonky, so I may not have gotten the measurements right, namely the chocolate malt. They also didn't have S04 so I went with Notty because I didn't want to wait and make a starter. I remembered I had some harvested WLP013 from a past stout, so I let it warm up while I brewed. I forgot my oats until about 10 minutes left in the mash, so I may have missed some conversion there, oh well. Swapped out the nugget for some Columbus, and couldnt get any cacao nibs. Finished up, cooled and pitched the harvested yeast. Only got 1.08, not sure if it was due to the oats, the scale, or just my first big stout inefficiencies.

Checked the beer the next morning to no activity, which was alarming as the harvested slurry was pretty substanbtial, and should have taken right off. Came home after work to still no activity, so I rehydrated and pitched the 2 packets of Notty I had bought. It was starting to bubble this morning, so we'll see....

I'll probably make up for the lack of nibs with some cocoa powder in secondary. I also plan to split off a gallon for bourbon oak chips, maybe some vanilla...